Reflections on Coursework

I garnered a great deal of pertinent and valuable information and insights from my Doctorate course: Influences of Family, Culture, and Society in Early Childhood.  I enjoyed exploring children’s identity formation, roles of relationships in healthy development, effects of biases, and complexities of family; culture; community; and society on development.

The themes with which I connected most were research on the brain in regards to trauma, stress, and resilience; and creating family-professional alliances.  I find information on the brain to be fascinating.  It was unfortunate to discover that severe trauma fro

m pre-birth to three years old can and often have effects that last a lifetime (The Center on the Developing Child, 2010).  It was beneficial to find that coping strategies can be taught to children which will enable them to deal with future trauma in ways which will mitigate the detrimental effects of toxic stress and increase their resiliency.  This data on the brain helps to put context into children’s behavior in the classroom.  When dealing with children who have anger, compulsivity, and impulse control issues, it is helpful to remember why they are behaving in such a manner and can enable one to react without personal emotion.

It is well known that building relationships with families is an important part of education, especially so for children with challenges.  However, in the reality of the time crunch of the profession, it can sometimes be relegated to the back burner. Hanson and Lynch (2013) yielded that partnerships are easier to describe than to create and maintain.  However, the information shared in this class ignited me to make this aspect of being a teacher a bigger priority.  A little bit of effort can go a long way and having quality, meaningful conversations will reap rewards for a child’s development.  

References

Hanson, M., & Lynch, E. (2013). Understanding Families: Supportive Approaches to Diversity, Disability, and Risk, Second Edition (2nd ed.). Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing.

Center on the Developing Child Harvard University. (2010, May). Early experiences can alter gene expression and affect long-term development: Working paper no. 10.pdf. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/early-experiences-can-alter-gene-expression-and-affect-long-term-development/

[Image]. Retrieved from http://whatssogoodaboutpubliceducation.blogspot.com/2014/03/teachers-and-parents-working-together.html