Culturally Responsive Family Engagement

In this episode we are talking about culturally responsive family engagement and just kind of setting the stage on further topics that we'll be talking about later, as we continue to progress through our podcasts. But today, we're going to, we're going to set the stage around, you know, the dynamics of family, you know, who's responsible for engaging our families, talk a little bit about the dual capacity framework and how that's set up in our districts, along with maybe barriers, and what it should look like in a district and have this natural conversation today. 

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Music by prazkhanal from Pixabay: Whip

Transcript

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Mars  00:05

Hello, everybody, another session of our family and community engagement podcast with San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools. Today it's Mars Serna and

Marissa  00:15

 Marissa Lazo-Necco. 

Mars  00:16

That's right. And we're going to be talking about culturally responsive family engagement today and just kind of setting the stage on further topics that we'll be talking about later, as we continue to progress through our podcasts. But today, we're going to, we're going to set the stage around, you know, the dynamics of family, you know, who's responsible for engaging our families, talk a little bit about the dual capacity framework and how that's set up in our districts, along with maybe barriers, and what it should look like in a district and have this natural conversation today. What do you think, Marissa?

Marissa  00:48

I think that sounds like a great plan Mars, and we've been asked a lot to come and have that conversation with our districts with our team. So this is great that we're bringing it here because a lot of our friends tune in and they can listen to us as they're driving to work, or they're having some reflection time. And just they can just reflect on how is that looking like, at their site. So if you're coming from a district or school site, if you're a community partner, this topic will definitely hit home because it really embraces all of us. And whatever seat we sit and we lead on, I'm quoting your Mars appreciate.

Mars  01:27

So, you know, Marissa, one of the things I always get into when we have this, this conversation with our practitioners, and even our families in the community is, you know, what makes up a scholars family. And I always use my example, you know, most of the time, most people when they hear family, it's a pretty straightforward, you know, ideology that that means the child's parents. But for others, it could mean that a grandparent is raising a child or some sort of aunt and uncle or a brother or sister older brother and sister, right. So they become guardians, right. And so for those students involved in the foster care system, their their world that would have family is is different. And so I always want to make sure that families are, are in the forefront of our work, but that it's different. Right. So you know, any thoughts around that that conversation?

Marissa  02:13

Absolutely, you know, I came to this country at age 11, spoke Spanish only. And I came and I live with my aunt for a whole year. So my family for a whole year was not mom and dad, it was a working and who had two babies herself, she could never attend. So when it came to meetings and parent meetings, she was then my uncle who was not my blood, uncle, right. But you know, he was married to her. And so in sometimes my neighbor, because she spoke a little bit of English and a little bit of Spanish. So at the parent meetings, it was never my mom and dad, it was never my aunt, my mom's sister, it was always my uncle, or my neighbor, who really became very close to because she embraced us like family. So just thinking of the students that we serve. When we say family, let's invite the family to come in and learn about what we're doing with our kids that could look different. A year later, my parents came, and all of a sudden, I had a mom and dad here, but different needs, because now they didn't speak the language. Right? So when we're thinking of family, that may look very different for everybody. And now we have a lot of grandparents taking care of grandbabies. So families looking very much different these days.

Mars  03:29

Yeah, yeah. And I always use my example, you know, I have four biological children, right? Well, this is 35. And the youngest is 18, who just graduated from high school this last year, but we have a niece, who we were raising, and we've had her the last five years for those same dynamics, her grandmother was raising her because of the family dynamics. And then grandma passed away grandfather passed away. And so now we have her because we've, you know, carried on that responsibility. And we did that early as her godparents. And that's usually the tradition. And so if you think about Latino families that become, you know, by the padrinos or godparents, the role of the godparent is always to step in, when something possibly could happen to the real parents. And so that's a cultural thing that we have to think about.

Marissa  04:15

I was gonna say, that's a good, that's a cultural thing. 

Mars  04:18

It is a very cultural thing. And so we have to understand that and so hopefully, today's podcasts will allow people to understand that, you know, if you're serving a high population, Latino community, that they don't really identify as foster youth, right? We just pick up the pieces where they're left off, we take our children will guide them will raise them or rear them. We don't always identify that their foster kids even though they could and they have the benefits that are provided for them in the educational system.

