When we consider families as the child’s first teacher, do we take time to stop and listen to them, I mean really listen? We can all say that time spent during the initial tour and orientation is the moment where we gather information about their child, including health and wellbeing requirements. But what of the needs and aspirations of the families? How do we take time to listen to those? Working in one of the most culturally diverse suburbs of Melbourne, there are great complexities within each family, more than any other service I’ve worked. The complexities are not evident when we first meet families, and we can only read so much on the enrolment form, so those reciprocal trusting relationships where we learn more, take time. Time where we are present, open and considerate. Families are not a homogeneous group and therefore can hold differing culturally concerned ideas and understandings about education teaching, and their role as parent educators.
By using the concept of listening to understand, not to respond, we are becoming more successful in our engagement with families. Some families who have been through trauma and/or adverse situations, or have a lack of trust for educational settings or have a fear of the unknown or authority will only share information if they really trust you, and sometimes this can take a great deal of time. This is true of refugee and/or transient families who shy away from giving too much information for fear of being relocated. Additionally there are families who have literary barriers, which prevents them from having those meaningful conversations with you.
Advocating for the rights of families, who are unrepresented, silenced or marginalised has been a real consideration for me. And so after careful consideration we changed our tour and orientation procedure.
Firstly, we ensure that everyone in the service knows that there is a tour that day and who will be attending the tour. When children and families are greeted on arrival by their first name, it shows that they are valued members of the community and are welcome at our service. Secondly, We now allocate more time to have informal conversations away from the classrooms, sharing information about the support services we offer to families. For families who need an interpreter we arrange this beforehand, ensuring families feel more comfortable and confident to share information and be heard.
I have to say I love the time I spend just listening to families, it’s the beginning of maybe a 5 year relationship with the (leadership team) and with the service as a whole. Just as we do with children, we listen and we wait for the things families are willing to share. Sometimes families share the most trivial of things, however there have been times where information of great significance is shared. When families feel like they belong, then they will stay and discuss aspects of their life, concerns and worries they have and embrace difficult conversations with you. A few weeks ago I invited another educational leader and director into my service and we spoke at length about family engagement. I told them that we invite families to stay as long as they want, and the role of an educator is to support families to settle their child in the morning. Families stay for breakfast and spend time learning alongside children in the classroom before they say goodbye. This happens throughout the year, not just during orientation. Our goal is not for families to leave crying children, but for families to stay and have meaningful conversations with the educators to support their child. We ask families to come a little earlier, so they can have this time in the morning with their child, not rushing and hurrying children to settle.
While I see our service as multidisciplinary, I would love a greater degree of collaboration with families, making us more transdisciplinary, particularly when it comes to curriculum development. The complex nature of our service makes this more interesting, however I feel taking the time to listen to families will eventually encourage them to be part of the bigger picture of the service. 💗