50 Strategies for Communicating and Working with Diverse Families, 2nd Edition

50 Early Childhood Strategies for Working and Communicating with Diverse Families is a practical and easy to use book.  It presents key concepts, discusses them in research-based, accessible prose, and provides useful strategies to facilitate communication and collaboration.  The book focuses on family-centered care and education for young children and emphasizes partnering with families.  Many of the strategies in this book address ideas about how to create a climate of trust by communicating in a collaborative way.  The goal is to create inclusive programs that respect and honor differences in families and individuals.  Teachers will love the fifty short chapters with information they can apply immediately.  At the heart of all these strategies lies the welfare of the child.

 

FEATURES:

• Emphasizes the importance of partnerships between teachers and family members.Stresses the integral components of communication between diverse families and teachers or administrators.
• Raises the important issue of respecting the various diversities and cultures that exist in today's classrooms.
• Reader-friendly writing style and the alphabetic arrangement of the strategies-interesting, understandable, and easy to find what the student or teacher is looking for.
• Interwoven, cross-referenced strategies-integrity throughout the book as the relationships between the strategies are highlighted; one strategy often mentions several other strategies that pertain to the same subject.
• Broad coverage: spans ages 0-8 in a variety of different care and education settings-applies to early childhood educators at all levels-not exclusive to Pre-K; also includes child care, but not exclusively.
• Goes beyond mere parent involvement and education-closely examines how a partnership may include both, but is different from the more common approaches early childhood educators often take to working with parents; promotes a family-centered approach instead of a child-centered one that is common practice.
• Photos and artifacts illustrate the messages-these visual images are designed to help readers grasp information and enliven the book.

 

New to this Edition!

 

Strategies organized by categories, rather than alphabetically.

Emphasis on kindergarten and primary grade teachers.

Diversity theme at forefront of strategies.

New subjects covered include: working with families to maintain home language, holidays in the classroom, media issues, improving child nutrition, children playing outdoors, and dealing with death in the family.

SECTION 1 Welcoming Everybody

  1    Appreciating all Kinds of Families

  2    Working with Immigrant Families

  3    Including Families of Children with Special Needs

  4    Creating an Anti-bias Environment

  5    Respecting all Families including those with Same Sex Parents

 

SECTION 2 Partnerships with Families

  6    Building Partnerships

  7    RemovingBarriers to Partnerships

  8    Minimizing Competition with Parents

  9    Supporting Attachment

10    Considering Authority

11    Focusing on Family Strengths

12    Helping Parents to be Advocates for their Children

13    Encouraging Parents to Become Advocates for all Children

14   Creating a Sense of Community

SECTION 3 Honoring and Working with Diversity

15    Understanding and Appreciating Cultural Differences

16    Establishing Culturally Responsive Education and Care

17    Working with conflicts around Education and Care Practices

18    Considering Cultural Differences in Guidance and Discipline

19    Working with Families around what You Believe are Harmful Practices

20    Thinking about Differing Ideas Related to How Children Learn

21    Managing Conflicts

 

SECTION 4 Family Participation and Education

22    Considering Family Participation

23    Including Parents in the Classroom or Center

24    Focusing on Fathers

25    Taking a Transformative Approach to Parent Education

26    Working with Parents around Holiday Issues

27    Exploring Parents’ Role on Decision-Making Boards and Councils

 

SECTION 5 Communication

28    Creating Environments for Communication

29    Empowering Self and Others

30    Communicating through Writing

31    Holding Ongoing Conversations with Families

32    Looking at Nonverbal Communication across Cultures

 

SECTION 6 Meetings and Conferences 

33    Meeting Families for the First Time

34    Thinking about Meetings in General

35    Holding Conferences

36    Considering Cross Cultural Conferences

37    Talking with Families when Concerns Arise

 

SECTION 7 Working with Parents around Specific Issues

38    Helping the Child Enter the School or Program

39    Maintaining Home Language

40    Easing Children through Transitions

41    Bringing Nature into Children’s Lives

42    Addressing Obesity with Nutrition

43    Dealing with Media Issues

44    Maintaining Stability During Divorce

45    Coping with a Death in the Family

46    Finding Community Resources and making Referrals

 

SECTION 8 Challenging Conversations

47    Working with Parents who Constantly Complain

48    Working with Parents who Appear Hostile

49    Talking with Parents about Behavior Changes

50    Referring Families for Abuse or Neglect<

 

References

Index