Community Engagement and Parenting Among San Felipe Pueblos: Pathways to Early Childhood Education and Development

• In Event: An Interdisciplinary Project to Strengthen and Transform the Preparation of the Next Generation of Educators

Abstract

Contemporary psychological research has been increasingly focusing on the influence of community and parent engagement on early child development and education across cultural communities. In particular, the traditions and the ecology of the Navajo Indians encourage fathers to assume childcare tasks that benefit young children’s growth including schooling. These findings imply that academic institutions, educators, and school teachers need to understand the role of culture and ecology in school education. However, we know very little about community and parental expectations of children’s education in [Name of Pueblo] families in [State]. As part of the TAG goals in the College of Education at [University], our year-long project activities with the [Name of Pueblo] is an attempt to explore parental practices and traditions that have state-wide implications for strengthening teacher preparation curriculum designed to serve minority families. The primary objective of the current paper is to systematically present information about the perceived levels of parental and community engagement and parental beliefs toward early childhood education and development, and assess the need for resources for successfully training of [Name of Pueblo] Head Start teachers.

Several perspectives are employed to construct a triangulated theoretical platform for the current exploratory work. The notion of Culturally-Based Education (CBE) for teachers’ preparation resonates well with the precepts of family participation, community socialization, importance of culture, and ecological validity of children’s learning. The developmental niche approach emphasizes that children’s growth and learning must incorporate adaptive ecological factors such as neighborhood, teachers’ sensitivity in classroom management, parental beliefs, and parents’ human and social capital. The concept of “parents as teachers” is an evidence-based approach that successfully involves parents in their children’s education in various American Indian communities. These concepts will help us interpret our findings that are relevant to [Name of Pueblo] families and ecology.

In order to gather information about various aspects of parental and community engagement in early childhood development, we conducted two field trips and meetings with three teachers and nine early childhood education professionals in [Name of Pueblo]. Our anecdotal data from (informal interviews and observations) suggest that [Name of Pueblo] parents especially fathers take active interests in their children’s growth and learning. Also, there is a need to train early childhood education professionals in the community. More importantly, teachers need to understand the cultural scripts to facilitate early learning among [Name of Pueblo] children. We plan to conduct additional qualitative interviews with the professionals and parents to gather information about early childhood development in this community. The data are expected to help us unearth how [Name of Pueblo] fathers (or father-figures such as maternal uncles), teachers, administrators, and other community members engage themselves in their children’s education and development. The findings have implications for how we prepare our future teachers, develop teaching curriculum, and engage parents and communities in children’s growth and education in an understudied population in the United States.

Authors

• Ziarat Hossain, The University of New Mexico

• David J. Atencio, University of New Mexico

• Kersti Tyson, University of New Mexico

• Cathy Gutierrez-Gomez, University of New Mexico

• Loretta Serna, University of New Mexico

• Magdalena M. Avila, University of New Mexico

• Christine P. Sims, University of New Mexico

• Lois Vermilya, The University of New Mexico

• Kristopher Goodrich, The University of New Mexico

• Matthew Lemberger-Truelove, The University of New Mexico