I
put a lot of thought into my research topic for this course. I wanted it to be
meaningful for the early childhood field, but even more so I wanted it to be
meaningful for the Head Start program. I work for. As I prepared for the topic
I spoke to the executive director of my program who is my supervisor as well
about my thoughts and we discussed what direction would be best to take this
research in. I chose to research the topic of cultural experiences in the classroom
and best practices for keeping continuity between home and school.
As
I become more familiar with the research of this topic I would like to answer
three questions.
1. What
are some way’s to keep a family’s culture alive in the classroom?
2. What
can we do to respect a family’s discipline techniques while ensuring
developmentally appropriate practice both at home and school?
3. Are
there cultural differences amongst people of the same ethnic background who
live in the same community?
Question
number three I am not completely satisfied with. I want to find a way to
reformat this question to have deeper meaning for the research I will be
conducting. As I worked on the “Understanding Research” chart this week I began
to reflect upon the type of data I would collect with this. I believe I would
be researching quantitative approaches.
One
of the resources I used in part two of our first assignment this week talks
about this topic very well. You can find it in the Walden Library. It had some
great insights on this topic.
References
Cheatham, G. A., & Ostrosky, M. M. (2013). Goal
setting during early childhood parent-teacher conferences: A comparison of
three groups of parents. Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education
27(2), 166-189.
Hi Lisa- I enjoyed reading this post. Communication and involvement from families is very important. Teachers and families need to have a positive relationship when communicating. Also, communicating on a regular basis is key. If a teacher knows about the family, she will be able to implement certain things in the classroom. This may be if a child is from a different culture and needs to feel comfortable.
ReplyDeleteLisa,
ReplyDeleteI think your third question is very important and may even be a study in itself. I saw many families who would try to forget their cultural backgrounds and would even say they did not want their kids to learn the native language because they wanted them to become more American. So I have some families in the same community and from the same cultural backgrounds, yet have completely different viewpoints on how they incorporate their culture into their daily lives. It was important for us as teachers to help show them the value and importance of maintaining their cultural practices and beliefs.