In this weeks media segment, Janis ?Keyser, Early Childhood Educator, explains how the ‘teaching to ?strength’ approach is affirming and motivating for children. Rather than ?focusing on ‘f

EDUC6358: Strategies for Working with Diverse Children “Building on Children’s Strengths”

Program Transcript

[MUSIC]

NARRATOR: How can we truly foster children's healthy development and learning? Why is it vital that early childhood professionals focus on children's strengths, rather than deficits? What does it mean to say that the image of a child is co-constructed? Early childhood educator Janis Keyser responds.

JANIS KEYSER: The way teachers think about children, the way they perceive them, the things that they believe about children, effect everything they do with children. They effect their interactions, the planning, the environment, the curriculum. And when teachers come from a place of thinking of children as strong, competent, and capable, their teaching encourages children to grow and develop. When teachers come from a place, as many of us have come from a place, of thinking of children as needing to be taught, deficit, and lacking in some kind of a way, our approach is different.

And I want to think today about what's the difference. What happens for children when we hold a strong image of them as capable, competent, self-motivated, interested, initiative takers, curious. Versus a model of thinking of children as not knowing what they need to know, not having internal motivation, not being interested or curious. So I want to think with teachers about how we can see children, how we can build an image of a child. It's interesting that the image of the child is really co-constructed between teachers, children, and families. And without all of those voices we can't really know who children are. We're in a constant state of discovery, observation, documentation, reflection. To think about who are children, what strengths and capabilities do they bring to our learning teaching relationship? And in that learning teaching relationship, everybody's a learner, and everybody's a teacher, everybody's a researcher.

So I want to talk a little bit about what happens when we fall in the place of thinking of children as lacking, coming to the learning table lacking. Unfortunately many of our assessment tools work that way, we try to figure out what children don't know so that we can make sure that we can catch up, and we can teach them what they don't know. And what's interesting– I was talking about strength based learning in a class. And I often ask parents or teachers or children, whoever I'm with, to say talk about your strengths. What do you know, what are you good at, and then I say, and what are your challenges? And sometimes I say, why did I ask this? Why did I ask you about your strength and your challenges? And a student raised his hand and he said, our strengths leverage our challenges.

And so it's from that place, it's almost like strengths provide the scaffold upon which we can build. And if we spend as much time thinking about what kind of a learner is this child, where are their strengths, where are their interests, where are their natural motivations, as we spend thinking about where could they go next. What else could they learn? We're going to really build strong and competent learners.

Interesting that when we work with young children, and we come from a place of punishment or shame or criticism, the experience that young children have is feeling scared. Unsure, unconfident, inadequate, and not really safe to take the kinds of risks that they need to take to learn well. If we help children build a picture of themselves as competent learners, with good ideas, then they're ripe. They're ready to take on any challenge in the world. They become so curious, they become so interested in very hard tasks.

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I was with babies the other day and they were crawling down the slide, and one turned around and wanted to start to crawl up the slide. And it was fascinating because it was harder in some ways. And yet, you could just see the child challenging themselves to do it in a more complicated way, in a harder way. And that was that child's own motivation, nobody said now you should try to do it this way. And so we want to try to create the context in which children get in touch with their own ideas, their own motivation. And in which we become facilitators, co-researchers, co- constructors of the curriculum, and learn along with children.

We can talk a little bit about some of the places we get kind of stumped, or hung up as teachers. And so one of the things I want to think about is, how do we hold the children, hold that idea about any behavior a child does, as evidence of the fact that they have a good idea? Even when the behavior isn't something we can support, or something we want to continue. Even when it's hurtful to other children.

There was another child in the group who greeted every child by coming in just exuberant in the morning, and pushing every child down, and laughing. And the teachers were stumped. But they were watching carefully, because they wanted to see what it seemed like his idea was. What he was thinking about, what he was trying to do, and trying to accomplish. And they noticed that he was laughing, and he truly seemed joyful except he seemed a little confused that he wasn't being met with equal joy. When children would fall down or cry, he would have sort of a puzzled look on his face and then he'd go try somebody else. Let me try it with you! And the teachers, with their own observations, couldn't quite figure out what his good idea was. And so they very soon had a conversation with the family. Tell me about your family, how does your family play. These are some of the things that we're seeing your child do here, can you help us understand what his context is. And how he plays at home, and some things that we can then have to help us understand. And they learned that the family is very physical, does lots of wrestling, lots of older siblings. And going up and pushing somebody down, and laying on top of them, and tickling them, or laughing with them, is a really appropriate way to play.

