You can also find out more about us on our website. Nourishing caregiver collaborations: Elevating home experiences and classroom practices for collective care by Nawal Qarooni © 2024 by Stenhouse Publishers/Taylor & Francis. Reproduced with permission.
No doubt, you’re familiar with the traditional family tree project. Year after year, my kids bring these home, an outline stencil that they must fill in with the names of great-grandparents. grandparents, parents and siblings. My children have been raised in a home with two parents, and they are very close to both sets grandparents. So, for them, this project has gone smoothly each time. After a few phone calls with Mama Mahnaz or Abuelo, they get the names of relatives in Iran and Puerto Rico. As we all know, every family is unique. These family trees can frustrate students as well as alienate their caregivers. When I spoke with longtime educator and school leader Nefertari Nkenge, she shared such an example of frustration about her daughter’s experience, particularly around a “normed expectation of who lives in the house.”
“It would have just been Mom and her. She made it 12 siblings, which made me smile ….
