Introduction: A family is consisting of a father, a mother, and the children. In a family, the parent can be the one who becomes a role model for their children. Most of the time, our family members can be the one that we look up, the one who guides us, or they can be the one that inspires us in many ways. There are different types of family and all families come from different background. Every family faces different experiences and challenges. In most family, the parent is who tend to make the decision and set goals for their children. Different types of parent set different standards, rules, values, and goals for their family based on their culture and beliefs. According to the Grant & Ray textbook, chapter 5 discussed that the United States are becoming more and more diverse. We have families that come from a different cultural background, different countries, or different religion. (p. 131). As a teacher, it is very important that we understand where our students are coming from and what kind of family dynamic they have. Knowing student cultural background and family can give the teacher a better understanding of how to communicate and collaborate with the parent. As for this assignment, I decided to interview three different families with different cultural background and dynamic. First, I interview a family who came from another country and has been living in the United State for almost twelve years. The family speak more than one language and are very proud of it. Second, I interview a colleague who works with me at the YMCA. She is a single parent and has six children. She works very hard to provide the necessary needs for her family. Then, I interview another family who’s from a different country. They have two children, and both are in elementary school, though, the daughter has Autism. The family went through some serious challenges. I will be talking about each family and explain how each family is different later in the paper. Family One: For this family, I decided to interview the mother to share about her family and experiences. In this family, they have four daughters. The family come from Middle East and has been living in the United States for almost 12 years. The oldest daughter attends at University, the second one is in high school, the third one is middle school, and the last one is in Elementary. From the mother, I learned that the family take religion and education very seriously. The mother explained that she often stays home and take care of the family while the father work to take of the house financially. The mother said that she prefers to stay home and take care of her daughters as well as making sure that she is giving them the attention they need. She then explained that it is not because she does not want to work but because she believes she has to be there for her daughters and the home. When I asked her to share a little about her religion, and culture, she was very proud to explain where they come from and how proud they are to be Muslim. The family usually wait for the father to come back home so that they can have dinner together and share about their day. The mother explained that religion play a big role in their family and it shape them who they are today. She said everything she do in her life is based of their religion for example how they dress, the modesty, family values and even education. Religion play a big role in all of them and then she explained me about their tradition and holidays. They celebrate two holidays which are Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha. Eid Al-Fitr is celebrated at the end of their Festival month which they call it Ramadan. They fast for the whole month and invoke a lot of charity. The mother instructs their daughters to pray and the family usually pray five times a day. They also read their holy book (Quran) together. The mother explained that adapting to the Western culture is very different and was hard at first. After a while, they get to learn more about American culture and language. However, she said that they do not celebrate Christmas or Thanksgiving. She is very proud that they are Muslim no matter what the media is saying about her religion. She is also proud that her children take their religion very seriously. According to the Grant & Ray textbook, the book stated that, “Teacher need to research to learn more about the child’s culture and language (p.140).” I agree with this statement and I believe that it is very important duty for teacher to learn where the children are coming from and what their home situation is like because language barrier is always something that any immigrant struggle with and I personally struggle with it when I first came to the United States. This family face some challenges when they first come to United Stated because of language barrier. It took them years to understand English and to be able to communicate with others. When they first come here, their daughters started to attend school and parent had a hard time communicating with the teachers. The mother explained that they barely attend parent-teacher conferences even though they want to. She said, “If you work hard and want to learn that language; you can, even though it takes time. But it really can make a difference because you can’t always depend on their native language when you are in a country that speak completely different language (Mother).” The family work hard to learn English. She also explains that the father learned English from working at different places and communicating with others and their daughters learned from school. It took her awhile to learn English and she watched a lot of kids cartoons show or tv because it helped her learn. Now that they speak English, the father always attends parent-teacher conferences and always communicate with the teacher to see their children performances, and behaviors. The family take education very seriously because they come to this country hoping to get a better education and she watch her daughters’ grades or assignment very closely. She said her oldest daughter is in college and want to be a teacher because