Inclusive Practices for Engaging Multilingual and Multicultural Families

In today’s political landscape, the words “diversity” and “equity” have come under scrutiny, but in the field of education, dedication to these fundamental values persist. Each family, regardless of their cultural heritage, country of origin, or native language has the right to play an active role in their child’s early education in the classroom and home environment. As responsive ECE educators and administrators, it is our responsibility to adopt strengths-based perceptions and practices that value all families and make family engagement opportunities equitable for all families. During this conference session participants will explore strengths-based practices to engage all families, including multilingual and multicultural families, such as FACT Time, Family Dialog Journals, and Family Interviews. Participants will have opportunities to share examples of strengths-based family engagement practices currently used in their ECE classrooms and programs as well as brainstorm strategies to bring families, ECE teachers, and program administrators together to initiate and or maintain equitable family engagement practices.