Sample Assignments – I. What Is A Family?

Introduction

This course examines how children, families, schools, and communities collaborate with and influence one another. The course explores ecological theory to contextualize diversity and relationships among children, families, schools, and communities, linkages between family-school-community engagement and student achievement, and cultivation of culturally sustaining family and community collaboration.

As you move through this course, I will challenge you to think about your own implicit, explicit, and confirmation biases about children and families.  You will examine, closely, how funds of knowledge and cultural capital impact collaboration with schools and communities.

Please watch the following video to further your understanding of the framework for this course:

Expanding the Definition of Family | Amanda Bastoni & Anthony David | TEDxKeene

Discussion

• Reflect on a time when you experienced or witnessed a micro-aggression in a family, school, or community. Describe what happened.  What was the hidden message?

Reading Review

1. Focus on the case studies that contrast the U.S. Census Bureau’s definition of family to a modern definition of family. Write your own case study that shows this contrast.
2. Choose three Pause and Reflect questions found in Chapter I. Answer them.

Reflection

1. Read Chapter I.
2. Review Table 1: Family Structures.  As you answer the following questions, think about implicit, explicit, and confirmation bias both for and against the diversity of family structures.
3. Choose one of the following questions to answer.
   • Imagine that you are working with families in a school or community setting. What level of comfort do you have in working with diverse families? What may be challenging for you? What are some strategies that you could use to help you in working on the biases that you may have?
   • What judgments or assumptions do I have about different family structures?

Optional Bonus Choice A

1. Read Public Has Mixed Views on the Modern American Family written by Kim Parker and Rachel Minkin from the Pew Research Center.
2. Identify one data point about the public perception of the Modern American Family that you already know or suspected to be true.
3. Identify one data point that surprised you about the public perception of the Modern American Family
4. Describe how the diverse views on the future of marriage and family in the United States., as reflected in the data, potentially impact early childhood centers or schools or community centers or other family support systems.

Optional Bonus Choice B

1. Identify one official form that a family member may fill out on behalf of a child. Examples might include a school district enrollment form, Head Start enrollment form, or a form for a pediatrician or other medical professional.
2. Examine the form for inclusive language. Does it include the parental choices of “mother” and “father” or are they more flexible in their labels of parents, guardians, and/or other caregivers?  Describe your findings.
3. If the form is not inclusive, edit it by describing how to make them more inclusive and consistent with a modern definition of family.