Changing Our Attitudes and Actions in Working with Families

Article Link: http://stage.exchangepress.com/article/changing-o/5013848/

Teaching in separate child care programs in Seattle, Deadru Hilliard and Ann Pelo first met each other through their staff trainer, Margie Carter, and later as representatives to the newly formed child care union in Seattle. Both teachers have been drawing inspiration from Reggio Emilia for their very different settings - Deadru's program of low income families, primarily African American, and Ann's center of affluent, primarily
European American families. Margie suggested they visit each other's classrooms and parent meetings and start a dialogue together to share their journeys and explore how this process looks in such contrasting settings.

Deadru: When I first started in this job at Martin Luther King Day Home Center, the child care field was unfamiliar to me. I listened to co-workers talk about the negative parts about what families do and don't do, and that was my model. So, I went for a couple of years doing what everybody else did, complaining that there was no response from the parents, that they did this, and they did that.

At the same time, I wanted a change. I remember saying to myself: How can I do this differently? This meant relearning everything, every part of what early childhood ...