Research partnerships in early childhood education: Essential partnership principles when developing Pacific health education resources

The Action Plan for Pacific Education 2020-2030 envisions diverse Pacific learners and their families feeling secure in their identities, respected, and empowered to achieve educational goals. This requires collective efforts from various stakeholders,\nincluding partnerships between early childhood education (ECE) centres and researchers. This article highlights the research collaboration experiences of a Pacific team comprised of two ECE teacher researchers, a community researcher, and an academic\nresearcher, and their application of four crucial research-partnership principles developed by Lai and McNaughton (2013). The project Nesian Narratives is a qualitative study focused on developing health education resources for kaiako (teachers/faiaoga)\nof Pacific learners. This article highlights the vital role that ECE kaiako have as custodians of Pacific cultural practices within their centres. It also emphasises the learning potential when kaiako, community, and academic researchers collaborate to develop culturally sensitive health education resources for Pacific children.