Building Strong Families: The Role of Parent-Educator Partnerships

This collaborative qualitative project with Andrew Fleck Children Services (AFCS) identifies the role of parent/teacher partnerships in supporting family resilience, the characteristics that parents and teachers attribute to strong families and how parents and teachers define what family resilience means. The data stems from semi-structured interviews conducted with 11 parents and 10 early childhood educators for a total of 21 participants from AFCS licensed childcare centers and licensed home childcare centers. Interviews were analyzed using thematic data analysis and a software package called Nvivo. The study is exploratory but the data findings add to the literature a diverse and culturally relevant perspective on what family resilience means to Canadian childcare workers and parents as well as how the parent-educator partnership helps facilitate family resilience. Additionally, it provides AFCS with modified and relevant ways of providing support to the families they serve.