Marissa  04:44

And you know, even in the topic, Mars, I like to like for us to just reflect a little bit on that topic, culturally responsive family engagement, so cultura, culture. It looks so different, even when you're with from the same country. Your culture is different because then it goes by tradition. And I'm from El Salvador, my husband's from Peru our culture, it's so different because it's a blend of Peruvian traditions and Salvadorian traditions, and then the traditions that we have adopted here, because I live in California. So I consider myself half Mexican, because I love menudo,  I love the cultura that I was raised with that I adopted, and it's now part of me. So my home, it's really a diversity of cultures of traditions that we've embraced, I'm sure that looks like that for you. So, you know, just thinking and reflecting wherever you are, as you're tuning us and just thinking reflect, what does your home culture look like? What does that cultura, traditions that you have going on and, and how that impacts our families as we go and connect and make community with other families. And as educators, right, I love how you said Mars, who's responsible to engage in families, as educators, also pausing to reflect what does our culture at home look like? Feel like? What are those traditions? And when we are bringing other families into our house, or school house or district house? How do we make that space safe, and in a very relaxing environment where people feel safe to come as who they are, and embrace those different dynamics, those different traditions, just different culturas. So when I think culturally responsive, the first thing that pops up to me, the first word is culture, right, and what that looks like, and even when we're from the same country from the same neighborhood, our cultura our culture could be very different. And then responsive. What does that come to you, when you hear responsive? What pops for you,

Mars  06:51

you know, just being aware, and looking at the assets that individuals bring through culture is always important, right, I was having a conversation with an African American woman the other day, and when I when I see her, I see her as a strong black woman, right? That's, that's embracing the assets as an individual bring is not to say that it's a down, you know, you know, making it look negative, but we want to make sure that we highlight the the assets and the positivity that individuals bring to the conversation. So when you say responsive, you know, I was doing that presentation not too long ago, where I said, Look, I come from a Latino community, but I also was raised by African American community as well. So there's that call and response. When you ask a question, you want to see some head nodding? You want to hear some? Yeah, I feel you. I got you. You know, so that's being responsive to culture.

Marissa  07:41

Yes. Hey, and when you say that, even music pops in my head, right? Kids, music, you love hip hop, I learned about hip hop when I came to this country. So even within the culture, there's that culture of music and the environment that you grew up grew up in.

Mars  07:56

And language, right. We speak a lot about language. Like even earlier, we're having a conversation about the political climates of our school districts, and how kids will see individuals that come into spaces, and they'll say, oh, that person is an ops, you know, meaning opposition, right? But that's language, like if you don't know what that means, right? You got to understand the nuance of the younger language versus those of us in our in our age group.

Marissa  08:21

Yes, I feel like I need a glossary to start understanding my my freshman like ops, what is ops? Mom? Are you being an op? What is an op? So I know if I'm being one or not? And she said, it's an oppositional person? Oh, okay. So that's a different culture, our young kids or young leaders have their own culture that they're now you know, surfacing? And we are learning from as adults.

Mars  08:45

Yeah, Marissa, you're being extra,

Marissa  08:47

you're being extra.

Mars  08:50

What does that mean, right? And that's something that my son will tell me, you know, Dad, you'll be an extra, I'll be an extra, okay, why am the extra because I'm asking you to clean your room and be responsible, that's being extra. That's a word they'll use, right?

Marissa  09:02

You're not being swagged? Well, I feel like when it comes to the topic of culturally responsive, we can unpack this forever, because we are really learning. And I feel like we are all in the space of learning. Because our kids are growing up. And they're leaders. And they're teaching us of this new culture that they are also growing up in. And so we are always learners in that space. But that doesn't say that we don't bring a lot of wisdom because the journey that we walked in so far, that's all the wisdom that we've gathered. So how do we make sure that we come into our spaces, we feel safe to bring our true selves. And that cultura, that culture, that strength, like you said, Mars, bringing the asset, everything that I have to offer, and embracing all of our strengths, right. That's what really we need in our communities to To be able to not only see who we are serving, identify their needs, and be responsive to those needs, right? So when we're thinking like culturally responsive, how do we make sure that we acknowledge the assets and we respond to those based on the needs that we see. And family and community engagement, we know that families look different. It's no longer parent involvement. So if you're saying parent involvement, scratch, that word is great. The word parent, I'm a parent, you're a parent, we love that word. But the right word now is family community engagement. Because families look different, and they live in the community. And so we want to embrace all of what surrounds our children. So let's get to it. So I know you're the data guy, Mars, you always you love data. So what can you say about like data? What do we have in California? You're really good about understanding our, our communities?

Mars  10:54

Well, you know, we're talking about being responsive from a cultural perspective, right, and focusing on building trust and relationships, being collaborative, recognizing respecting the assets that families bring from a variety of socio economic differences and embracing the philosophy of not only engagement, but being partners in the educational system, right, having this relational piece, but it's important to understand that we have, you know, almost 6 million students in California, I'm just going to put it there. It's like 5,852,000, I'm just going to round it up to six, right. But of those, you know, 5,852,000 students 1.1 million is probably the best way to get this number of students speak in other language other than than English. And so then that's important to understand just just thinking about language alone. And then in California, about 81%, or almost 82, identify as speaking Spanish as another language besides English, 

Marissa  11:56

that sounds right. Yeah.

