The Impact of Family Involvement on the Education of Children

Introduction

The foundational faith among early childhood educators is the principle that everyone deserves the resources and opportunities to fulfill their complete humanity. Early childhood educators play a unique role in making this principle come to fruition by promoting opportunities for every child to thrive and succeed in school work and entire life. When early childhood educators treat children as strong, kind and intelligent, children will replicate and behave as strong, intelligent and kind people. The foundation to this is eliminating bias and cultivating diversity.

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Area of Focus

While there are many areas from which bias cultivates in education, working with the family may be the source of it all. Undoubtedly, working with the family or involving parents during the early childhood education of a child aids development of socio-emotional skills and sets the base for literacy (Van Voorhis, Maier, Epstein & Lloyd, 2013). When parents are involved, they create a link between home and school to transition the learner into the school system. Involved parents also look at many aspects of the child's development to ensure that he or she is adjusting well to the school environment and can attain the educational goals.

However, bias tends to act as a huge barrier towards parent-teacher association in early childhood education. Bias could emanate from the parents' end. This action plan focuses on working with families to discourage stereotypic behavior in early childhood education.

Attitudes to Change

To ensure good association between parents and the teachers, stereotypic attitudes have to be changed. Stereotypic behaviours majorly emanate from the parent. It is from the parents and guardians that the kids get to confirm their stereotypic doubts about human diversity (Derman-Sparks, Gutierrez &Phillips, 2014). These stereotypic biases include sexism, racism, homophobia, economic class, different abilities, culture and language and ageism among many others.

Beginning Plan for Action

Where to Start and What to Do

The action plan would begin by getting to become familiar with the family. This action would call for casual talks or a phone call to the parents (Derman-Sparks et al., 2014). It is during this chit-chat that one gets to establish the concerns that the parents may have about the issue in question. After learning this then, one can handle biases by encouraging a platform for cultural sharing. Most importantly is sensitivity to the matter. Whereas some parents will be in support and help mitigate bias among their children, others might fail to (Derman-Sparks et al., 2014). It is at this point that an educator gets to handle each family sensitive to their feelings. It is also important at this stage to advise parents to keep watching what they say about human differences in front of children. This is because children confirm their biases against other human beings from their parents and those around them (Derman-Sparks et al., 2014).

Risks and Limitations Involved

When working with families to help mitigate biases in education among their children, some risks are encountered. One may encounter violent parents and guardians who will not create room for such discussions. Also, cultural biases from the educator may occur. Due to cultural differences between the educator and the parents of the child, and out of cultural bias, an educator may easily find himself or herself attempting to transfer some cultural values to the parent. An educator should be aware of cultural biases when undertaking this exercise.

On the other hand, while implementing the action plan, some limitations will be evident. Parents may provide false information regarding the reality of the bias that could exist. Also, the parents could choose not to speak up their minds as a way of avoiding negative perception. This way, there will be no meaningful discussion that would impact on limiting stereotypic biases.

Working With Others

In this action plan, parents and teachers will be the principal partners. However, other parties including school counselor and religious persons will be included in diversified discussions that address the wider issue of stereotypic biases. A school counselor will introduce perspectives of multiculturalism when approaching stereotypes. School counselors will establish a necessary foundation that ensures needs of students from diverse backgrounds are addressed, and necessary steps were undertaken to provide access to services for all students (Na & Ostvik-de, 2017). For example, worship rooms should be availed for all religions to avoid bias. On the other hand, religious persons will help in guiding the parents and the students in issues of cultural diversity so that they can recognize and appreciate the existence of other religions apart from theirs.

Conclusion

As the early childhood educators take the lead in creating opportunities for success for all the children, it is important that they take into account the contribution of the parent towards that end. Working with the families is crucial for the establishment of social emotions among the learners. Parents should be involved in addressing stereotypic behaviors among the learners because such behavior problems emanate from the parents. To ensure success in addressing stereotypic biases, school counselors and religious persons should be included to offer their perspective and help in mitigating such behaviors.

References

Derman-Sparks, L., Gutierrez, M., & Phillips, C. B. (2014). Teaching Young Children To Resist Bias: What Parents Can Do.

Van Voorhis, F. L., Maier, M. F., Epstein, J. L., & Lloyd, C. M. (2013). The impact of family involvement on the education of children ages 3 to 8: A focus on literacy and math achievement outcomes and social-emotional skills. MDRC.

Na, G., & Ostvik-de Wilde, M. (2017). The Role of School Counselors in Promoting and Implementing Internationalized Comprehensive Programs in K-12 Schools.