Education Research Questions
150-200 words for each question and 2 or more references for each question
Q1:
If you currently work in an early learning setting, observe specific ways the setting welcomes and includes all families. If you are not currently working in an early learning environment, have a discussion with a practicing educator you know, or a family (or your own family) who attends an early learning site, or a colleague in this course who has this experience, and invite their knowledge and experiences surrounding ways families are welcomed and included in the early learning setting.
# Think of your family and share 2 ways that your own family would feel welcomed at an early learning environment (for example, it could be an artifact, practice, sounds, materials, scents, communication method etc)
Q2:
This is a 2-part exercise (A & B).
A) Read the following note sent home to families:
June 13 email sent to all families, 3:30PM:
Dear Parents,
You are invited to a special Mother’s Day event on May 15 at 10:00 AM – be prompt. The children have prepared songs, poems and special gifts to honor their mom. Food will be provided (pulled pork buns and chips) for $5.00 per person. We are asking that all families participate by sending a plate of home baked treats to the event with their child to ‘sweeten’ the festivities. The children have been working toward decorating and preparing surprises for this special occasion and are looking forward to having you attend.
See you there!
RSVP required by June 14, 10:00AM
Education Research Questions
Now, re-read and consider the note from the perspective of one of the following people:
A single mom working 2 jobs and barely paying the bills and putting food on the table.
A family with gay parents
A mom who is a survivor of residential schools and cannot comfortably enter any school building.
A family with lesbian parents
A family with mom in prison
A family with 2 full time working parents frequently travelling on business with a full- time nanny providing childcare daily.
A family whose religious beliefs do not permit celebrations.
A family who is vegetarian or whose religious beliefs limit the consumption of specific food products.
a child living within any of the above family structures.
B) Gather some intake, registration, consent forms that families complete for your early learning environment. Keeping in mind the information and perspectives from modules 2-5 – critically examine the forms to determine if they are inclusive, opt-in or opt-out, sensitive and respectful to the diversity of families.
Talking Point / Discussion Prompt
Comment briefly on one aspect of the Mother’s Day note send home, OR one aspect of the administrative forms (whichever option you chose) and discuss as a group the various realizations you have made to the note home and/or the administrative forms.
With the knowledge that parent involvement and parent education can be valuable,
Identify one way (new to you) that you could respectfully try to increase the engagement of hard-to-reach families in a parent education opportunity.
Education Research Questions
Q3:
What resources are available?
For this option, ‘in-house’ refers to resources or opportunities that are made available and provided/organized by the Early Learning site. These resources would be offered within the site.
If you have access to an ECCE site or know someone who could inform you of their site resources to consider the following points from the view of what is currently available. Consider some of the ideas below:
a) What in-house resources are available at an ECCE site to support families in a designated family resource space.
b) What in-house resources are offered and available at an ECCE site to support the educators.
c) What in-house resources are available onsite to support educators in integrating Indigenous ways of knowing into everyday experiences in an early learning environment.
# Share 1 resource you found AND generally what your discoveries a -c above indicate to you about resources on site.
Education Research Questions
Q4:
Choose 2 of the points below and research 2 practical, respectful, inclusive practices that support positive and responsive family/ECCE partnerships within an ECCE setting.
Communication – (methods/modes/platforms for positive communication between educators & families)
Play materials – (open ended and inclusive)
Environmental considerations that reflect diversity of families – (decor, nutrition, sounds, scents, etc)
Invitations for family involvement in their child’s education- (specific ways families could be involved)
# For each point (2) you researched in your inquiry activity, share one practical, respectful, inclusive practice that supports positive and responsive family/ECCE partnerships within an ECCE setting with your peers. Briefly note how you see each idea supporting ECCE/family partnerships & Indigenous awareness.
Q5:
Review the ‘Handbook of Best Practices in Aboriginal Early Childhood Programs’ (BCACCS, 2008) – available online.
Think about 2 ‘new to you’, practical and specific ways you as an educator in your early learning setting, may offer positive action in support of Indigenous families and the Truth and Reconciliation Act.
# Share your 2 ‘new to you’ discoveries from above.
This week, briefly reflect together about all the posted practical daily efforts that are possible to take to ensure your learning spaces are culturally safe every day for every child and family that attends, whatever the presence of cultural heritage, beliefs and world views of the group as a whole may be.
Note any highlights and challenges you may have encountered in completing this inquiry exercise and how they were either embraced or resolved.
Q6:
Research to discover the large community partners serving your neighborhood (Burnaby BC Canada) that serves young children & their families. Please find partners other than those noted in the readings and include partners engaged in Indigenous knowledge education. Keep in mind that in this exercise you are looking for the large partners rather than programs/services offered by those partners. For example, public libraries offer many services and programs for young children & their families. In this exercise you would be identifying the library itself as the partner, not the particular offerings. Also, this exercise does not include private for-profit organizations.
Examine the mission statement of one of those partners.
# 1) Share one of your findings from the inquiry exercise and the partner’s mission statement.
2) How do you suppose the large community partners determine the needs of any given community?
Q7:
Research and identify 2 specific community services/programs, offered by 2 different community partners, that you consider valuable for families in your neighborhood (Burnaby BC Canada). Last week you looked at the large community partners themselves. This week, you are looking at the programs/services those partners offer.
Think broadly about this. These could address a wide spectrum of assistance for a diversity of families with many varying types of situations and needs – such as parent supports, child supports, food security, literacy, economics, transitions & settlement etc. Find resources that are in your area of work/community and that are of interest to you and/or perhaps the families you work with.
Note: this does not include private for-profit programs/services
Talking Point / Discussion Prompt
A) Share 1 community service/program and note:
-name of program/service
-name of hosting community partner
-contact information, location
-service provided, cost if any, target population
-funding source(s)
B) We have thought about families, educators, the early learning environment, community partners and community programs/services. Now, we begin thinking about how all these parties might come together in multi-collaborations. For this week’s discussion board guiding focus, write about your
a) understanding of what ‘collaboration’ means
b) when a collaboration process occurs, is there one uninvolved party (or not), and is there one party as the dominant leader (or not)
c) who benefits in a collaborative effort
Education Research Questions
Q8:
Several readings suggest that it is beneficial to plan a space in the early learning environment for parents. Think about your own early learning space or one you know of/imagine, and where that parent space may be possible. Then, make a list of what you would ideally have in the space for the parents. When completing this exercise think outside the boundaries of what your workplace may look like (or what you have seen/lived) and jump into the world of ‘possibilities’. If you can imagine it – that is the first step to realizing it. As a starting point think about:
how big is the space, shape of it, location in context with the rest of the center.
what are the physical additions (seating, equipment, light, decor etc.)
resources available- what would these be? 9book lists, personnel, availability)
OK – now you are started – be creative! Consider & expand on the knowledge you have gained so far in previous modules to understand the rationale behind your choices.
#: 1) Share your ideas or a sketch of the space from the inquiry exercise on the discussion board so a collection of possibilities can be created for everyone.
2) If you were to initiate a collaborative experience involving families, early learning sites and community partners – where would you start? choose and post one factor that would you need to consider.
Q9:
take a moment to identify about one key common thread that weaves through all levels of child/family/ECEC partnerships.
Use APA referencing style.