Authentically Engaging with Families

08/08/2016

Authentically Engaging with Families

Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you, no matter what. If you don't listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won't tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff.
Catherine M. Wallace and Diane Leonard, authors

In programs where families and staff are respectfully and authentically engaged in meaningful relationships, everyone learns how to appropriately share power. As Jim Greenman explains in Art of Leadership: Engaging Families in Early Childhood Programs, positive interactions with families come from the agreement that parents have the power to:

Know
Be Upset
Question Why
Decide Together

When families are invited to understand program goals, philosophy and expectations, feel safe expressing all feelings (even "upset"), ask the questions most important to them, and share in decision-making, then true partnership is enjoyed by all. Greenman writes:

"In practice, partnership with families requires a continual exchange of communication. In the process, parents learn a lot about child development and curriculum, and the center learns about what parents feel is important for their child to grow up to be the kind of people they expect them to be."

Contributed by Nancy Rosenow

ProCare - Child Care Management Solution

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