Encouraging,Increasing,and Inviting Fathers From Different Cultural and Religious Practices in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Salim is the father of a young girl who attends Small Fortune Preschool located in the suburb of Detroit. Although he would like to regularly participate in his child’s school events, his beliefs restrain him from helping in the classrooms headed by female teachers, unless his wife is present. This case demonstrates some of the challenges that fathers from different cultural and religious backgrounds may experience in being an involved father in a preschool setting. The purpose of this case is to inform teachers about cultural barriers to family, specifically father involvement from minoritized culture and religious practices.

Keywords

father involvement early education preschool Muslim father ethnic minority father

Father engagement studies in early childhood education have found that early father involvement can foster higher levels of academic achievement (Flouri & Buchanan, 2004). Active father participation can promote children’s executive functioning, language, and literacy skills, as well as social–emotional development (Bauman & Wasserman, 2010; Jeynes, 2015; Meuwissen & Carlson, 2015).

Although there is a consensus on the benefit of involved fathers, their participation is often limited. According to Rimm-Kaufman and Zang (2005), more than 50% of the fathers in their study had no contact with their children’s kindergarten teachers. Furthermore, Ho and Hiatt-Michael (2012) found that fathers are involved in ways that are not easily perceivable by educators. In fact, most fathers want to be involved with their young children’s schools, but they encounter various barriers, including those stemming from religious and cultural beliefs (Bauman & Wasserman, 2010; Roberts et al., 2014). Teachers’ perceptions play a role in father involvement. Educators assume that fathers from certain minoritized groups do not have time, interest, or money to support their children’s learning at school. As a result, they seldom communicate with these fathers (Kim, 2009). Teachers have the misconception that immigrant fathers do not participate in children’s classrooms; hence, they are not involved in their children’s education.

This Case Presents a Composite Narrative Based on Real Events

The names and locations have been changed to protect identity. The purpose of this case is to inform educational leadership students about cultural and religious challenges that prevent fathers from participating in their children’s preschool classrooms. In the teaching notes, we recommend two complementary theoretical lenses for educational leadership students to make sense of and develop strategies to intervene in the face of the very real consequences of ignoring racism in schools.

Setting

Small Fortune Preschool is a non-profit preschool located in a suburb of Detroit. In the suburb of Detroit, there are approximately 21,000 students, of which 50% are multilingual learners. Small Fortune offers programs for infant, toddler, and preschool-aged children. The preschool demographic used to be predominantly African Americans and Hispanics. Not until the 1960s did the preschool attract many families who came from Middle Eastern countries to work in the Metro Area. The demographic profile consists of 60% Black, 10% White, 15% Hispanic, 10% Middle Eastern, 4% Multiracial, and 1% Asian students. Past administrators provided professional development on multicultural teaching practices, specifically addressing the language barriers for multilingual students. Another modification that has been implemented addressed cultural and religious food accommodations in school.

Main Characters

The Salim Family

In the 1960s to 1980s, there was a religious movement in Saudi Arabia called The Awakening or Al-Sahwa Al-Islamiyya. This movement insisted that people practiced a strict interpretation of the Koran (the Islamic sacred book). The movement spread all over the country and took over its education, economy, health care, politics, and other aspects of daily life. Those who did not follow and/or practice the movement were marginalized. Due to this religious movement, many of the Saudis who were born in that era, like Mr. Salim, were brought up and raised on its fundamental beliefs.

Mr. Salim and his family moved to the United States in search of career opportunities as an engineer. The family has 3 children: Sami (11 years old), Laila (8 years old), and Salma (5 years old). Although there are many Islamic private schools in the suburb they live in, the family chose to enroll their children in a public school a mile from their residence. This decision came as the parents wanted their children to learn English and experience American culture. Unlike Mrs. Salim, Mr. Salim works from home and has a flexible schedule. As a result, Mr. Salim would always transport the children to and from school. He is also involved at home helping with his children’s homework and school activities as much as possible.

Preschool Teacher

Ms. Amy Clarence identifies as a Caucasian woman. She is a native of Detroit and has been a preschool teacher for more than 15 years. Throughout her teaching career, she never had students from an Arab Muslim background until she moved to Small Fortune Preschool 2 years ago. She believes that parent involvement is important to children’s learning and development. In her opinion, parents should make time to be in their children’s classroom to understand how they learn before helping them at home. Ms. Amy always invites and encourages parents to volunteer in her classroom. Unfortunately, only a few mothers volunteered in her classroom. Regarding fathers, Ms. Amy has never been successful in having them volunteer due to their work schedule.

