Supporting Healthy Social Identity Formation

Put yourself in the shoes of the child in this vignette: Imagine that you are a child whose family/home practices are not valued in your early childhood center. Your parents work long hours so you are at the center from 7am to 5pm everyday. No one in the center shares your home language and you don’t see any familiar items that you would see at home on the shelves of your classroom.

Discuss how you think this center’s approach and environment impact the child described in the vignette. How does the child feel?

- What does the child learn about his or her family culture, language and practices when these are not validated or respected?
- How does this impact the child’s social identity formation?
- Have you experienced something similar in your own life?
- In what ways could this center and its staff support healthy social identity formation through the ways they interact with families and/or prepare our classroom environments?
- Connect your own ideas to this week’s assigned readings. DO NOT write a summary of the readings or web resources. DO write your own thoughts and then make connections to the text and other sources.