So the teachers had a really different idea about who this child was, from that context. We cannot figure out what's going on with children without that partner of the family. Without hearing from the family about what's important to you, what are your goals for your child, what do you know about your child. Way before a child even shows up in a program, teachers and administrators can reach out to families and say, tell us about your family. Tell us about your child. Question after question about, how does your child express themselves? What does sadness look like? What is their schedule? But what does sleepy look like, and how do you help them sleep? And what do you hope, what are your goals for your child? What are you hoping they're going to learn in this program? What's important to your family? Are there special events that are important to your family? All of that kind of information.

There's two things. One, when we ask families those kinds of questions we begin to establish– there's a statement there– we begin to establish the notion that we need to hear from you. We can't do the best care and education for your child, without your active voice. This is the beginning of our dialogue, and we're going to continue to have that dialogue. At drop off and pick up time, in home visits, in parent conferences, times when you come and just hang out in the classroom. We're going to have a chance to get to know each other better, and to more fully understand what happens with your children.

Recently teachers have put together a series of images of children, and their playing, their investigation in the classroom. Brought them to a parent meeting and asked parents, what do you see? What do you think children are working on? What are they learning? How might you help us think about extending the curriculum, extending the environment, to deepen children's questions, to deepen their investigation. That voice is essential without those perspectives, without those

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families perspectives. And it's sweet, also, to get some families perspectives on other children as well as their own. Because that gives you again a wider diversity of perspectives, a different way of thinking about things.

A child's identity is constructed within their family, within their culture, within their ethnicity, within their language, within their family structure, within their home relationships. And it's our job to partner with families in promoting that identity. In helping that child continue to build on that strong sense of self. We need to know what language the family speaks at home. If we can't hook that child up with a teacher, maybe we could hook them up with another family in a classroom that speaks the same language. And encourage those families to speak that language in the classroom. To make it so clear to them that, that language is a gift. Not only to their children, but to all of the children in the classroom who get to know another way of communicating in the world, and get to learn another way of being in the world.

Families in the classroom are an important aspect in many different parts of building curriculum. One of the things I often tell families, when I invite them to come and spend time in the classroom, is this will help your child begin to explore the classroom from the safety of you. It will help you know what the teachers do, the culture of the classroom, who the other children and families are. But most important, it helps the teacher begin to know you and begin to know your relationship with your child. It's part of our job as teachers to support and promote that relationship.

To create a kind of consistency between what we do here, and what you do at home. That consistency is supported through ongoing communication, so that I can reference the fact that grandma and grandpa came this weekend. And they helped cook a big meal, and your cousins came. And I may not provide exactly the kind of care that your grandma does, or that your dad does. But the fact that I know it, and I can reference it, and I can talk about it, begins to help the child build an integrated sense of self. It's not like I have one life in my center, in my school, and another life in my home. My life is integrated. The people who are partners in my life respect each other, need each other, two way communication is essential in that relationship. Teachers have all kinds of great information, observations, to share with parents. And equally, parents have essential information to share with teachers. Teachers cannot do the quality care that we want without that input.

I remember as a new teacher, wanting to be as inclusive as I possibly could. I was working with a very diverse group of children and families around ethnicity, language, culture, family structure, many different elements. And I had this dream of sort of studying all I could study about every different culture, and have all the pictures of every different culture on the wall. And then maybe I would be meeting all of these children and families needs. And I slowly over time, over much time, and many patient families helping me understand, that I needed to figure out how to be in dialogue with families. I needed to figure out how to invite families to talk to me, to teach me, to tell me what they knew about their families.

And there's many different venues. Certainly asking questions is a venue. Teachers have inspired me by inviting families to bring in stories, pictures, artifacts to display in the classroom. There's been just this lovely kind of conversation between families who bring in artifacts, and other families come and look and talk. And children are looking and talking. And then another family brings in artifacts. And the way that the relationships not only between the teachers and the families deepen, but between the families and the families deepen in that community really brings a diverse community together.

