Parent Cooperative Early Childhood Settings: Empowering Family Strengths and Family Engagement for All Young Children

Abstract

Parent cooperative preschools are unique educational enterprises because they involve the participation of parents and children. The purpose of this historical qualitative analysis examines the history of parent cooperative preschools and the contributions of this type of early childhood setting, including parent engagement in the classroom, family strengths (both personal and in the community), and the teacher’s role in the classroom as a facilitator, leader, and parent educator. Reflections from past parent cooperative board members of a parent cooperative are included sharing their personal contributions, joys, collaborations, and challenges of engagement in this type of early childhood program. The reflections from the parent cooperative board members share insight into the role they played in the awareness of early childhood education to society, family engagement, advocacy, and the critical importance of this type of early childhood setting for all young children. Parent cooperative preschools encourages families to engage in reciprocal relationships with teachers by offering learning activities for the home and in the community. They are associated with important values and virtues for families to grow and learn with their child.