1. Professor Sonia Pruneda-Hernandez Montgomery College
The Importance of Culturally, Diverse Voices in Educational Settings: Using a holistic approach to involve culturally diverse families in an educational setting.
Professor Sonia Pruneda-Hernandez
Montgomery College

2. Objectives
Define “culturally diverse family” and explain the changes that have occurred in society over the past 50+ years.
Identify strategies for inviting culturally and diverse families to take on leadership roles.
Identify strategies to involve all diverse families in an educational
Explain how you can infuse multicultural content into curriculum, environment, and activities.

3. Warm Up
Use the paper in front of you to draw “society’s” ideal family.
Draw a picture of your family.
What are some differences?
Is society’s “ideal” family our reality?

4. Important Terms to Know (Handout)

5. The Emerging Minority The Emerging Minority (Majority-Minority)
Minorities make up half of the children born in the U.S.
Who are the teachers? Who are in leadership roles?
Why is are these questions important to understand?
California, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Texas are minority majority states.
What does this mean?

6. Cultural Competence
Cultural Competence is the ability and confidence to interact effectively with children, families, and colleagues of different cultures.
What skills and experiences may help you develop or improve your cultural competence?

7. Cultural Awareness
Cultural Awareness is the ability to stand back and appreciation people’s cultures, socioeconomic status, values and beliefs including ones own culture.
How do you view your own culture? Do you practice standing back and appreciating others cultures, values, and beliefs?
Example: How do parents identify and why is it important? My own example: Chicana, Mexican/American, Mexican

8. Diversity
“Diversity encompasses complex differences and similarities in perspectives, identities, and points of view among members of an institution as well as among individuals who make up the wider community. Diversity includes important and interrelated dimensions of human identity such as race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, socio-economic status, nationality, citizenship, religion, sexual orientation, ability, and age. These differences are important to understand but they cannot be used to predict any individual’s values, choices or responses” (Luther College, 2018, para. 2).

9. Diversity
"Diversity" means more than just acknowledging and/or tolerating difference. Diversity is a set of conscious practices that involve:
Understanding and appreciating interdependence of humanity, cultures, and the natural environment.
Practicing mutual respect for qualities and experiences that are different from our own.
Understanding that diversity includes not only ways of being but also ways of knowing;
Recognizing that personal, cultural and institutionalized discrimination creates and sustains privileges for some while creating and sustaining disadvantages for others;
Building alliances across differences so that we can work together to eradicate all forms of discrimination” (Queensborough Community College, 2018, para. 3).

10. Dimensions of Diversity
age
sexual orientation
ethnicity
educational background
gender
income
physical abilities or qualities
religious beliefs
other?
race

11. What we need to know about diverse families to better support families and children!
Families have changed in the Unites States over the last 50 years.
The following is a visual of our “families” portrayed by media over the past 50 years!

12. How has society changed their view of families over the past 50+ years?
1960
1970

13. How has society changed their view of families over the past 50+ years?
1980’s (began 84)
1990’s

14. How has society changed their view of families over the past 50+ years?

15. Today Why have families changed? Why?
What families are still missing from society’s view of “families”?
Why?
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16. Who are we still missing?
Military Families
Immigrant Families
Migrant Families
Single Parents
Grandparents raising grandchildren
Teenage Parents
Linguistically Diverse Parents

17. Culturally Diverse Families

18. “If they can see it, they can be it”!
Why is it important to include diverse families in educational leadership roles?
Children need to see people who look like them in leadership roles.
“If they can see it, they can be it”!

19. “Lockheed scientist beats odds of her upbringing to help guide Orion”
Headlines should not be that “Lockheed scientist beats odds”.
High expectations of all children is important!
Parents and children should be provided opportunities to excel.
*Marlene Martinez is my cousin.

20. How do you involve culturally diverse families in your educational setting?
Do you invite them to participate (remember, all cultures are different, some feel they need to be invited)?
If they are not from another country, where are they from? What part of the United States did they grow up in or move from? What are their strengths that can benefit your classroom? Have you asked questions to get to know your families?
What do they celebrate? Have you asked and invited them to share in your educational setting?
What do they like to do (recreation, in the home, on weekends)?
Do you invite them to take on leadership roles?

21. Forming Relationships is Key!
Important Things to Make Families Feel Welcome and Included When They Can’t Take on Leadership Roles or Participate!
Forming Relationships is Key!

22. Bringing Culture Into the Classroom Environment: The Best Way to Ensure Families Feel Included is by Infusing the Cultures of your Families into the Classroom! ((
Infusion means that “culture” can be seen throughout the education setting:
Pictures
Books
Foods (ask families to bring you their empty cleaned out cans, boxes)
Clothes (does not have to be bought dress up clothes, families have many traditional clothes they may wear that they do not consider ‘dress up’)
Blankets
Toys (what toys do they play with at home, are there toys from their own culture -

23. Books (books at tables)
Books should represent the children that you have enrolled in your program!
Not possible to have books from every culture or ethnicity.
The pictures of people in the books you have should look like the children that are reading or looking at them.
Books should also represent the families that they are a part of:
Grandparents if they live with the family
Single parents
Families with different cultures and/or races (blended families)
Look at the books on your table, what families do they represent?

24. Wrap Up
Thinking about what we have reviewed and the videos you have watched;
What will you do as a teacher to engage families in the educational setting? 
If you are a parent, what is one thing you will do to participate this next school year?
What strategies will you put into place to begin to form relationships with the parents of the children you are teaching/caring for? 
If you are a parent, what will you do to form relationships with teachers?
How will you incorporate the cultures of the families enrolled?
How will you communicate with parents and invite them to take on leadership roles in an education the parents?

25. References
Google Images. (2018). All images retrieved from Google Images.
Luther College. (2018). What is diversity? Retrieved from
Morrison, G. S. (2015). Early childhood education today. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
Queensborough Community College. (2018). Definition for Diversity. Retrieved from