Notes
Family Partnerships
by Kayanat Ehtasham
Culturally responsive teaching to me means teaching in a way that incorporates respects, students cultures, families, their life experiences, language and more. As fieldworking and observing elementary classrooms, students all come from many different backgrounds. Some students speak more than one language, and have different traditions. A teacher can’t really understand a child based on academics in the classroom. The important part is incorporating family partnerships. When teachers work with families they can learn more about their students background, language and the culture they come from. If the teacher and other students learn more about each other's cultures it makes students feel respected, valued and included in class discussion.
Family partnerships support culturally responsive teaching because families know their child the best. This will help teachers understand a child's culture, language, strength and their background, and that could lead to putting this information into lesson plans so students could really feel inclusive. It helps increase student participation knowing they could relate and share more about themselves. For example, a family may tell teachers that their child speaks a different language , or tell about their weakness and strength which will help teachers really think about how to create lesson plans based on student’s needs. The information can help the teacher support the student in the best way possible. It also helps the teacher avoid making assumptions about the child but instead of looking at the grades the teacher could use cultural response to really understand the student overall.
Family partnerships also help build trust between the teacher and family. Parents know their child the best. Parents want their child to succeed and know how to really help their child. If they work with the teacher it will help them create a respectful environment for children to work in. It might be too hard for parents to connect with teachers because of language barrier, fear of being judged or maybe they might not have the good experience in the past with the school, but it could change if teachers are willing to step forward to connect with families and make them feel welcomed and respected. Teachers should not only contact if there is a problem with their child but they also share positive updates about their child and give them updates about what they are learning in the class so the parent could feel respected and valued. Maybe invite them to class community events. This helps parents to communicate with the teacher and support their child’s learning.
In my class one video that I watched that I want to talk about is the film “Lemon Grove Incident” by Espinosa, because it talks about the importance of families and how they are fighting for fair education rights for their children. They want their children to have the best education. A little about the film it is, in the 1931, Mexican families in the Lemon Grove, California stood up against the unfair school system(Espinosa 1985). Their families knew this was wrong, it created a wrong impression on students and it could affect their learning. But the families stood up for their children and took the issue to court. They actually won the case, and it come the first successful school desegregation case in the history. This story stood out to me because, it connected to families partnership because it shows that parents wants their children to feel safe, respected, supported in school and the “Lemon Grove Incident” teaches that all children deserve equal respect, fair treatment and have the right to have equal education.
Family partnerships also help students feel like they could relate in class. When students see that their teacher respects their family, culture and the language they feel like they belong in the classroom. For example teachers can choose books with characters from different cultures and use student communities as examples that allow students to share family traditions and language. It includes everyday learning in a meaningful way. Working with families can help me as a future teacher to understand what each student needs. For example, one student needs more time, another may need more visuals, and another may need examples that connect their culture and their life. Family partnership to me is an important part to student’s success in school because I can learn from the parents about student background, and life experience to better understand their needs.
Connecting to families could be challenging and so as a future teacher to create the bond and understanding among parents I will email them updates about school, send out family surveys, and create meeting time for them to answer any of their questions. In conclusion, family partnerships are an important part of culturally responsive teaching in the classroom. Families help teachers understand the culture aspects , language and needs of students education wise. They also help build trust and make students feel valued. “The Lemon Grove Incident” shows that families have always played an important role in fighting for education and helping their child as best as possible. When both the school and family partnership come together and work, the classroom becomes more welcoming, feeling respectful and meaningful to every student in the classroom.