Early Childhood Educator - Roles of The Early Childhood Teacher

Roles of The Early Childhood Teacher

In today’s educational world, parents and families contribute as much as teachers, students, and administrators to the educational process…maybe even more. More than any other time in history, involving these community players represents a high priority of most school settings. The measured and researched positive effects of parent involvement on student academic achievement pushes this area into the focus of most school district and early childhood program goals.

Along with the academic benefits of parent/family involvement come the necessity to transition diverse families into sincere, effective relationships with their children's teachers. The family structure of today bears little resemblance to the ones of pre-World War II, post-World War II, the ‘60’s, the ‘70’s, AND the ‘80’s. While in previous generations, many children grew up a two parent, husband-wife home, many of today’s children grow up in single parent homes, broken (divorced) parent homes, mixed (step) family homes, intergenerational (grandparent) homes, guardianship (aunt, uncle, cousin, sibling) homes, and homosexual (lesbian, gay) homes. Families have changed but children have not. They still need a home where they can feel safe, their basic needs of love, food, shelter, clothing are met as well as preapration to become future active participants in society

Diversity also exists in the extreme racial and ethnic mix of today’s children. More than 30% of today’s children enrolled in pre-K-Grade 3 come from families of Latino, African-American, Hispanic, Cuban, East Asian, African, Far East Asian, or Native American backgrounds coupled with a dizzying selection of cultural values. Some align with Islam, others align with Christianity. Some align with Hinduism, others align with no higher being. Early childhood teachers must instruct and nurture without bias in this current system of situations.Teachers must be sensitive to the ever growing diverse population of students within a classroom. Multicultural and antibias curriculum are specific components of study in many preschool classrooms today. Reading. discussing and particiapting in hands on multicultural experiences fosters awareness and tolerance for other cultures. Teachers must equip their classrooms in order to create an environment that welcomes all children and their families. Teachers must pay close attention to the cultures represented within their classroom and beyond.

Parent/Involvement represents many different constraints of time from volunteering in the teacher’s class to fortifying the instruction at school with instruction at home to serving on highly influential policy committees within a public school district. An early childhood teacher must forthrightly hone his/her skills in promoting parenting knowledge, parenting skills, collaborating with parents in instructional decisions, communicating between home/school, advocating for increased parent involvement. Many early childhood professionals succeed in these areas through newsletters, phone calls, parent/teacher communication folders, emailing, hosting parent/child activities at school, parent/teacher conferences, parent-focused workshops, and continual, in-service professional development.