1. Building Culturally Responsive
Family Partnerships
in
Early Childhood Education
Rocky Mountain Early Childhood Conference
Friday, March 1, 2013

2. Building Culturally Responsive
Family Partnerships in
Early Childhood Education
Sherry Taylor, Ph.D.
Associate Professor & Program Chair
Literacy, Language & Culturally Responsive Teaching
University of Colorado, Denver
Isabelle Smith, MA
ECSE Pre-School Teacher, Boulder Valley School District
Lead Instructor in Early Literacy Certificate Program
University of Colorado, Denver

3. Today‟s Focus: Supporting young learners
-Teachers and students today
-Culturally responsive skills & understandings
-Families‟ valuable resources & experiences
-Building family partnerships using:
Engaging families as partners
Cross-cultural supports
Authentic assessments

4. But first, let‟s begin with YOU
• What is your position and
classroom context?
• Who are your students?
• What interests you about
building culturally responsive
family partnerships?
• What do you already do to
build these partnerships?
• How do want to expand your
efforts to build culturally
responsive partnerships with
students? With their families?

5. Culture: What is culture?
1. Everything you believe in &
everything you do that identifies you as
a member of a group & distinguishes
you from members of other groups
(Robins, Lindsey, Lindsey & Terrell,2011).
2. The ever-changing values, traditions,
social & political relationships, and
worldview created, shared, and
transformed by a group of people who
are bound together by a combination of
factors (Nieto & Bode, 2011).

6. Students Today:
Demographic Trends in U.S. Educational Contexts
1.04 million
immigrate to US A large yet
yearly 1 in 5 children undetermined # of
have a foreign- undocumented
born parent immigrants arrive
annually
70% of student
population consists
of student of color in Currently nearly
the 20 largest school By 2025, 40% of the
school-age million ELL
districts
population will be students attend
students of color US schools
Some ethnic groups
are overrepresented
in special education
95% of students By 2025, 1 in 4
programs and with disabilities are students will
underrepresented in served in general initially be
gifted programs education classified as an
classrooms. ELL student

7. Teachers Today
• Predominantly female (75%);
• Native English speaking from a
White (non-Latino) background
(83%);
Less than
• 10% are African American:
• 6% are Latino;
• 1% Asian American;
• .8% Native American

8. What is involved in being a
culturally responsive teacher?

9. What is involved in being a culturally responsive teacher?
Rarely – Seldom – Sometimes – Often - Usually
1) I am aware of my own culture &
ethnicity. 4) I know the country of origin
of each of my students &
2) I am comfortable talking about my
his/her parents.
culture & ethnicity.
5) I understand the factors that
3) I know the effect that my culture &
affect acculturation.
ethnicity may have on the people in
my work setting including students & 6) I understand the ways a
their families. learner‟s culture may
influence learning.
7) I understand the ways my
culture – as a teacher – may
influence my teaching.
8) I understand the ways the
culture of the school
influences school norms,
expectations, interaction,
behaviors & communication.

10. What understandings & skills
are practiced by culturally
responsive teachers?

11. Culturally responsive skills &
understandings used by teachers
• Understand how learners construct
knowledge & have the skills to help
learners to do this;
• Take time to learn about the lives &
cultures of their students;
• Use their knowledge of students to design
instruction that builds on Ss’ foundations,
strengths & cultural perspectives;
• Are socio-culturally conscious,
meaning they recognize there are
multiple ways of perceiving reality;
• Recognize students’ differences as
resources not as problems to overcome.
(Villegas & Lucas, 2007)

12. Teachers who adhere to culturally
responsive & relevant teaching
• Capitalize on their students’
home & community cultures;
• Empower students (intellectually,
socially, emotionally) by making
connections with their culture
as they teach content, skills &
attitudes;
• Keep the class focused on
instruction & use methods that
suggest to students that they are
capable of learning.

