Question 1
Many children in your preschool classroom class do not live in nuclear families. Several children are being raised by single parents, one student is being raised by her grandparents, and another by two mothers. What accommodations should you make for these children?Question 2
What cultural factors influence family beliefs about children and parenting? In your answer give examples from at least two different cultural groups. Also, give examples of beliefs regarding each of the following age levels: infancy, preschool years, and primary years.Answer 1
Suggested Responses: Students should suggest that teachers accommodate children in a classroom with diverse types of families by including representations of these different types of families in the books they provide and read, and center their discussions of families on the caring aspects, rather than on the structure. Above all, teachers should not assume that these children's development may be harmed by being in a non-nuclear family. Other family members - fathers, siblings, grandmothers - should be included in school activities since they may play an important role in the children's development.Answer 2
Suggested Responses: Students should describe how scarce resources and oppression have affected beliefs about children and child rearing. They should describe how these two factors influence the following: goals of parenting, expectations for maturity and responsibility, beliefs about autonomy or enmeshment, attitudes toward educational attainment, beliefs about fighting, and ethnic pride. Examples should be given from two different cultural groups and all age levels.