International Perspectives on successful collaborative partnerships with families attest to the quality outcomes for children, families, educators, and education settings (OECD, 2021). With a myriad of models and acronyms on how to engage, interact, collaborate, and partner-with families, education settings continue to seek this seemingly unattainable feather in their cap as a mark of success. So why isn’t it working? In Australia, only 26% of the licenced Early Years Education settings were rated as Exceeding the National Quality Standard in Quarter 4 of 2022. Forming one of pivotal pillars of the assessment and rating system is Collaborative Partnerships with Families. If we consider this statistic from a strengths-based perspective, there is an opportunity to deeply understand how this 26% of services are enacting successful collaborative partnerships and offer to Australia’s developing 74% of services (and those in education settings around the world) a how to guide to success. As part of a PhD research study, the findings presented here will offer participants insights into these Exceeding rating services, their founding philosophies, embedded practices, and results that echo the voices of those living the experience as educators and parents.

Workshop Organiser: Kathryn Mason

Published in: Ireland International Conference on Education (IICE-2023)

• Date of Conference: 24-26 October 2023
• DOI: 10.20533/IICE.2023.10.0001
• ISBN: 978-1-913572-68-6
• Conference Location: Dún Laoghaire, Ireland