13. Responding to the culture you
bring into the classroom
• Questions to consider
– Am I providing materials,
conditions, and experiences
that allow all of my students to
explore, expand, and value
their cultures and the cultures
of others?
– What social hierarchies are
present in my classroom?
Who works and plays
together? Who gets to be in
charge? (Owocki & Goodman, p.24, 2002)

14. Learning about families‟ valuable
resources & experiences
“To understand the home and
community environment,
teachers may observe and participate in
community life, interview community
members, and visit students’ homes.”
(Diaz-Rico & Weed, 2010)
What steps do you take
to learn about the
students‟ home &
community environment?

15. Learning about families‟ valuable
resources: Taking Action
Home Visits: Questions you might ask?
– What does your child do well? What do you enjoy
doing as a family?
– What changes has your child experienced? (health,
re-location, family members & home context)
– What goals to you have for your child this year?
What are your hopes and worries?
– Where does your child go after school?
• “Getting to know” questionnaire (Owocki & Goodman, p.97-98, 2002);

16. Learning about families: Learning to listen
• Sample questions to help you learn about
children‟s families:
– What funds of knowledge are present
in the child‟s home? (Gonzalez & Moll, 2002)
– What materials are available in the home?
Which are regularly used?
– What types of interactions and
relationships does the child have with
others in the home?
– What is the child’s language background
and experience?
– What do family members recall about
their own learning and school
experiences?
Home-based information (Owocki & Goodman, p.23, 2002)

17. Learning about families at conferences
• Listen & take a break from
the role of „expert‟
• Use videos to explain and
share what the child is doing
at school
• Think about the physical
environment during each
conference; Are you seated
in a way that encourages
sharing & conversation?

18. Learning about families‟ valuable
experiences: Inquiry
-Community-based information shared
by child‟s family (Owocki & Goodman, p.24, 2002);
-Community tour by teacher:
 Where do students in your class live?
 How do they get to school? Route?
 Where does the family shop?
 What restaurants do they frequent?
 What is the family’s entertainment? Where?
-Life at home:
 What responsibilities does the student have?
 How does the student help the family?
 What talents is the student praised for at
home?

19. Building family partnerships
• Invite families to share their
interests and talents.
• Allow for flexibility in your
programing to incorporate a
variety of families’ skills.

20. Building Family Partnerships
• Ask families to share their own learning
goals and provide opportunities to meet
them.
• Engage families in cross-cultural social
experiences. Celebrate each other.

21. Building family partnerships with the
community
• Connect families to community resources
and to each other

22. Questions to consider as you
move forward on your journey:
• What do you already do to build
partnerships with children & their
families?
• What steps will you take to expand your
efforts to build culturally responsive
partnerships with students & families?
• Home visits?
• Questions to prompt parents to share?
• Use videos to show child‟s activity?
• Listen more-Talk less with parents?
• Family – community resources?
• Other? Your ideas?

23. On Your Own: Personal Survey & Reflection
1) I understand how differences in 3) I have assessed the
student cultural, linguistic, and linguistic abilities of
socio-economic backgrounds my students in
affect language and literacy English and in their
development. home language.
2) I know the country of origin of
each of my students and his or 3) I understand and
her parents. respect my
students' oral
language use, even
when they may differ
from my own use of
language.

24. Thank you!
Your questions?

25. Beeman, K. Urow, C. (2013). Teaching for biliteracy:
Strenthening bridges between languages. Philadelphia,
References PA: Caslon.
Gonzalez, N. & Moll, L. (2002). Cruzando el Puente:
Building bridges to funds of knowledge. Educational
Policy, 16 (4), 623-641.
Owocki, G. & Goodman, Y. (2002). Kidwatching:
Documenting children’s literacy development.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Robins, K.J.N., Lindsey, R.B., Lindsey, D.B. & Terrell, R.D.
(2011). Culturally Proficient Instruction: A guide for
people who teach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Taylor, S.V. & Sobel, D.M. (2011). Culturally responsive
pedagogy: Teaching like our students’ lives matter.
Boston, MA: Brill Publishing.
Villegas, A.M. & Lucas, T. (2007). The culturally
responsive teachers. Educational Leadership, March
2007, 28-33.