ECFS 2003: Practicum 2

Introduction
In the recent years, there has been a movement towards improving the relationship between the school and other stakeholders in education, to the extent that it would improve the outcomes for every child. In this Unit, we would bring this to bear on working with families and communities.

Can also be referred to as:

• Family and Community Involvement
• Family and Community Engagement
• Supporting Families and Children's Learning and Development
• Collaboration between Home/School and Community
• The Home/School/Community Triumphirate
• School/Family and Community Partnerships

Healthy Collaborations w/Families can Provide

• An avenue for creating strong bonds/links between the home and school.
• A platform for acquiring background knowledge on the child, the family's child rearing practices, the environmental culture.
• Transparency as it relates to the activities that take place at home and at school, disciplinary practices at home, thereby creating a bridge of communication between both stakeholders.
• An element of trust for the child, thereby making the transition from home to school somewhat easier and perhaps more meaningful.
• A link of consistency, familiarity, continuity. This is as it relates to the aspects of the developmental programmme that is designed at school (either individually or otherwise) and which needs to be adopted at home.
• Additional resources to increase the diversity of the school's resources, as well as, the children's learning experiences.

Collaborations With Communities Can Provide

• A beneficial partnership that improves the learning outcomes for each child.
• A family is a microcosm of every community, therefore, it stands to reason that the community also has a responsibility towards the raising and educating of each child within any legal capacity.
• An addition to the knowledge base of every child as it offers opportunities for supporting and extending the curriculum.
• Financial assistance or improvement to the school's resources, materials/or environment
• Field Trip experiences to make learning more relevant and meaningful to the children....they would be able to make connections between relatively abstract understandings to which they were introduced in the classrooms and real-life experiences.
• A renewed awareness of the importance early childhood development and the criticality of investing in each child.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT1gR5I3ODY

Any effective early childhood programme will have as an indicator of quality: the relationship between the school and the family and the school and the community.

The BIG Picture

• Working together with families and communities, supports the school in developing initiatives that would target either alleviating or eradicating factors in the community or family, which have negative effects on the learning and development of the child(ren).
• The family and community can also be contributors to creating high quality early childhood programmes, transitioning programmes and early intervention multi-disciplinary programmes.

Conclusion
Working with families and communities engenders a culture of understanding, trust and collaboration. This culture is necessary to accept that this "working together" may not necessarily mean a physical presence, but rather, fully performing the role to which you have committed. Just as we, as educators, encourage and expect active participation from all of the children in our classrooms, the very expectation is held for families and communities. This "working together" sees these three entities as being instrumental in finding solutions as opposed to magnifying problems and challenges. The research is absolutely conclusive in the benefits of this link, this bond to the schools, to families, to communities and to the country.