Families Educators

Learn how to work with and relate to the family of each child in an early childhood education program. Includes ideas about transforming the way schools and programs relate to families - each one according to their unique assets and needs with the goal of enriching and enlivening the school community and ensuring better outcomes for each child and the entire program. It will emphasize strategies for getting to know each family the way you get to know an individual person, and learn about their interests, their strengths, their style of interacting and their needs/challenges to encourage programs to move away from one-size-fits-all approaches to family engagement.

This edited collection broadens understanding of family–school–community partnerships by focusing on how community groups, educators, and university professors engage with public education to achieve their own goals rather than goals defined by schools, school systems, and governments. Authors critically examine various school–community partnerships that collectively aim to improve decision-making, democratize policy processes, resist policies that support the marketization of public education, and advocate for racial equality. The book’s chapters focus on advocacy efforts within and across three national contexts—England, Canada, and the United States. Together they expand current scholarship by demonstrating how different constituencies develop alliances, experience tensions, and navigate the politics inherent in change efforts. By examining the intersections of parent and community organizing, teacher unions, and school–community partnerships across national contexts, the chapters uncover fruitful new terrain for understanding the theory and practice of educational activism. This volume was originally published as a special issue of Leadership and Policy in Schools.

This book reports initiatives to listen to parents and families, to ascertain what families believe and do as they seek to engage collaboratively with their children's educators, and what educators and educational systems might do to facilitate and/or establish barriers to such engagement. Parental engagement in children's learning and development has many positive benefits. However, in the current environments of accountability and performativity which are pervading early childhood education in many countries, the opportunities for parents and other family members to be part of the development of respectful, collaborative relationships with their children's early childhood educators are becoming more and more restricted. Many educators feel forced to choose between curriculum outcomes and parental engagement, as both involve their time. There is a danger that the voices of parents and families in their children's early learning and development will not always be heard, seen, or fully understood. This volume addresses this important issue. Researchers, educators, and families will all benefit from this book, to the ultimate benefit of the young children who are the future. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Early Childhood Education Research Journal.

Preparing Educators to Engage Families: Case Studies Using an Ecological Systems Framework, Second Edition encourages readers to hone their analytic and problem-solving skills for use in real-world situations with students and their families. Organized according to Ecological Systems Theory (of the micro, meso, exo, macro, and chrono systems), the text presents research-based teaching cases that reflect critical dilemmas in family-school-community relations, especially among families for whom poverty and cultural differences are daily realities.

Anti-bias education begins with you! Become a skilled anti-bias teacher with this practical guidance to confronting and eliminating barriers.

Family Engagement in the Digital Age: Early Childhood Educators as Media Mentors explores how technology can empower and engage parents, caregivers and families, and the emerging role of media mentors who guide young children and their families in the 21st century. This thought-provoking guide to innovative approaches to family engagement includes Spotlight on Engagement case studies, success stories, best practices, helpful hints for media mentors, and "learn more" resources woven into each chapter to connect the dots between child development, early learning, developmentally appropriate practice, family engagement, media mentorship and digital age technology. In addition, the book is driven by a set of best practices for teaching with technology in early childhood education that are based on the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and Fred Rogers Center joint position statement on Technology and Interactive Media. Please visit the Companion Website at http://teccenter.erikson.edu/family-engagement-in-the-digital-age

This book completes the series of readers for the Open University's undergraduate course EU208 Exploring Educational Issues. A major theme of the book is the controversy around early years education and it looks at inequality issues.

This book explores how professionals can engage and inspire parents to support their young children’s mathematics learning. Bringing together international experts, researchers and scholars, it proposes a framework for engaging with and supporting parents, including those who are less aware of the crucial development of children’s mathematical skills in the early years. Focusing on mathematics learning from birth to 5 years, the book’s underlying assumption is that it is possible to offer guidance to professionals working with families with young children concerning how to engage and support families in the area of mathematics learning, including those families who seem alienated from education services. Specifically, the respective chapters present a framework for understanding children’s early mathematical development and the important role of families in this regard. They describe effective strategies for engaging families in their children’s mathematics learning, including those who are marginalised and experience multiple disadvantages, so that all families can best support their children’s mathematical learning and their development of positive attitudes towards learning. In closing, hurdles and opportunities within the systems surrounding family engagement are addressed.