Preschool Director

Ms. Stephanie Karle identifies as an African American woman. She has been a program director at Small Fortune Preschool for more than 7 years. Ms. Stephanie has a good rapport with her teaching staff and incorporates an open-door policy to address staff’s concerns. Ms. Stephanie takes pride in building relationships with children and families in her program who are from different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. She makes a lot of effort to get parents involved in the program and talks with them whenever she can. One concern Ms. Stephanie has noticed is that preschool staff are uncomfortable reaching out to minority parents. To address the issue, she provides annual professional development training on diversity. The most recent topic she presented was on supporting diverse parents in the classrooms. Ms. Stephanie encourages teachers to include multicultural materials that represent children’s background, such as dolls, children’s books, and play food in the dramatic play area.

Activity

There were three occurrences during which Ms. Amy felt Mr. Salim was unapproachable and unresponsive. The first one was that, on the first day of school, both Mr. and Mrs. Salim dropped off their daughter in Ms. Amy’s classroom. When Ms. Amy tried to shake hands with Mr. Salim, he smiled and politely placed his right hand on his heart instead. Ms. Amy felt ignored and shifted her focus to shake Mrs. Salim’s hand instead. The second was that, each time Mr. Salim drops his daughter off in the classroom, he always peeks from the hallway window to see how his daughter is doing. Ms. Amy regularly invites Mr. Salim to come into her classroom; instead, he thanks her and apologizes for turning down her invitation each time. The third one was during a parent–teacher conference where Ms. Amy encouraged both Mrs. and Mr. Salim to volunteer in her classroom. She explained to Mr. Salim that he can observe directly how Salma is doing in the classroom. Mr. Salim tried to clarify his situation by saying as a Muslim, it is not preferable to be in the same room with another unrelated female. Ms. Amy then replied that her classroom is a safe and public place where children and other adults are present, so he should feel comfortable and still honor his religion and culture. Mr. Salim appreciated Ms. Amy’s welcoming gesture and mentioned that he would volunteer with his wife whenever they could. Based on Mr. Salim’s responses, Ms. Amy perceived that Middle Eastern fathers are unapproachable and lack interest in their children’s education and see this as their wives’ responsibility.

Ms. Amy shares the interactions she had with Ms. Stephanie, the school director. Ms. Amy conveys to her director that Mr. Salim is unapproachable and lacks interest in their children’s education. Ms. Amy insists that Mr. Salim should adapt to American customs and volunteer in her classroom. In addition, Ms. Amy also comments that if Mrs. and Mr. Salim are unable to change, they should enroll their daughter in a different school that could better accommodate their religious and cultural expectations.

The program director comments on various challenges when it comes to serving diverse parents, especially when dealing with cultural, language, and religious issues. As a director, Ms. Stephanie never had the experience of interacting with Muslim families before. Therefore, she contacted her colleague, Ms. Fatima Issac. Ms. Fatima is an early childhood consultant in the school district who has worked with many teachers to build positive home and school relationships. Ms. Fatima specializes in cultural diversity and has worked with many Muslim families. She has developed plans and trained educators on partnering with families of diverse cultural backgrounds. Ms. Stephanie thinks that Ms. Fatima’s expertise is needed in this case. She was hoping that Ms. Fatima would be able to provide brief information regarding Arab and Muslim culture.

During her meeting with Ms. Amy, Ms. Fatima explains the importance of respecting families’ different religious and cultural beliefs. She goes on to explain that regardless of where they live, families hold on to their religious and cultural beliefs which represent their identity. Therefore, educators need to support and respect their cultural and religious beliefs. Ms. Fatima gives Ms. Amy literature to read regarding Muslims. In some Arab cultures, people believe that men cannot shake hands with women who are unrelated to them and vice versa. In addition, there is an important separation between men and women in designated places such as schools (Islamic Text Society, 2007; Khan, 2021).

Teaching Notes

In this article, the term parent involvement means active engagement, participation, or interaction that parents do in fostering children’s learning at home and/or in school. This involvement can be active participation, such as attending parent–teacher conferences and volunteering in the classrooms or at school events. In addition, parent involvement can also be seen as a more passive role, where parents are involved in their children’s education beyond these activities, such as transporting children to and from school, making decisions about school, reading at home, dressing, bathing, and feeding (Fagan et al., 2000).

Parent involvement plays an important role in children’s learning (Flouri & Buchanan, 2004). Many studies have investigated the relationship between religious and cultural influences on parent involvement in their children’s school. The case presented in this paper is one of many examples on how teachers often stereotype parents from different cultural backgrounds. Baker et al. (2016) found that teachers often held limited views of parent involvement as having parents participate in children’s activities in school. Furthermore, teacher perceptions of parents from different ethnic and racial backgrounds can impact their expectations of the parents (Lynch, 2010). When teachers lack experience interacting with diverse families, teachers tend to have stereotypes about how parents are involved in and/or out of the classroom.

