Family Partnership in Integrated Early Childhood Settings A professional learning

1
Family Partnership in Integrated Early Childhood
SettingsA professional learning networking
opportunity

• Workshop 1 Part 1 June 27th 2006
• Sue Nichols
• Elspeth McInnes
• University of South Australia

2
Family Partnership in Integrated Early
Childhood Settings Context of the project

• Families will be active participants in the
  shaping of the new service system and a range
  of community participation mechanisms and
  strategies will be used to ensure this.
• A shift away from the transmission model
  (service providers as experts, and families as
  receivers of information and advice).
• This involves developing strategies to connect
  with parents and families in ways that respect
  their funds of knowledge and cultural belief
  systems.
• Report of the Inquiry into Early Childhood
  Services (2005)

3
The need for interdisciplinarity

• Interdisciplinary interaction and training for
  providers needs to be a top priority in an
  integrated service model. It will be necessary
  for providers from different disciplines to know
  what other disciplines can contribute to
  solutions for issues confronting families.
  Collaborative effort outside of traditional
  disciplinary lines creates opportunities for true
  communication and integration among providers.
• Paavola J. C. (1995) p. 4

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Aims of the project

• Consultation networking
• Interdepartmental Advisory Group
• Northern Children and Families Forum
• Early Childhood Development Centres
• Professional development resourcing
• Inquiry knowledge building
• Mapping definitions and practices
• Case studies
• Exploring practitioner perspectives
• Supporting practitioner inquiry

5
Partnership Some (debatable) definitions

• Relationship
• Network
• Negotiation
• Practice(s)
• Business

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Partnership as relationship

• A relationship between individuals or groups that
  is characterized by mutual cooperation and
  responsibility

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Partnership as network

• Partnerships are networks that form as a
  consequence of government-directed action or
  local community agency. Their ways of working are
  shaped by the need to build sustain trust in
  the absence of formalised rules or contracts, and
  to coordinate the disparate elements that make up
  the network. (Seddon et al 2005)

8
Partnerships as negotiation of differences

• Partnerships are made up of distinct agencies
  with different traditions and cultures that are
  anchored in different organisational logics.
  Partnerships are sites where these different
  organisational logics confront one another
  framed by the over-riding rhetoric of network and
  trust-based order. (Seddon et al 2005)
• The argument between traditions can often be at
  its sharpest between teachers and community
  education or social workers. (Martin et al 1990)

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Partnership as business

• A business organization in which two or more
  individuals manage and operate a business. Both
  owners are equally and personally liable for the
  debts of the business. (Dictionary definition)
• The school is commissioning a service from an
  outside agency. This is a business! (Parsons
  Hailes 2004)

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Partnership as a set of practices

• The framework of six types of involvement helps
  educators develop more comprehensive programs of
  school-family-community partnerships. Each type
  of involvement includes many different practices
  of partnership. http//www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000/en
  dofyear.htm

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Epsteins model of school-home-community
partnership

• Types of involvement
• Parenting
• Communicating
• Volunteering
• Learning at home
• Decision making
• Collaborating with the community

• Practices of community collaboration
• Parent workshops
• Adult education classes
• Community projects
• Mentoring
• Counseling
• National Network of Partnership Schools
  http//www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000/default.htm

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Change creating testing partnerships

• Collaboration can be said to be taking place when
  a change takes place that requires contribution
  from all the organizations involved. Not all
  organizations or professionals will contribute
  equally, but they will be adjusting their
  decision making to take account of each other.
  (Tett et al 2003 p.39)

13
References

• Department of Education and Childrens Services
  (2005) The Virtual Village Raising a child in
  the new millennium. Report of the Inquiry into
  Early Childhood Services Hindmarsh SA DECS
  Publishing
• Martin, J., Tett, L. Kay, H. (1999) Developing
  collaborative partnerships limits and
  possibilities for schools parents and community
  education International Studies in Sociology of
  Education 9(1) 75
• Paavola J. C. (1995) Health Services in the
  Schools Building Interdisciplinary
  Partnerships. Eric Digest ED390019
  http//www.ericdigests.org/1996-3/health.htm
  Accessed 5/05/2006
• Parsons, C. Hailes, J. (2004) Voluntary
  organizations and the contribution of social
  justice in schools learning from a case study.
  Journal of Education Policy 18(4) 473-495
• Seddon, T., Billett, S. Clemans, A. (2004)
  Politics of social partnerships a framework for
  theorizing Journal of Education Policy 19(2)
  123-142
• Seddon, T., Billett, S. Clemans, A. (2005)
  Navigating social partnerships central
  agencies-local networks British Journal of
  Sociology of Education 26(5) 567-584
• Tett, L., Crowther, J. OHara, P.(2003)
  Collaborative partnerships in community education
  Journal of Education Policy 18(1) 37-51
• National Network of Partnership Schools
  http//www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000/default.htm