The teaching philosophy can influence the quality of the educator’s work significantly because it determines tools and methods that are selected by the teacher. Therefore, educators need to formulate their teaching philosophies and with references to existing theories to guarantee the use of working and evidence-based principles. The purpose of this paper is to provide the educator’s profile with the focus on the teaching style, present the philosophy statement with references to the aspect of family and community engagement, and formulate the questions to guide the research.
Educator’s Profile
As an educator, I follow the teaching style that can be explained as the work of a facilitator in the context of cooperative learning. While working with children, it is important to support their development through facilitation, encouragement, interaction, and stimulation (Gomez, Nussbaum, Weitz, Lopez, & Mena, 2013). My experience in communicating with children indicates that they learn quicker and more active when they cooperate, play, explore, and interact. The adult person in this process is only a facilitator who assists in organizing the children’s play and effective cooperation in the group.
When children are young, they need much support from a teacher, but the learning is more effective and developmentally appropriate when an educator allows children to learn independently, with the focus on only relevant guidance (Kagan & Kauerz, 2012). The experience helped me focus on the student-centered approach in teaching, and my current teaching style is correlated with the needs of young children who develop through the constant interaction, exploration of the settings, and play.
Philosophy Statement
The purpose of education is to develop the child’s intellectual and emotional potential while concentrating on his or her needs. Therefore, the focus of education differs, depending on the child’s age and level of development. In this case, an educator should approach each child individually. The important information about the child and his or her needs can be collected only from parents. Family engagement is an important aspect of early childhood education; however, this factor should be regarded as significant at each stage of the student’s growth and development (Halgunseth, Peterson, Stark, & Moodie, 2009). From this perspective, an educator should continuously cooperate with families and communities to guarantee that children learn and develop within positive and supportive environments.
The work to promote the learning and development of children is a sequential and continuous process. As a result, it cannot stop when a child is at home. This aspect makes the family and community engagement an important factor that can guarantee the natural development and learning of a child. A teacher needs to gain the support of the family to expect the complex development of a child (Fantuzzo, Gadsden, Li, Sproul, & McDermott, 2013).
A teacher who promotes the family and community engagement works to create relationships for parents and other educators or community representatives to build a secure and supportive environment for a child. The learning is an ongoing process, and educators need to involve families in the decision-making process and discussion of the students’ successes (Barbour, Barbour, & Scully, 2011). Another important aspect is respect for diversity because a teacher should educate children with the focus on their diverse backgrounds and work with families and communities to address the specific students’ needs.
Questions to Guide the Research
The first question to ask during the interview with the staff person working for Early Childhood Development Commission of Suffolk Department of Social Services is the following one: What tools and methods are used to achieve the strong cooperation between representatives of early childhood programs, social services, educators, families, and community members to meet children’s needs? The reason to ask this question is in the fact that an educator needs to recognize approaches that are most effective to guarantee the engagement of families and communities in the education process (Barbour et al., 2011).
The second important question is how to make families and communities interested in activities proposed according to the early childhood program to achieve the outcomes of such engagement. Although it is expected that all parents are interested in the effective development of children, as well as their education, the problem is in the fact that many families demonstrate the lack of attention to activities proposed in schools. This problem is typical of vulnerable populations. Therefore, it is significant to discover what particular strategies can be used to motivate families to interact with educators actively. The final question to use for the interview is how to communicate the education goals and choices or share the ideas with families most appropriately. This question is closely connected with the previous ones.
Conclusion
The proposed profile and philosophy related to the personal understanding of the family and community engagement are necessary for teachers to provide the theoretical background for their activities. They present the principles that are used by the teacher in his or her daily practice. The formulated questions allow collecting more information regarding effective strategies to maintain cooperation with families.
References
Barbour, C., Barbour, N., & Scully, P. (2011). Families, schools, and communities. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Web.
Fantuzzo, J., Gadsden, V., Li, F., Sproul, F., & McDermott, P. (2013). Multiple dimensions of family engagement in early childhood education: Evidence for a short form of the Family Involvement Questionnaire. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 28(4), 734-742. Web.
Gomez, F., Nussbaum, M., Weitz, J. F., Lopez, X., & Mena, J. (2013). Co-located single display collaborative learning for early childhood education. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 8(2), 225-244. Web.
Halgunseth, L. C., Peterson, A., Stark, D. R., & Moodie, S. (2009). Family engagement, diverse families, and early childhood education programs: An integrated review of the literature. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Web.
Kagan, S. L., & Kauerz, K. (2012). Early childhood systems: Transforming early learning. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Web.