Understanding Cultural Values and Beliefs "Valuing each family's childrearing practices while helping them to understand child development is not only respectful but also part of your ethical responsibility" (Swim, 2017, p. 16).
You have been learning that the relationships between teachers and families can serve as cornerstones of developmentally appropriate practice and foundations for quality early childhood experiences. Developing effective partnerships with families requires building relationships where we "seek first to understand" (Covey, 1989, p. 235).
This understanding includes learning about families' cultural models for childrearing with the goal of creating collaborative partnerships. In this week's Discussion, you will explore how family culture can influence childrearing and will develop and discuss "scripts" designed to learn more about families' cultural models of childrearing.
To prepare for your Discussion, review the Daniel article, "Intentionally Thoughtful Family Engagement in Early Childhood Education." Consider what you have learned-both this week and over the course of your program of study-regarding the importance of learning about family cultural models of childrearing, including:
•The ways family culture can impact childrearing
•How you can learn more about the cultures of individual families
•How differences between family perspectives and your own perspective can impact your professional role, such as the care you give children, your teaching, and your relationships with families
•Strategies that can help you find out about different families' perspectives of childrearing Based on these ideas, By Day 3: Post your thoughts regarding:
•The ways family cultures can influence childrearing
•How differences between your own perspectives and those of the families can impact your professional role, including the care you give children, your teaching, and your relationship with families
•Ideas for what you might say in order to find out about families' perspectives on childrearing in sensitive and respectful ways.