Here is our task for February

Activity: Choose an activity from the text. Present how you would apply this activity in your class, with student groups, or in a workshop for your colleagues/staff. 

ePortfolio prompt: Describe your activity, present its design, procedures, goals, and facilitation plan. 

I teach a class called ECE 2025 - Families, Communities and Schools. It is a class for pre-early childhood majors. All of the students hope to be teachers of children from Pre-K - Third Grade. 

Here is the course description: This course explores educational considerations in working with young children and families from a variety of cultural, ethnic, and other diverse backgrounds. This course also addresses issues related to working with families in early care and education and to learning strategies for building partnerships, communicating about child progress, and accessing community resources.

In the third week of the course we discuss family diversity and the variation among families. We talk about anti-bias curriculum or representation of the diversity in society in the classroom throughout the day and throughout the curriculum while challenging stereotypes and helping children to develop a positive self-identity. One component of working with children and families is to see things from their perspective and learn about their cultures. 

In reviewing our text for this learning community,  I found an activity about culture called the four analogies. (It is activity #4 on pages 61-68.)

Here is the reference for our cultural diversity community text: Berardo, K., Deardorff, D. (2012). Building Cultural Competence – Innovative activities and models. Sterling, VA. Stylus Publishing, LLC 

Goals

I thought this would be helpful because it would allow me to assess the students' current understanding of culture, followed by engaging them in a discussion about the complexity of culture. I hope students would be able to do the following

• Define and explain culture
• Make comparisons of the images  provided to culture 
• Apply concepts of the course to the images in terms of working with families and engaging them in meaningful ways.

At this point in the course we have reviewed several theoretical frameworks that show the family system and how important the family is to a child. We have discussed the importance of family engagement and how it is recommended by professional organizations. We have also discussed the importance of listening to families and avoiding assumptions. 

Design - Hand out pictures of an onion, a fish in a fishbowl, an iceberg and lenses and ask students to consider how these are like culture. Facilitate a discussion about culture. 

Procedures

Put the instructions from the text on a PowerPoint slide and project them

You will receive a picture of either an onion, an iceberg, a fish in water or lenses. All are analogies for understanding culture. Discuss these with the people around you.

What is the similarity between the object in front of you and culture?

What insight does this give you about how to effectively work across cultures? 

The students do a "think, write, pair, share." They think about the materials presented and questions. They write down their responses. They pair up with the people around them. (My students did this in groups of 4.) They share their responses in a small group and then share them again in a large group.

Facilitation Plan

I planned to walk around the room and listen to and reflect back responses in the small groups. I then planned to have one representative for each image share their responses. After each response I would use the additional guidance from the text to develop responses a bit further. I will make specific connection to working with children and families in schools. 

Onion - We need to recognize the many layers of family members and see them for the complex individuals they are. Avoid assumptions and stereotypes.

Iceberg - Surface level culture such as food and dress is the tip of the iceberg. We should avoid minimizing people to these. When working with families be aware that changing the way you think or your worldview is challenging. The way families may view their children or what they view as obscene or offensive may be different from you. 

Fish in water - You are in your own world and the influence of your own culture can be invisible. Learn about yourself and your culture. Step out of your comfort zone and be a fish out of water. Go to events in the neighborhoods where your families live. 

Lenses - Try to see things from the perspective of others. "The goal of working across cultures is to recognize our own lenses or cultural filter we are wearing in any situation and learn to put on the lenses of someone from a different cultural background (Berardo & Deardorff, 2012, p. 62)."

I plan to revisit these throughout the semester. 

I implemented this activity and it went well. Students were hesitant at first. They were looking for the "right answer." They were ultimately all able to make the connections for each image.