Exploring the importance of parental engagement in early childhood education, this book delves into research and practices in 25 countries to bring students, researchers, teachers and policy-makers insights into working families around the world. The incorporation and consideration of parental engagement and involvement in early childhood education are a new phenomenon to many countries. Yet, increasing research recognises the importance of parental engagement and involvement in early childhood education services, and the role both parents and teachers play to support children’s learning and development. Using a range of materials from curriculum to policy documents, Garvis et al. demonstrate differences in practices and terminologies pertaining to the topic and provide an international perspective on the importance of parental involvement and engagement in early childhood education services. The content covers a range of countries as well as countries beyond an ‘Anglo-Saxon’ perspective. The different policy settings across these countries highlight how countries work with, and involve, parents differently, which is useful for jurisdictions where early childhood education is a developing aspect of a country’s education system. Looking at cultural influences, partnership approaches, parental collaboration, institutional dominance and child involvement in parent meetings, the content offers readers real understanding of parental engagement and involvement in different settings. The readership includes students in early childhood education, and researchers, teachers, policy makers, and general members of the public interested in parental engagement or involvement in early childhood education across the globe.

This second edition of Parent-Friendly Early Learning brings to life real scenarios that care providers face in today's world. We know parent engagement is important for a child's success, but how do you turn parent-provider relationships into partnerships? Learn how to improve parent-teacher communication, deal with family issues and special complications, and how to work with the modern family. Julie Powers has worked with children, families, educators, and communities for over forty years. She started preschool programs at the Dodge Nature Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, an inclusion-based program for Catalina Foothills School District in Tucson, Arizona, and was a consultant for the Air Force Child Development Centers. She has taught at colleges across the country and is currently an associate professor of early childhood education at University of Hawaii Maui College.

This volume encourages reflection on previous volumes. Family involvement has been an issue in early education going back to Pestalozzi almost two centuries ago. This book looks at what advances in the area of family involvement in early education have been made since the publication of the previous volume.

Designed for all professionals working with parents and families of young children, this practical guide offers comprehensive resources for building trauma-responsive family engagement in your school or program. Throughout this book, you'll find: Evidence-based practices that promote trauma-response family engagement. Exercises and tools for identifying the strengths and learning edges within your program, school, or agency. Vignettes from people and programs striving to create trusting, asset-focused partnerships with families that improve equity and promote culturally responsive practices. Reflective inquiry questions and sample conversations to help you examine your own practices. With concrete examples and easy-to-implement strategies, this critical book helps readers put theory into practice while providing essential support for individuals and groups both new to and experienced with trauma-responsive practices in early childhood.

This open access book provides a critical, thought-provoking, and stimulating overview of theories applied worldwide to conceptualise collaborations between early childhood education and children's families. The book starts with a critical reflection on the colonial undertones of parental involvement (PI) and acknowledges a strong political will to improve this aspect of early childhood education and care. The chapters in the book describe and discuss various theories, including the cultural historical wholeness approach, Bronfenbrenner's ecology of human development, the theory of social capital, the theory of collaboration, family-school partnership models proposed by Epstein and Hornby, Bourdieu's social theory, the theory of practice architectures, the discourse/narrative theory, and posthumanism. By proposing the concept of more-than-parents, the authors aim to embrace both the diversity of intergenerational family configurations and the agency of materiality, artifacts, and the involvement of more-than-human actors.

Aligned with the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s Principles of Effective Family Engagement, this book helps early childhood administrators create effective family engagement policies that work. For each of the six key principles, this accessible guide walks leaders through the process of creating effective policy to engage families in their program. Filled with workable documents and templates to thoroughly scaffold the entire process, administrators will finish the work ready to implement the policies created, or build a plan tailored to their specific program. Designed for schools discouraged by the lack of engagement with all families, this book helps leaders strengthen the bond among home, school, and community.

Families are resources that are extremely powerful and important for young learners from minoritized backgrounds, yet such families are often overlooked, silenced, or ostracized. This book presents a much-needed framework for family and community engagement in the early childhood and elementary literacy classroom that embraces and foregrounds students’ unique cultural backgrounds. This book spotlights the families of minoritized learners and the crucial role that they play in building dynamic and inspiring environments for learning. To re-envision the engagement of these families in the early childhood classroom, the book provides an accessible understanding of Yosso’s theory of community cultural wealth. Covering key topics such as children’s literature and digital tools, the book features strategies for implementing culturally responsive classroom practices to create positive home–school partnerships. Each chapter highlights one type of capital in community cultural wealth—aspirational, linguistic, familial, social, navigational, and resistant—and gives teachers guidance on working with and supporting the efforts of families both inside and outside of the classroom. This book is an essential resource to inform current and future early childhood educators on how to gain deeper understandings of what families—especially from Communities of Color—already are doing for the education of their children, and how best to support them.

This book presents both the challenges and opportunities that exist for addressing the critical needs of black children, who have been historically underserved in the U.S. education system.

Early Childhood Education spans the human life from birth to age 8. Infants and toddlers experience life more holistically than any other age group. Social, emotional, cognitive, language, and physical lessons are not learned separately by very young children. Adults who are most helpful to young children interact in ways that understand that the child is learning from the whole experience, not just that part of the experience to which the adult gives attention. Although early childhood education does not have to occur in the absence of the parent or primary caregiver, this term is sometimes used to denote education by someone other than these the parent or primary caregiver. Both research in the field and early childhood educators view the parents as an integral part of the early childhood education process. Early childhood education takes many forms depending on the theoretical and educational beliefs of the educator or parent. Other terms those are often used interchangeably with "early childhood education" are "early childhood learning", "early care" and "early education". Much of the first two years of life are spent in the creation of a child's first "sense of self" or the building of a first identity. Because this is a crucial part of children's makeup-how they first see themselves, how they think they should function, how they expect others to function in relation to them, early care must ensure that in addition to carefully selected and trained caregivers, links with family, home culture, and home language are a central part of program policy. If care becomes a substitute for, rather than a support of, family, children may develop a less-than-positive sense of who they are and where they come from because of their child care experience. This book presents the latest research in this vital field.

The first and only comprehensive review of current early childhood development theory, practices, policies, and the science behind them This unique and important bookprovides a comprehensive overview of the current theory, practices, and policies in early childhood development withinthe contexts of family, school, and community, and society at large. Moreover, it synthesizes scientifically rigorous research from an array of disciplines in an effort to identify the most effective strategies for promoting early childhood development. Research into childhood development is booming, and the scientific knowledge base concerning early childhood development is now greater than that of any other stage of the human life span. At the same time, efforts to apply that knowledge to early childhood practices, programs, and policies have never been greater or more urgent. Yet, surprisingly, until The Handbook of Early Childhood Development Programs, Practices, and Policies, there was no comprehensive, critical review of the applied science in the field. The book begins with in-depth coverage of child and family approaches. From there it moves onto a consideration of school- and community-based strategies. It concludes with a discussion of current social policies on health and development in early childhood and their implications. Provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the knowledge base, along with guidance for the future of the field Examines the underlying theory and basic science guiding efforts to promote early childhood development Critically reviews the strength of the empirical support for individual practices, programs, and policies Explores key opportunities and barriers policymakers and practitioners face when implementing various approaches Pays particular attention to socioeconomically disadvantaged and other disenfranchised populations The Handbook of Early Childhood Development Programs, Practices, and Policies is a valuable resource for practitioners, scholars, graduate students, and advanced undergraduate students across the social sciences who are interested in strengthening their understanding of current strategies for promoting early childhood development and the science informing those strategies.