A1

F a i r D e a l i n g ( S h o r t E x c e r p t )

Reading: Ch. 13 Working with Families from Diverse Backgrounds (excerpt) (Home, School and Community Relations)

Author: Gestwicki, Carol

Editor: N/A

Publisher: Cengage Learning Publication Date: 2016 Pages: 351-353

Course: ECED 421 63A 2023W1 Supporting Young Children Through Home, School, and Community Relationships Course Code: 63A Term: 2023W1

Department: ECED

Copyright Statement of Responsibility This copy was made pursuant to the Fair Dealing Requirements for UBC Faculty and Staff, which may be found at http://copyright.ubc.ca/requirements/fair-dealing/. The copy may only be used for the purpose of research, private study, criticism, review, news reporting, education, satire or parody. If the copy is used for the purpose of review, criticism or news reporting, the source and the name of the author must be mentioned. The use of this copy for any other purpose may require the permission of the copyright owner.

For more information on UBC\'s Copyright Policies, please visit UBC Copyright

Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

CHAPTER 13 Working with Families from Diverse Sackgrounds I 551

Please complete the following sentences:

21 When my child is with a group of children, I woulc expect my child to

When my child reeds help from an adult, I would expect my child to__________ .

If my child is misbehaving in class, I would expect the teacher to _ __ .

If my child s unhappy in class. 1 would expect the teacher to__________

The most important thing my child can learn in class this year would be___________

Is there any other information you would like to give us about your family or your child7

Adapted ’rom Tabors. 0008

13-3 Resolving Cultural Conflict

It is inevitable and predictable that when teachers and parents from diverse cultural settings come together؛ conflict and differences will appear. Culture determines that families and teachers have strong viewpoints ahout what is good and necessary for children’s development. All the most basic acts of daily care and nurturing reflect the cultural values of parents and caregivers, and their expectations are unlikely to match. Although differences are inevitable, it is not inevitable that one cultural view becomes dominant over the other. Gonzalez-Mena (2008) identifies four possible out comes to cultural conflicts. Three of them involve activity and change to resolve the conflict.

FIGURE 13-17 An example of a cultural conflict could be the caregiver allow nq the toddler to feed herself when that was not the desire at home

13-3a Understanding and Negotiating The first possibility is that the conflict is resolved through understanding and negotiation, with both sides seeing the other's perspective and finding a compromise. An example here might be the familiar situation where the par­ ent objects to seeing his or her child messy and dirty, and the early educator provides many classroom opportunities for sensory exploration with water, sand, and paint. As the teacher communicates with the parent about why cleanliness is so important to this parent, she learns that this family equates sending children to school clean and well dressed with the parent’s respect for education and with the family maintaining decent standards within the community. The teacher is also able to help the parent learn something about good early childhood practice and the importance of sensory experience in early learning. The teacher agrees that he or she will change the child’s clothes or cover them well during messy play. The parent agrees to allow the child to do messy play as long as the clothes are protected Roth parties feel they are right (and the other is unnecessarily worried ahout something that does not seem very important), but they feel that the compromise is satisfactory (see Figure 13-17).

352 I SECTION IV Making a Partnership Work

13-3b I earning a New Perspective The second possibility is that the situation could be resolved when the caregiver learns a new perspective from the parent and subsequently changes his or her actions. The example Gonzalez-Mena offers is of a caregiver who is convinced that the best place for babies to sleep is in a crib in a quiet nap room; this seems to provide optima] rest for most infants, But a baby from a family who is used to sleeping in the midst of an active household is unable to sleep. When the parents express dismay that their child will be isolated and alone in his or her crib, the caregiver discovers their viewpoint and works with the licensing con­ sultant to accommodate parental requests and infant needs. The caregiver changes his or her actions because he or she recognizes and accepts the cultural difference.

