As the center director of a child
care facility, I have been informed that a child of a family has recently
emigrated from Africa and will be joining our group soon. I only have a few weeks to prepare for the
educational success of the child and to ensure the family is confident in my
center’s ability to care for and educate their child competently.
As I prepare myself and my staff to
be culturally responsive towards the family I take many precautions and steps
to guarantee success. The first step I
would take is to educate myself and my staff in regards to what challenges the
family may face as a result of moving to the USA. There may be a language barrier, a feeling of
loss of identity, fear of the unknown, and other countless struggles.
Create a rich anti-bias learning
environment is essential to all children’s success. An environment needs to be one in which the
new child joining our center can feel safe and secure. The environment should be one that is full of
opportunities for the children to discuss and engage in activities about racial
and other physical differences and similarities.
I would compile a list of questions
to ask the family once I had the opportunity to sit down with them about their
fears and struggles as well as what opportunities they are most excited about
or looking forward to as a result of moving.
Another step that I believe as
critical in the preparation and in order to be culturally responsive towards
this family is to foster a respectful relationship. I would begin to foster the relationship by
sitting down with the family and asking questions in regards to what is
important to them for their child to experience in our care. It is critical to collaborate with the family
and ask clarifying questions in order to understand their goals and work
together in order for success to occur.
The final step I would take is to
have follow-up meetings/conferences with the family to ensure that they are
satisfied with the care being provided and to see if there are any adjustments
that need to be made. Follow up is
always the key to success.
I would hope that through the
preparations taken prior to the family arriving and the actions taken once the
family arrives that our center will be prepared to care for the whole-child and
meet the family’s expectations. The
benefits for me and my staff that would come from these preparations are
unlimited. We would be able to gain a
sense of Africa’s culture in order to make a new child feel more at ease
entering a new environment. We would
also be able to showcase to the family how we integrate all family’s cultures,
language, and identity into our classroom and curriculum. The family will also experience many benefits
through the preparation and interactions.
My hopes would be to show that family that we care about them as
individuals and about the educational success of their child.
I like the fact that you mentioned educating the staff about the struggles the child might experience. As a center director myself, I feel that sometimes we assume that others are aware of certain things, only to discover that it never crossed their minds. By the way, it is important to distinguish between Africa as a continent and South Africa, the country. Growing up, geography was part of our dally curriculum from first grade till tenth grade and we were introduced through the years to many countries. I wish such emphasis is carried out in the American educational system.
ReplyDeleteAs always, Erika, you hit on many important factors. For me, it was important that you followed up with the family to make certain they were happy, or comfortable, in your preschool. In addition to giving you this family's perspective, you would be doing a lot towards building family relationships. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete(PS: Did you get my e-mail?)
Erika,
ReplyDeleteI always enjoying reading your blog! Yes, the idea of follow-up is very important and I also like the idea of working with the staff to make sure they are sensitive to the issues the child is dealing with.