Stronger Together
Authentic Engagement in an Early Childhood Classroom
Authentic Engagement in an Early Childhood Classroom
Cassie Sorrells, M.A
Walking into work each day, I am greeted with hugs and cries of welcome from the three year olds of my classroom. “You’re wearing a dress like me!” says Raya. Isaak points out an owie from his recent fall. I have lived, learned, and loved with this group of tiny humans for two years now - more than half their lives - and I could never adequately describe what each of them means to me.
Our days look much like you might expect: we play pretend, paint pictures for mommies and daddies, and dig in the dirt for earthworms that make us giggle as they wriggle and writhe in our hands. Joyful work, and often, it is a lot of fun. But in early childhood, there is always more nuance than is immediately evident: the painting for mommy renders visible the child’s inner symbolic terrain, and our pretend play explores the dynamics of identity, cooperation, and power in relationship with others. We are learning how to be human, and the invaluable lessons learned here will be brought to bear in every experience that is to come. |
As my understanding of these broader implications has grown, so has my belief that the values and practice of early childhood classrooms cannot be shaped by teachers in isolation. If classroom practice will ultimately affect the way children live their lives, then those children’s families must be an integral part of pedagogy, and schools must be infused with their unique presence, identity, and values -- authentically, not just as a ‘parent engagement’ box to be checked by arranging bi-yearly picnics and assuring family pictures are displayed on classroom walls.
This year, I was afforded the opportunity to dive deeper into family engagement through my work in the Buell Early Childhood Leadership Program. With the guidance of the Buell faculty, and the support of my inspiring cohort, I have spent the last six months investigating this question: What does an authentically engaged and collaborative classroom community look like?
Through surveys, interviews, observations, and focus groups, I heard the voices and powerful insights of the families of my classroom. I learned that, above all else, they want a judgement free space where they can connect and learn with others surrounding the joys and challenges of parenting, because, as one parent told me, “sharing stories and experiences helps us avoid feeling alone.” Schools, full of families with lived experience and educators with formal knowledge, are a natural place for this type of connection and support. And this relationship, once formed, becomes generative and mutually sustaining: when families are welcomed and engaged, the school becomes stronger as their ideas, energy, and values alter our educational practice in potent ways. |
“Sharing stories and experiences helps us avoid feeling alone.” |
In August, I leave Colorado to begin a new chapter as a Ph.D. student in Child and Family Studies at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. It is difficult to know that I will not be here to help realize the vision we built together: to co-create a code of values to guide classroom practice; to open the classroom to family visits any day that their busy schedule allows; to find better ways to engage our children in understandings of power, privilege, and justice; and above all, to find ways to build the level of trust and community necessary to meet each other as true partners in this work.
My hope is that this process has catalyzed these families to be agents of change, and that our work will continue to grow and evolve long after I leave. And as for me? Just like the children in my classroom, the ideas and values I learned through this experience will imbue everything I do from this point on, and will represent what these families have taught me: we must connect before we can create, trust before we can learn, and, before expecting participation, we must first extend a hand of welcome.