Mars  11:58

 2% and Vietnamese, about 2% Mandarin, and and about one and a half percent in Arabic. And so that those are just, you know, major languages that what we'll see, and there's, you know, there's so many other languages in California, but I'm just kind of highlighting those in that in that context. And so when we think about language in itself, we have to learn in our systems to break down those barriers. And so I know districts, like a Cajon Valley, Chino Valley that we've worked with Cajon valley with our CEI community engagement initiative at the statewide level, and then locally, Chino Valley, working with their Mandarin families have have done it right right there in our community engagement initiative, because they've been doing some great work around language and reducing barriers culturally. So that's, that's the data and hopefully, as we bring on other guests, they can talk about how they're doing things in their own districts. But that's, that's where we're moving to is how do we do just the language things better?

Marissa  12:54

Yes. And as you're saying is that Chaffey joint also popped in my head? Yes. You know, my Chaffey joint parent, and I see how much they're doing to embrace that they recognize that we have a large Spanish population. And I think we all do, right. I think we're doing a great job in California. With translating the documents, I see more and more than when I walk into schools, they have more signs of welcome bienvenido. They send a flyer, they send it in Spanish, I think English, Spanish, we're doing good in California. But there's other language that, like you popped up to me when you said Vietnamese, 2%, Mandarin 2%, Arabic 2%. And there's so many more than in my first question was like, How are we doing that? And you mentioned Chino, you mentioned the Cajon Valley, Chaffey joint, I know that they have a large community of Arab families. And I see how the district is really moving forward and embracing bringing families culture, Celebrating Families, culture and, and having those celebrations where, where kids see themselves, families bring their traditions, 

Mars  13:58

learning from each other, 

Marissa  13:59

learning from each other, right, and learning about the community. Because these are, these are parents who own businesses, and they're in our community. So learning about what is in our community. So I think there is definitely a lot that we can unpack, and I look forward to bringing this guests so we can learn more about how is it looking like for them. And, and I invite guests that are listening to us right now that if they want to call us, email us, contact us and they want to share their experiences of how is that looking like for you? How are you? How are you responding to the need of the diversity of your community? We would love to learn more about what you're doing in your neck of the woods. 

Mars  14:41

Yeah, yeah, definitely. So you know, as we begin to close today, Marissa because I know you know, we want to keep keep things where you know, folks can can really engage with us, but also learn in short periods of time, right. So you know, how do you become culturally responsive and I always think about some of the words like develop, develop for cultural self awareness about yourself, appreciate and value, the diverse views that people bring. Avoid imposing your own values on others, right? Try to listen to learn for understanding versus listening to learning for response, examining your own practices for cultural biases, building on students and parents cultural strengths, discovering your students, primary cultural roles, incorporate culture into the teaching, as you were saying earlier, or special events, and then learn just just immerse yourself by learning and growing. And so those are just some ways that you can become culturally responsive. And let you know, I don't know if you have any other thoughts in those areas. But I just wanted to highlight those things. Because I think it's important as we talk to our educators that we talk to our parents and our community, education partners, that they understand that as well working together in the same, you know, collaborative spirit.

Marissa  15:54

Absolutely. And I love I love this quote, right, that I just read right here that says, the terms of engagement or partnership, speak more to the work instead of using involvement, because we really want to bring people as partners, and be responsive and embracing their uniqueness. So focusing on building trust, I feel like trust and relationship is really at the core of it. So thank you for lifting those key. operationalize words that you lifted for us to make sure that we keep that what does it look like? When we say terminology, like culturally responsive, we can easily get caught up into the terminology, but how does it really look like? What would I see if I walk into a school that is being culturally responsive? How would I feel? And what words would I hear? Right, so focusing on building trust, building positive relationships with families, respecting families, and so using words of respect and embracing families, using words that embrace the philosophy of partnership? So I think with that, we can say that we are, we are opening now a conversation that will leave with more operationalizing this, and how does it look like at a school site level at a district and I look forward to bringing the Chino Valley the Cajon Valley, the Chaffey and more so if you're listening and you want to join us, call, Mars, call me we are happy to learn more about how to do this, right, because we need to serve our young leaders. Right.

Mars  17:29

Thank you, Marissa. So in closing, just remember everybody, as we as we do this work together, relationships matter. Building trust matters, having compassion, honesty, you know, being supportive. They're all important things as we as we do this work. And so Marissa had mentioned that if you want to contact us, you know, you can you can call our office number at area code 909-386-2686. Our support team, Cynthia Torres will probably be the one answering and she can get a hold of us to contact us for any further podcast information that they'd like to get from but that's 909-386-2686 And today's conversation, you know, as the grounding for bringing I think our next guests which will be Ibis Cordero from Chino Valley Unified School District, who is going to speak on how she's been doing it, right, trying to support our Mandarin families and bringing in the assets of the Mandarin community to help interpret and translate documents so that they can be culturally responsive in that language barrier, reducing the language barriers and

Marissa  18:36

I'm excited about that. So please tune in and join us at the next one. You don't want to miss that.

Mars  18:41

All right. Well, thank you so much for listening in today. We hope you have learned something new. And we look forward to seeing you again in our in our next session.