It is my job as a (hopefully) future early childhood educator to support all children in their learning and development. In order to do this best, I need to learn how to effectively develop partnerships with families. Partnerships and relationships are similar but not completely the same. According to the Australian Early Childhood Mental Health Initiative “relationships turn into partnerships when the people involved share a common goal, for example supporting the mental health and well-being of children, and share the responsibility when reaching that goal.” (Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, n.d.). This demonstrates that to build a partnership with families I need to have a clear understanding of what the family wants for their child and then ensure that I can support the family and child in meeting that goal. However, this is a very general approach. All families are unique and have different needs. This means that I will need to consider each family as an individual when I am building partnerships.
Families in Canada are very diverse and so a cookie-cutter approach to building relationships and partnerships will not work for every family. In my Partnering with Families class we read an article called Todays Families: Who we are and why does it matter? This article had interview transcripts from many diverse families (King & Haugen, 2013). These quotes included helpful information about how to make families feel welcomed and celebrated in childcare programs (King & Haugen, 2013). Throughout this blog I will be taking some of those recommendations and reflecting on them. I will also be brainstorming practical ways to use the families’ advice in my practice as a (hopefully) future early childhood educator.
The first and most commonly mentioned recommendation for educators by the families was to get to know each person in the family as an individual (King & Haugen, 2013). I personally believe this is fairly easy for educators to do if they try to communicate with the families regularly. The second recommendation that was mentioned most frequently was to not assume you already know everything about the family just because of the family or family member(s) makeup, culture, adoption, religion, marital status, sexual orientation, ability, income, race(s), ethnicity or background (King & Haugen, 2013). I know this sounds very straight-forward and easy to do. However, I am sure everyone has some kind of bias that they need to learn to overcome to actually fulfill this recommendation. That is why reflecting is so important in early childhood education! If we reflect we can bring our unconscious biases to light and overcome them instead of burying them and letting them fester until they subtly or not-so-subtly make families feel unwelcome or unvalued. A final recommendation was to make sure our classroom materials reflect the children and families we serve (King & Haugen, 2012). For example, if none of the books represent the children who are in the program they may be made to feel uncomfortable, left out or unimportant. Children should be confident in who they are and proud to be a part of their family. Having educational materials that support their sense of self and represent their families helps normalize their experience and can increase feelings of inclusion (King & Haugen, 2013).
To end this blog, I will leave an inspiring quote I found from another Government of Australia article with recommendations for educators when working with culturally diverse families. It says that: “When early childhood educators respect the diversity of families and communities, and the aspirations they hold for children, they are able to foster children’s motivation to learn and reinforce their sense of themselves as competent learners.” (Government of Australia: Department of Health, 2018). Although, I will not be practicing early childhood education in Australia I found this quote inspiring. I believe this is should be something all early childhood educators strive for.
References:
Government of Australia (n.d.) Building Partnerships Between Families and Early Childhood Staff. Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved from: https://fleming.desire2learn.com/d2l/le/content/90460/viewContent/983670/View?ou=90460
Government of Australia (2018) Cultural Diversity: Suggestions for families and educators. Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved from: https://www.kidsmatter.edu.au/early-childhood/about-social-development/about-welcoming-cultural-diversity/cultural-diversity
King & Haugen (2013) Today’s Families: Who we are and why does it matter? Exchange Press Inc. Retrieved from: https://fleming.desire2learn.com/d2l/le/content/90460/viewContent/983668/View
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