And I think it's one of the most important ways that anti-bias work happens. How do I meet you as a person? And what is it about culture, and language, and ethnicity, that's unique to you that you

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want to share with me? How do you define it for your family? Because I can't go to some textbook and learn all there is to learn about your culture. I learn it one individual at a time. And if we can create the stage for not only families to share that in the classroom with teachers and children, but with other families, we do our anti-bias work. Not just in our classroom, but it begins to move out from our classroom, out into the world, in terms of the way the families connections with other families build and grow as well.

A teacher friend of mine had a family in her classroom, and she could tell that the mother was unhappy with what was happening in the classroom. And that classroom had an observation booth, and she would see the mother going into the observation booth. And she could tell by her body language that something was bothering her. She could also told by her body language that she wasn't to be asked about it. And so my teacher friend struggled, and thought, and reflected, and wondered, what can I do? Clearly this person's not choosing to talk to me about this, I think I've made myself open, so she went and sat with her in the observation booth. She sat quietly with her. And she said, what do you see? And she began just a very simple conversation, and pretty soon the mother started talking to her about what she saw. Clearly the mother came from a different cultural perspective in terms of, what do you share with people, when do you raise issues, when there's conflict how do you address it. And my friend had to really be thoughtful about creating space within this other person's context for even that person to share with her.

And it was the hardest thing in the world, because in my context and my colleagues context, talking is the way you share. And talking about stuff that's hard, is the way you share. And creating space for that dialogue is the way you learn about other families. But when families are saying to you, that's not the way that I'm going to share who I am, you have to think about other tools. Whether it's observation, whether it's watching the way communication happens in that family, and just seeing if there's a way that you can bridge to really communicating with somebody who has a very different style than your own. This is the exciting part of the work for me, is that as teachers we're continuously growing and learning more. Not only about the people that we're honored to be working with, but about ourselves as researchers and learners. And from this spot, we're in the best position to support the learning of children, and families, and colleagues.

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EDUC6358: Strategies for Working with Diverse Children “Welcome to an Anti-Bias Learning Community”

Program Transcript

[MUSIC]

NARRATOR: Join Adriana Castillo on a tour of her family child care home. A warm and caring setting that exemplifies effective practice, and an intentional approach, to anti-bias learning and community building.

JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: Hi Adriana, we are so grateful that you have us in your home today. And I would like to ask you to start us off by telling us the name of your place. And how many children will come, and what do we do today.

ADRIANA CASTILLO: OK, my name is Adriana. And the name of my program is Casa de Aprendizaje.

JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: Which means? A place of learning?

ADRIANA CASTILLO: A place of learning. Yeah. And I have 12 children.

JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: 12 children. And they range in age from? The ages?

ADRIANA CASTILLO: The youngest is one year old, one year old, and the oldest is a four-year- old.

JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: So we'll see a whole range of children today. That's going to be wonderful.

ADRIANA CASTILLO: You'll see infants and toddlers.

JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: That's great. We are out here, we start out here, because this is where you greet the children in the morning, right? Tell us a little bit about that.

ADRIANA CASTILLO: Yeah, because most of the times the hard part for the children is the separation for the families. Especially for mommies. So I will start with them in here, some of them. To play a little, to listen to them when they will start crying. So it's really for the families too, some of the mother's are having a hard time to say goodbye to their children also.

So I just have to, to prepare them here while their mother is signing them in. And the binder that I have here, checking with us. How is the children's morning? How they sleep last night? So we share information a little bit. So I start with the child to get them ready to go inside, is he starting having a hard time? So I invite them to the nap room.

JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: And we'll go there in a second, but before we go there, show us a little bit what's out here already. Because there's already a lot of interesting things here. Tell us a little bit about what we see.

ADRIANA CASTILLO: Well for in the mornings, some of the families want to know the schedule. So we have a schedule here, how we started. So I have a little, some pictures for the families, like a small– living in a small community.

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JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: So Adriana, I see that you have a sign here that says "Our small community." It seems to me that families are so important to your program, tell us a little bit about the inclusion of families.

