Communicating With Families Across Culture Summary

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Article Review #3
Communication between a classroom teacher and a student’s family is imperative to that student’s academic success. The article, Communicating with Families Across Cultures: An Investigation of Teacher Perceptions and Practices by Jody L. Eberly, Arti Joshi, and Jean Konzal is based on a study of a group of culturally diverse teachers and discusses methods they discovered to overcome common cultural misconceptions to facilitate improved communication with students and their families. Culture is not just based on race but also includes ethnicity, economics, religion, education of the parents, and many other variances. It is possible to have a culture within a culture. It is a people’s way of life. Keeping an open mind to cultural differences can help the relationship between the teacher and the student’s family evolve into one that creates an atmosphere conducive to learning at school and in the home. The first thing a teacher must do is understand his or her own biases towards a particular culture and learn how to …show more content…

When the teacher’s beliefs about child-rearing differ from the parent’s, passing judgement or facilitating negative interventions do not foster the open communication necessary for a successful academic partnership between the teacher and the family. For instance, when a student’s parents do not attend conferences or return paperwork as requested, the teacher may conclude the parents are unconcerned about their child’s education. In actuality, there may be many reasons the parents don’t comply with requests from the teacher such as, not having transportation, or not being able to read the messages sent home with the student. The article suggests phone calls or even home visits to attempt contact with the

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