education make difference in their lives and her daughter wants to be the one that has positive impact on children when it comes to education. Family two: For this interview, I reached out to a family that I came across while attending our community meeting. This family have one daughter and one son who are both in elementary school. The daughter has Autism and in first grade. This family lives with their in-law. The inlaw is from the husband sides and they house is very crowd because the husband has a sister that also live with them. I interview the mother about her family and her experience as a parent. This family dynamic is very different and interesting. The in-law is on disability and unable to work so the husband work and the mother stay home, take care of the in-laws and the children. She explained that its very hard living with a lot of people but then again it is like tradition living with the whole family. Her husband doesn’t want to get their own place and want to live with his parent. She stays home most of the time, cooks for the family, and take care of her children. They been living in United States for about ten years now and its always been hard because she does not speak English fluently. When I asked her about the children, and her relationship with school, she explained that she received multiple phone calls from the school about concerning her daughter. She noticed some signs before, but she was not sure if it was serious. One day, she had to pick up her daughter because she was disturbing her classmates and having a hard time listening to the teacher. The school mentioned that they noticed a few signs such as a learning disability, frequent repetition of set words and phrases, and reacting negatively when asked to do something by someone else. They also noticed that, in the classroom, she does not talk and avoided eye contact. After that, the teacher and school staff member arranged for her to see the doctor. Therefore, she made a couple of trips to the hospital. She said, the doctor mostly did the behavioral test and concluded that her daughter has Autism. After that, they transferred her to Bowen’s Center where they came to help her both at school and at home. The mother said it was very hard for her the fact that she speaks little English and they have to provide translator every time she goes to the school. After finding out that her daughter had Autism, the mother had to accompany her to stay with her at school from Monday to Thursday for about three months. When I asked her why she had to go, she said that her daughter did not seem to listen to the teacher and does whatever she wants. This was because she was not able to control herself. Therefore, going with her daughter helped to maintain her behavior from distracting the other pupils in class. However, they did not have to stay the whole day at school, because only half-day would do. She then goes further to talk about how stressful it is because she was not familiar with special education issues such as law, referral process or she was not aware of any procedures. She said, she did not get through her high school studies. Therefore, she does not speak good English, thus, making everything harder. When she went to the meeting at Bowen center, she was able to understand a little. However, they provided her with an interpreter. It was really helpful, since we both could speak the same language, this interview was not hard for me. She explained that if she learns how to speak English, she would use the internet to learn more about the disorder. Moreover, the Bowen’s center came to her house to help her daughter learn. More so, they taught her how to help in terms of reading or writing and also provided some teaching materials for her. During the interview, I noticed that she did not talk about her son at all. Then she goes further that the school has greatly supported her daughter and all her questions about autism have been answered. She had a hard time communicating with the school before due to language barrier, but the school provided an interpreter, so it makes thing easier for her family. She said, everyone helped her overcome the challenges. Furthermore, the team professionals are committed to helping her and everyone else with the same challenge overcome it and achieve their goals. Reflection: I received a lot of new information from these three families. As educator, learning about their children culture and their heritage is very important. It can create a positive relationship with the family and family are more likely to feel welcome knowing that the teacher care about their children. Each and every family are different. I believe that different is what make us unique and every child deserve the best education no matter where they come from or what their home situation is like. These interviews taught me the parent always want the best education for their children regardless of their challenges and situations. I have learned that each family has different point of view and they have different set of standards and values for their family. The interviews helped me gained more understanding on how I can collaborate and communicate with the family in the future when I work with the children. For example, the first family, I would definitely do more research on their religion and be familiar with their culture. It will help me understand more about the family. For the second family; I would provide her outside resource and provide material that would help her daughter improve her learning. I would also learn a few phrases from their language so that I can communicate with bother the mother and the child. Overall, this was a great experience for me and it helped me understand more about different family dynamic. I would use information from here to build effective communication methods for my own classroom. These interviews help me understand how the family actually think, want or their point of view. From there, it help me gain new knowledge and give me a better way to build positive relationship with family or the parent.
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