16.5: Professionalism and DAP in Working with Families

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you should be able to:

• Understand the role of professionalism in building strong partnerships with families, emphasizing respect, confidentiality, and ethical behavior.
• Explore how Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) can be applied in family interactions to support children's learning and development while fostering positive relationships with families.

The Importance of Professionalism in ECE as it relates to families

Cover of Unifying Framework for the Early Childhood Profession text (P2P)

As you learned earlier about professionalism, you will remember that included in the NAEYC P2P (Power to the Profession) document, we are given guidance that in striving to build this profession, we must do so in a way that elevates the knowledge and skills of families and communities. We, as early childhood professionals, are obligated, professionally and ethically, to develop relationships with all families and the communities we serve, paying particular attention to those from diverse cultures, languages, and experiences who are often marginalized.

"Knowledge from families is essential to developmentally appropriate practice."

Rhian Evans Allvin, 2018

To do this, it is essential in our work to create opportunities with families that value their experiences, views and beliefs, and current world views. When we actively integrate this knowledge of our families in the curriculum and the classroom it ensures that we are more able to respect, learn about, understand, and embrace families’ cultures and communities; and supports us in building stronger partnerships and connections with families and communities with the end goal of supporting all children.

Preschool children often come to school with an understanding of how they are supposed to speak, move, behave, express themselves, and interact with other children and adults that has developed by watching how these things happen in their own homes. These beliefs about how they are supposed to conduct themselves are largely informed by their families’ cultural backgrounds and ways of being.

It is our knowledge about a culture or a family, shared by the family, that supports us as professionals to use this knowledge to tailor the curriculum to the child’s understanding and experiences.

Questions to Ask Families

• What are the cultural norms guiding children’s development? (For example, are the children the center of the home or expected to be more in the background? Do parents do everything for the children or are the children expected to do more for themself?)
• What are family beliefs and practices for displaying photos of the children and families?
• Do you work with families to create classroom labels, dictations, and signs reflecting the children’s first languages?
• Are you aware of cultural norms regarding touch and personal space?
• Do you discuss cultural differences in a positive, respectful way?
• Are you aware of cultural norms for communication style and person-to-person contact?
• Do you view cultural differences as potential resources or as challenges to overcome?

According to NAEYC (P2P) the guidelines for early childhood educators that relate to our connections with families include:

(a) we should identify and participate as members of the early childhood profession. We serve as informed advocates for young children, for the families of the children in our care, and for the early childhood profession,

(c) we should demonstrate professional communication skills that effectively support relationships and work young children, families, and colleagues.

Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) and our Work with Families

Woman on floor with a young boy from childcare.gov is in the public domain.

Developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) is an early childhood learning approach from NAEYC that states “each and every child, birth through age 8, has the right to equitable learning opportunities… that fully support their optimal development and learning across all domains and content areas” (NAEYC, 2020). In a DAP approach, the early childhood professional supports the child’s development (socially, emotionally, physically, creatively, and cognitively) based on their knowledge of each child. This knowledge is used to make appropriate decisions about classroom materials, appropriate interactions and learning experiences that are most likely to be effective and support the development and learning for the group and each individual child.

The DAP Position Statement from NAEYC also guides expectations for our work with families. DAP Guideline #2 is Engaging in Reciprocal Partnerships with Families and Fostering Community Connections. This Guideline states: Developmentally appropriate practice requires deep knowledge about each child, including the context within which each child is living. Educators acquire much of this knowledge through respectful, reciprocal relationships with children’s families. Across all ages, families’ expertise about their own children is sought out and valued.

Reflection

Thinking about connecting with families

How has your thinking changed about the role of families and how you connect with them in your classroom?

What is your first goal related to connecting with families as you move forward in your professional practice?

Childcare provider with father from childcare.gov is in the public domain.

References

This page was adpated from: Neimer, A. and Kirchofer, J. (2024). Families today. In Julian et.al (1.1 Eds.). (2024). Introduction to early childhood education. Libretexts.

NAEYC. 2020. Developmentally Appropriate Practices Position Statement. https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/resources/position-statements/dap-statement_0.pdf