Collaboration Theory: ECEC Leading Families to Lead Their Own Partnerships with ECEC

Abstract

This chapter gathers collaboration theories together into a discussion of how a partnership between ECEC and families is possible. It starts with a description of such a partnership, followed by the presentation of the collaboration theory. The emerging question of what constitutes a leader and a follower in the partnership between ECEC and families is answered with the help of the concept of pedagogical leadership and an empirical example of ECEC’s work with migrant and refugee children in the United States. The chapter concludes with an outline of ECEC’s responsibility for guiding parents to become leaders of the ECEC-home collaboration.