FROM INFORMATION TO PARTNERSHIP: DIGITAL CHANNELS AND PARTICIPATIVE COOPERATION BETWEEN FAMILY AND PRESCHOOL INSTITUTION IN CONTEMPORARY CURRICULA
Keywords:
family–preschool cooperation, contemporary curricula, digital communication, participative partnership, professional competenciesAbstract
Contemporary preschool curricula, including the Serbian national framework “Years of Ascent”, the Reggio Emilia approach and the HighScope model, position the family as an equal partner in the educational process rather than a passive recipient of information. Despite this normative orientation, empirical evidence on whether preschool practice in Serbia actually reaches the level of participative partnership, or remains confined to the level of informing parents, is still fragmented. This paper examines the forms, quality and barriers of cooperation between families and preschool institutions in the era of digital communication, with particular attention to the discrepancy between the declarative and the realised level of partnership. The research was designed as a cross-sectional mixed-methods study. Data were collected from 60 preschool teachers and 100 parents in 10 urban and rural, state and private preschool institutions in Serbia, using Likert-type questionnaires covering four dimensions of cooperation (informative, advisory, participative and reflective) and semi-structured interviews with a subsample of participants. The internal consistency of the scales was high (Cronbach’s α from 0.82 to 0.91). Quantitative data were analysed descriptively and correlationally, while interview responses were processed through thematic analysis. The findings show that cooperation is predominantly realised through informative forms: 32% of teachers and 58% of parents report electronic channels (Viber, e-mail, digital platforms) as their most frequent mode of contact, while joint curriculum planning appears as the lowest-ranked dimension (14%). Both groups evaluate the overall climate positively (71% of teachers rate the quality of cooperation as high; 82% of parents report satisfaction), yet participative, reflective and co-planning forms remain underused. Parents’ lack of time and institutional formalism emerge as the main barriers, while teachers’ professional competencies and reflective practice are strongly associated with higher partnership quality. Frequent, digitally mediated communication does not automatically translate into genuine partnership. Cooperation in Serbian preschool practice has reached the stage of stable and frequent contact, but not the stage of curriculum co-construction. Systemic support for flexible participative formats, continuous professional development of educators in facilitation and reflection and embedding of the parental voice in curriculum planning are needed in order to move from informing towards partnership.
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