13-3c Resolving Through Parent Education A third possibility is to resolve the situation through parent education. Parents gain knowledge and learn ideas that might be different from their traditional cultural ideas, but they come to see that the new ideas could provide optimal developmental environ ments for their children. This requires thoughtful, respectful sensitivity on the part of the caregiver—to he very sure that the education relates to ideas that seem essential for children’s development, not merely to help the family conform to some arbitrary stan­ dard of what is “normal.” Gonzalez-Mena’s example regards the conflict between par­ ents of infants whose cultural beliefs are that babies should not be left free on the floor to play with toys but instead should be held and involved with human interaction. Rather than stopping floor freedom, the teacher helps the family understand the importance of physical freedom for muscle development and cognitive stimulation. When parents understand this importance, they are more open to learning how they can keep their children safe while they play on the floor. The teacher displays cultural sensitivity to the parents’ concerns but finds the developmental issue important enough to pursue.

13-3d Finding No Resolution The last—and indeed fairly common—possibility in cultural conflicts is that there may be no resolution of the conflict. The worst case scenario here is for neither family nor teacher to perceive or accept the other’s perspective and for both to persist in their

TeachSource Digital Download

IDEAS FOR TEACHERS.

Cultural Dilemmas When faced with cultural dilemmas, teachers should do the following

■ Analyze the situation What is the child's experience at home’ What is my belief about this? Is the child's welfare at stake"’

■ Do not blame the child or the family ■ Get information What does this hehav or mean to the parents? What de parents do in

this situation and why? ■ Realize the child canrot cope with being caught between two cultural expectations. ■ Respond to the chile and parents as ndividuals. ٠ Keep talking and trying to find common ground

CHAPTER 13 Working with Familips from Divprsp Backgrounds I 353

separate beliefs and practices. Children caught in the middle of such separation may he confused and uncomfortable when the practices in the school setting feel very different from what is done at home. The term culturally assaultive has been used to refer to such negative experiences because the family’s culture is in fact under attack.

A better outcome would he for families and teachers to gain an understanding of the other's ideas, which are treated with respect and sensitivity but without changing the strong beliefs. The achievement is for parent and teacher to learn to cope with the differ­

culturally assaultive Behav ors that attack the culture of another by gnoring, failing to accept and respect demeaning, or attacking the hehaviors and beliefs of another

ences, each in a way that is acceptable to the individual. With sensitivity, communication, and working at problem solving, teachers and families may find ways of reconciling cul­ tural differences or at least becoming sensitive to separate perspectives.

ELls English language learners: ndividuals whose first language ؛s not English.

13.4 Common Cultural Issues That Arise in Classrooms

Sensitivity to important issues and family concerns helps teachers consider best practices to support culturally and linguistically different families.

13-4a Linguistic Diversity Communication with families and children is challenged when the primary language of a family is different from the teacher's and that used in the classroom. With the numher of immigrant children entering early childhood programs in America today, a vital atti- tude for teachers is to consider a “nondeficit perspective in relation to linguistic diversity'' (Rosegrant, 1992); that is, it is not so much that the child and parent are limited in English but that they are proficient in their primary language while learning a second language. Rather than seeing linguistically different children as less capable, less intelligent, and edu- cationally delayed and their parents as less able to sue- cessfully raise their children, teacliers must understand that abilities in languages other than English demon- strate competencies that will slowly apply to English language learners (ELLs) and also to learning the new cultural and social values associated with the classroom culture. Educators should consider what children could lose in both academic content and social-emotional adjustment if their home language is not supported. It is not a matter of giving up one language and culture in favor of adopting another, but adding other skills and experiences to those that already exist and are impor- tant in the lives of children and their families (see Figure 13-lS).

FIGURE 13-18 English larguage learners need spec al support as they earn a second language.

OPPORTUNE FOR SELF-REFIECTON

Can you recall a situation in which you have been involved in a cultural conflict regarding child rearing—whether in your professional ar personal life? What was the conflict’؛’ How was it resolved or not resolvec7 What insights does this give you about culturally deter­ mined differences of opin on7