Sometimes the relationships between teachers and families are referred to as collaborations, surely a more respectful notion than teachers conducting “parent education,” but often an oversimplified meaning of collaboration, such as coming together to create an event or accomplish a task for the program. In the deeper meaning, teacher and family collaboration involves a genuine sharing of power, with negotiations of different needs, roles and perspectives involving compromises. Collaboration between parents and teachers may explore the question of how far a program can bend to meet the needs or requests of families, or explore how parents can make time to work with teachers to review documentation and consider possible curriculum directions.

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