It is imperative for school staff to encourage and increase parental involvement. The following three strategies are often practiced to foster parent involvement to invite those who seem to be disengaged from their children’s education. The first strategy is to encourage parents to attend home visits and parent–teacher conferences. These types of events provide parents an opportunity to discuss, make decisions, and share responsibilities for their children’s education. The second strategy is to incorporate family nights and workshops throughout the school year. These activities help parents to learn more about their children’s educational growth and different ways to support them at home. The third strategy is to provide and connect parents to different resources that can support them in fostering their children’s developmental milestones.

The authors presented this case for students to analyze how religion and culture influence parent involvement, especially fathers, in their children’s preschool education. To analyze this narrative, the authors pose the concept of cultural humility and Epstein’s six types of parent involvement model.

Cultural Humility

Melanie Tervalon and Murray-Garcia (1998) conceptualized cultural humility to address inequalities in the health care field. Since then, cultural humility has been used in multiple disciplines, including social work and education. The concept of cultural humility emphasizes the importance of learning and recognizing our own biases and limitations of other cultures (Khan, 2021). Cultural humility aims to improve interpersonal relationships and eliminate inequality among people in the community. Cultural humility focuses on being nonjudgmental, acknowledging our own bias and limited knowledge about other cultures. Therefore, the word “humility” stresses the importance of intentional listening, learning, and reflecting on our biases of one’s cultural background.

Teachers who understand cultural humility will be able to provide opportunities to collaborate with parents from different cultural backgrounds in a meaningful way. Teachers practicing cultural humility can foster inclusivity, empowerment, and collaboration with parents from diverse backgrounds (Agner, 2020). This also means to acknowledge personal biases and stereotypes about one’s culture. For example, teachers can show cultural humility in their interactions with parents during home visits or parent–teacher conferences. Teachers who want to know more about students and their families’ cultural backgrounds may survey them at the beginning of each school year.

Epstein Parent Involvement Model

Epstein (1985) developed a parent involvement model consisting of six types of involvement that described the relationship between communities, parents, and schools. This model is often used for educators to plan, implement, and evaluate parent involvement in their programs. The goal of this model is to strengthen the relationship and partnerships between school and home. This parental involvement model can provide an important opportunity for schools to involve parents and learn about their diverse background. There are six types of involvement: parenting, communication, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaboration. The first is parenting. Educators help families to provide a healthy and safe home environment to support children to be successful students. For example, teachers conduct home visits to learn about family background and for the families to get to know teachers outside of the school environment. The second is communication which implies a two-way communication between home and school to inform about children’s learning. For example, teachers’ weekly and monthly newsletters, phone calls, or emails are all means of communication. The third is attending and volunteering, which refers to parents participating in different activities in children’s classrooms and/or the school. For example, teachers develop a survey to identify parents’ availability, interests, talents, and locations of volunteers. The fourth is learning at home, defined as parents providing and supporting children’s learning at home. An example would be teachers sending home activities for parents to do with their children. The fifth is decision-making, which encompasses schools informing and involving parents in decision-making that can impact children’s learning, such as parent–teacher organizations. The sixth is collaborating with the community. Schools should collaborate not only with parents but also with the community to foster children’s learning, for example, partnership between schools and area museums to conduct virtual field trips. To sum up, Epstein’s (1985) six parental involvement model emphasizes the interrelationship of each factor and demonstrates the importance of parent involvement in early learning. In summary, Epstein’s (1985) six parental model demonstrates each characteristic on the importance of parental involvement in early learning.

Classroom Activities

Discussion Questions

Reflecting on Cultural Humility, Discuss the Following Questions

1. How should Ms. Stephanie support and encourage teachers in practicing cultural humility and building relationships with parents from diverse cultural backgrounds?

2. How should Ms. Amy reflect on her actions to foster cultural humility?

3. How could Ms. Fatima provide further guidance regarding this issue to Ms. Amy?

4. How can teachers implement and practice cultural humility toward parents, especially Muslim fathers in classrooms with female-only teachers in the classroom?

5. Can you share a success story when you were a part of which cultural humility was practiced by teachers?

Referring to the Epstein Parent Involvement Model, Discuss the Following Questions

6. Based on Epstein’s parent involvement model, what are some culturally responsive ways for the preschool to engage Mr. Salim?

7. How can Ms. Stephanie increase a relationship with diverse cultural backgrounds?

8. Can you share a success story when you were successfully engaged parents (especially fathers) who initially seemed to be unapproachable and lacked interest in their children’s education?

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Sinsery Gardner

Author Biographies

Sinsery Gardner is an early childhood education adjunct instructor at Concordia University. Her research interests include parent engagement, specifically father involvement in Early Childhood Education.

Latifah A. Alremaih is an Saudi American. She is a PhD candidate in Early Childhood Education. She has more than 10 years of experience teaching preschool in Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Marlene Walton has extensive knowledge in early childhood education. She has worked in Head Start and Early Head Start programs in Michigan for many years.

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