What complex issues make it difficult for Early Childhood Education professionals to partner with families?

The complex issues that make it difficult to early childhood education professionals to partner with families are:

• Differences in backgrounds where the family and teacher come from different cultures, languages and socio economic statuses.

• Communication discomfort where families or teachers are uncomfortable about communicating their needs or do not have enough fluency in the language.

• Differences in looking child needs where the school views the child in which her learning and development is different than the family does. The school philosophy differs from the family’s view of appropriate child rearing. For example, the family associates teaching with telling and the teacher equates learning with doing. Behavior problems are touched one way at home and another at school. When the school clearly explains philosophy, families get a better sense of the match between home or school expectations.

• Differences in experiences where a parent’s experience in school which is positive or negative sets up some outlooks for their own connections with school or teacher for their own child.

• Notions of openness where there is absence of openness to outsiders entering their territory in home or school.