Ellen Elvethon

This paper examines how staff and parents in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Norway collaborate on provisions to promote peer relationships as a prerequisite for inclusion. Data were collected through interviews with parents and staff in four different ECEC settings. The results show that parents and staff collaborate mainly through daily dialog about the child and the child’s interaction in the pick-up and drop-off situations. This dialog is about how the child is doing socially in ECEC. The collaboration also occurs by facilitating shared meeting places where parents, staff, and children are present, usually gathered around an activity. It is about creating a community to get to know each other better. A third form of collaboration is based on staff and parents having a shared understanding and interest in a common focus on promoting peer relationships by supporting children’s social skills and inclusion. The findings show an interest in focusing on the community. However, there is a lack of basic common strategies and systems for promoting relationships between children to create an on-ramp for inclusion. One implication of these findings’ emphasis is the need for further dialog about how staff and parents can promote peer relationships.