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The calls for family-school partnerships have been strong within the literature and educational policy within Australia, however, there is little research that demonstrates what such partnerships might look like. Much of the research demonstrates a one-way street approach where schools focus on educating families, particularly parents, to build their alignment with the already defined direction of the school. This paper draws from cultural models theory to explore the artefacts and practices within the figured worlds of two South Australian primary schools. It focuses on the sites' re-imagining of family engagement as part of their participation in the South Australian Collaborative Childhood Project, inspired by the educational principles of the Reggio Emilia Project in Italy. This paper argues that an early childhood perspective on family engagement provides valuable insights in re-imagining practices and artefacts to support authentic family-school partnerships in primary schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of community has been widely recognised in the field of early childhood education. However, the various ways it has been conceived, together with taken-for-granted notions of education, have made it difficult to actualise the processes involved in contextually meaningful ways. This article draws on cultural models theory to explore educational leaders' re-imagining and redesigning of early childhood educational learning communities in a range of diverse settings. The examination of the processes and artefacts used to promote democratic identities and agency highlights the significance of establishing shared principles, sociality and challenging power relations to engage in processes of communing that are contextually meaningful, sustainable and democratic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the findings from a case study focused on understanding how cultural models of education are brought together in dialogue to re-imagine education. The use of cultural models theory provided a useful framework for exploring how teachers, leaders, children, and families at Westside Primary School orchestrated multiple perspectives to re-imagine their figured world as culturally responsive. Findings suggest the principles from two cultural models of education – Reggio Emilia and a pedagogical framework called the Nunga Way, informed by local Australian Aboriginal First Nations peoples – were significant for local culturally responsive pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]