Today’s early childhood settings are filled with children from all corners of the world. As you have been learning, early childhood professionals who work with children and families who are immigrants require knowledge, understandings, and sensitivities along with strategies to best promote healthy child development and growth and to ensure fair and equitable learning environments.

To prepare for the Discussion:

• Reflect on this week’s media segment in which three early childhood professionals discuss their thoughts and experiences in working with children and their families who are immigrants. Which comments and insights from the media segment resonated with you the most?
• Bring to mind the course text reading and the ideas shared throughout Chapter 5. Also consider what you have learned about transnational families from the article Supporting Transnational Families. What aspects of cultural dissonance might a child from a transnational family experience? How might these aspects be revealed in the context of an authentic transnational family?
• Finally, reflect on your own personal and professional dispositions. What do you expect will be your greatest joy(s) and challenge(s) when it comes to working with immigrant and/or transnational families?

Early childhood educators Leslie Cheung and Eric Hoffman share their thoughts on how to truly honor families in order to help children internalize respect and interact with fairness and equity.