Being an effective early childhood professional requires you to step outside your personal beliefs and acknowledge parents and families as the child’s primary teacher. In the spirit of cross-cultural competence and anti-bias education, there will be times when you will need to put aside your cultural beliefs and opinion in order to support families. Therefore, in your written assignment this week we are going to practice.

Choose one parent request from the list below that could go against your personal beliefs. In your first paragraph, share how your personal beliefs may not align with the parents’ request. In a second paragraph, outline some questions you would ask the parents in an effort to seek understanding of their request. In a third paragraph, outline a plan to meet the parents’ request. Do not focus on how you can help parents see things from your point of view. Rather, you will need to focus on how you can support the parents’ request.

Scenario/Request – Aung Sanda is a 2-year-old girl in your once/week early childhood class, her family recently emigrated from Burma. Her parents have let you know that anyone from their apartment complex can drop off or pick Aung Sanda up from school.
Scenario/Request – Shu-Ling is a 7-year-old girl in your school age program. Shu-Ling’s family has asked that you share any behavior concerns or problems with the Shu-Ling’s father only. When her mother or grandmother picks Shu-Ling up every day, they do not want to discuss any concerns.
Scenario/Request – Yusef is almost 3 years old. He is in your early preschool classroom at a child care center. His parents insist that it is the teacher’s responsibility to feed, clean, and dress Yusef at school.

For your final paragraph, reflect on how it made you feel to set aside your personal beliefs and share if you think this is something you could do as an early childhood professional.