ADRIANA CASTILLO: Well, the inclusion of family is to feel. Give them an opportunity to feel welcome, with the child and families together. So they are part of my program. This is the main part of my program.

JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: So you try to make them particularly welcome. So now you said that when children have a hard time, you take them to the nap room. Let's go there and show us around.

So Adriana, we're here in the nap room now and tell us a little bit what happens here.

ADRIANA CASTILLO: So this room, it's a nap room. So you'll say it's the place where I invite the child when he's having a hard time. I set up this room to feel comfortable, to continue to express their emotion. Most of the time children cry a lot, and I start listening to them for the time that they can express their feeling. I do not stop the crying, I just stay with the child while he expressing or she expressing their feelings. So I provide these pillows, because sometimes when they start to just be calm. So I invite to them, OK listen are you start throwing the pillow to them and like playing, inviting to play and to feel more comfortable.

JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: What else is in the room that you would point out to us?

ADRIANA CASTILLO: So some of them are tired in the morning. So I invite them, provide this crib for the child. And so you know I have some pictures to remind them that this room is for nap or rest time.

JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: What else, is there anything else in the room that you want to point out?

ADRIANA CASTILLO: I provide this, also the rocking chair. And I have some of the books that usually they talk about their favorite book is Buenas Noches Luna. They, some of them, prefer this kind of books to read together.

JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: So everything we see here is meant to help the children become calm, and make the transition from the parents to your place. And if I heard you right, you said before, you don't stop their crying you help them to make their own transition. Tell us why it is so important to do that, and not to stop them.

ADRIANA CASTILLO: Yeah, what I do is because I recognize that children are emotional. How it's hard for them to separate and so I really focus on this. The main part for the children. Also I provide this sound, because they really like it.

JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: What is this? Tell us about it.

ADRIANA CASTILLO: [SPEAKING SPANISH]. So it's like music to them. This sound is very popular for some children. So we use that [SPEAKING SPANISH]. When they finish expressing their feelings. This is the second step. And they start to jump into this. And this area is perfect so it's not to put limits. Not jumping on the sofa, not jumping on the bed, some of the families don't let the children. So I provide this place and for most of them this is their favorite. You're going to see later, how they can come and connect in this area.

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JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: So now the child has calmed down, or maybe another child has gone to sleep. And then what happens next?

ADRIANA CASTILLO: Next when the children are– 8:00. We invite the children in this area to meet together, like a circle time. [UNINTELLIGIBLE] and singing together.

JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: And why do you do that?

ADRIANA CASTILLO: I do this because it's so important to say hello everybody, hi everybody. How was yesterday, or what did they do. Sharing, conversation with each other, to connect in the morning. So the way that teachers and children, also for families because sometimes they participate.

JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: Oh, do families participate?

ADRIANA CASTILLO: Yeah.

JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: So you invite them to stay?

ADRIANA CASTILLO: Yes so they are free to participate. Some of them not a running morning to go to work, because some of them just leave the child and go too fast. And others have more time, and stay when asked to.

JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: So, there's another way that you connect with the families, and make them partners. Could one say that you make the families partners in the work with the children that you do? That they are the partners with you?

ADRIANA CASTILLO: Yeah, this is what I feel like I'm more building. Like little by little, specifically when they are new. They feel shy. It is OK, they can say that I really invite them to open, to feel welcome, to participate with us in the activities. Maybe they want to read a book with the child.

JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: So all the families of the children that come here know each other.

ADRIANA CASTILLO: Yes.

JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: And they know each other because they come here, and they participate, and build community. So let's go to the next room.

So Adriana, where are we now?

ADRIANA CASTILLO: Now we are in the living room. This is a free play area for infants, especially for infants and toddlers. So in this area, when we finish the circle time we divide the group. So it's infants and toddlers stay here, and the preschoolers go in the back.

JUDITH K. LEPUSCHITZ: And you mentioned to me before that there is a special area here, and I would like you to talk to us a little bit about that area.

ADRIANA CASTILLO: It's, I do this because this is an important part for each family. To invite each family to show a little bit part of them. For the quarter. For example, we have here this family b

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