Unpacking Culturally Relevant Early Education: Structures That Support Family, Educator, and Community Agency and Partnerships

• In Event: Supporting Family, School, and Community Partnerships in an Early Childhood Context

Abstract

In this paper, we examine culturally relevant education in an urban early childhood context in the US that has explicit values connected to diversity, community, collaboration, and advocacy. Using a sociocultural framework that emphasizes the relationship between structure and agency and a descriptive case study methodology, findings indicated that both tacit and tangible structures supported the agency of all school stakeholders. Tacit structures included a schema of valuing family engagement, which permeated the institution’s culture, multilingual and multimodal communication, and continuous, responsive reflection. Tangible structures included the people at the school, both employees and those who were served by the school; the financial resources that were creatively leveraged. Implications for a variety of school stakeholders are discussed.

Authors

• Natoya Coleman, Rowan University

• Beth A. Wassell, Rowan University

• Susan Browne, Rowan University

• Xiufang Chen, Rowan University