Final Thoughts on my class entitled, "Influences of Family, Culture, and Society in Early Childhood

Greetings Dr. Edwards and Colleagues,

During this course my goal was to discover ways to impact single parent families in a positive way.   I wanted to find out if there were any resources, establishments, organizations or individuals in society that would share suggestions and ideas.  My desire and what I connected with the most was geared toward how we can help remove the stigma of a child not feeling socially accepted by society because they were brought up in a single parent family.

The literature I discovered during this research is considered information that has helped me justify actual practice and assisted me in connecting the dots of how children develop in environments that often become challenges to them because of their family marital or socioeconomic status.   The beginning of the course I learned about the foundation of contextual factors and how children are shaped by the environment they are developed in.  Whether it is a single, two parent home or in a dis advantaged or affluent community; children begin to experience certain types of stress, anxiety or trauma.  Throughout the matriculation of a child’s development I have learned that families from past history with Marsha Hawley (Laureate Education (Producer), 2015) and her Japanese American family were afforded the opportunity to develop resilience when faced with biases and microaggressions during their time in the internment camps.  In addition, the Japanese American family modeled hope for families in society today that you can endure and be successful even when faced with challenges of being a single parent family.

What I thought to be surprising is how single parent families are stereotyped and are struggling with the way society has channeled the value of their family.  I'm glad that I researched this topic on single parent families because it affords me the opportunity to share the importance of society, communities and families working together to treat everyone, everyone with equity and to prove that all families are valuable (Derman-Sparks, L. and Edwards, J. O., 2010).  

Through this course I have been enlightened by the following: Contextual factors, how single parent families experience stress and trauma, the low points and strength of internment camp experience, biases and microaggressions, cultural dissonance, research and interviews (Laureate Education (Producer), 2015).  This research project is considered a resource in helping to create a positive impact on single parent families.  In addition, this project shares how optimism has the ability to influence the affect on academic development of a child, self-esteem, behavior in and out of school, the future of a child and the perspective from a child on school related business.  Together as a society we can make a difference in the life of each child and two parent families going forward    

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves.                  Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Laureate Education (Producer). (2013). Introducing Marsha Hawley [Video file]. Retrieved from 
             https://class.waldenu.edu