determine the values a parent and family live by and start the dialogue with families about their cultural beliefs and expectations of the program they are enrolling their child in.
Overview
A family interview is one way to determine the values a parent and family live by and start the dialogue with families about their cultural beliefs and expectations of the program they are enrolling their child in. This is an opportunity to set the stage for relationship-based care and open the door to continued discussions about what is essential to the parent and families for their child. Consider what you want to know and why you want to know it. Not only is the family interview document essential, but how the interview that takes place matters. Being able to role-play and practice how the discussion might go will help you decide what you want to ask and consider how you want to ask it.
Instructions
Examine the sample parent interview questionsfound here:
Home Language Survey
Conducting a Parent Interview
You will be developing your own but can use the examples as a guide. Think about what you want to know, why you want to know it, and how much you need to know. After you develop your interview document, you will conduct an interview. You will not be documenting the discussion for the class, so the name does not matter; the questions found will not need any words for this assignment. You will just need any parent or caregiver of a child to participate with you. If you work in a program and select a parent of a child in your schedule, you need to let them know that this is an opportunity for you to practice your interviewing style, not anything about their child; you will not be documenting that at all.
Review sample interview documents or suggestions for interviews.
Write out things you would want to know about a child and family enrolling in your program.
Develop a family interview form with between 12-15 meaningful questions.
Interview a parent or caregiver of a child. The goal is to practice asking the questions, not necessarily the information that is being shared. You can select a family friend or a family of a child you work with. You must explain that what will not submit the family interview, just the blank interview form you developed and some reflection questions of how you conducted the interview. Who will use no names, so do not document answers from the discussion?
You will upload your BLANK interview form and then answer the following questions:
What was most important to you to include in your interview form?
Were there questions or things you wanted to know that we’re missing from your interview form?
Were there questions or something you did not need to know that was included in your interview form?
How did you feel when asking the questions; were there any questions that you were uncomfortable asking or hearing the answer to?
Is there anything you would do the same and or different during the interview?
Part 5
Overview
We must be intentional when it comes to reflecting on our relationships with families. For some families, we might say we have strong relationships with them, and for some families, we might say we do not have a relationship with them. But we need to stop and think about why we do not have relationships with all families. What do we need to do differently to support positive relationships with all families who have children in our care? We need to take on the responsibility of establishing close relationships with all of our families. We need to consider how we can do better at this. This is how we will support children, but having positive relationships with their families.
Instructions
For this assignment, you will brainstorm ways you support or help close relationships with families. Once you brainstorm everything you do, think about what else you need to do. Generate a list of 10 ways you will support close relationships with families. This list needs to have specifics of keeping these close relationships and what resources you will need to do this. Use this Word document template to develop your ten reasons.
