Though family engagement has become a priority in early childhood education and care, there are problems in our understanding of the phenomenon. First, there is uncertainty about the target of outcomes—namely, should it be children or families? Second, the early childhood field lacks ethical guidance to address the complexity of this relationship. Finally, the field has not articulated the political potential of family engagement. This paper responds to the problem by developing “care dialogues” as a framework for ethical engagement. There are two dimensions. The ethical dimension builds upon dialogue’s potential for change, and the importance of recognizing particular relationships. The political dimension defines rights as the ability to act within those relationships. As a framework, care dialogues attend to the respective needs, rights, and beliefs of particular early childhood institutions and families while connecting to larger political concerns. The paper uses focus group data to build an illustrative case study demonstrating care dialogues’ potential to inform early childhood practice under non-ideal circumstances. This methodological choice is critical to allaying concerns about care as a utopian approach. Using the parameters of care dialogues, the case study addresses three themes—getting personal, agency and care, and narrative as advocacy. The case study concludes that: care dialogues facilitate intimate relations essential to family engagement; the concept of inappropriately adaptive preferences addresses the agency problem; and the political impact of care dialogues extend beyond the immediate exchange between families and institutions. The implications of care dialogues to policy are discussed.

中文翻译：

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护理对话：在美国将家庭参与从风险转向权利

尽管家庭参与已成为幼儿教育和照料的优先事项，但我们对这一现象的理解仍然存在问题。首先，结果目标存在不确定性，即是孩子还是家庭？第二，幼儿领域缺乏解决这种关系复杂性的道德指导。最后，该领域尚未阐明家庭参与的政治潜力。本文通过发展“护理对话”作为道德参与的框架来应对这一问题。有两个维度。道德方面的基础是对话的变革潜力以及承认特殊关系的重要性。政治层面将权利定义为在这些关系中采取行动的能力。作为一个框架，护理对话应满足各自的需求，权利，和特定的幼儿机构和家庭的信仰，同时与更大的政治关注联系在一起。本文使用焦点小组的数据来构建说明性案例研究，展示护理对话在非理想情况下为幼儿实践提供信息的潜力。这种方法选择对于缓解人们对作为乌托邦式护理的担忧至关重要。案例研究使用护理对话的参数，解决了三个主题-将个人，代理和护理以及叙述作为倡导。案例研究得出的结论是：护理对话促进了家庭参与所必需的亲密关系；不合适的适应性偏好的概念解决了代理问题；护理对话的政治影响超出了家庭和机构之间的即时交流。