A Multicultural Approach to Working with Families
Part 1: Reflection on Multicultural Perspectives
As an early childhood administrator, you must be aware of your own beliefs regarding diversity and recognize potential for bias towards family views, values, roles, and parenting styles that may differ from your own experiences. These perspectives will either help or hinder you from working with diverse families. You must also carefully evaluate your ethical responsibilities to support all types of families. For the first part of the Assignment, you will write a 2–3-page narrative essay in Standard English describing your own perspective on multiculturalism and diversity and its impact on an early childhood organization that you might work for in the future. Keep in mind that narrative essays tell a story about a real-life experience. Choose two to three life experiences you feel have shaped and influenced your views about multiculturalism and diversity. Continue your reflection with a discussion of the ethical rules that support and guide your approach to working with diverse families in early childhood programs.
Part 2: Case Scenario – Working with Diverse Families
As an early childhood administrator, you must accept differences in families and build constructive relationships with all kinds of families (Scully, Barbour, & Roberts-King, 2014). Economics and social pressures also contribute to the ways families are diverse.
Suppose your early childhood organization serves the following types of families:

• Low-income, Caucasian family of a child with a disability
• Homeless, highly educated bi-racial family with two boys and a girl
• Upper-income lesbian family with three adopted boys
• Extended Latino family with a divorced mother, plus grandparents, and two girls

In 3–4 pages, continue your narrative essay by examining research on family systems theory, parenting styles, and the role of family structures in relation to the types of families served by your organization. Describe the diversity of these families in terms of their parenting roles, cultural beliefs, and involvement in their child’s education. For each of the family types of your organization, describe the effective ways you would support, communicate, and share community resources. Support your approaches to working with the diverse families with references to theories and research examined.
Include a summary of the importance of understanding diversity from your own perspective as well as the perspectives of the families your early childhood education serves.
Include at least three references from scholarly sources retrieved from the University Library supporting family systems theory, parenting styles, and/or roles of family structures and include in-text citations throughout your assignment.