Driving Questions

We often hear the phrase “families are children’s first (or most important) teachers.” But what does that really mean and do we act in ways that are consistent with that belief? The following questions will guide you as you seek to better understand the challenges, strengths, and perspectives across the diverse families with whom you will partner:

The scenarios that follow provide opportunities to explore these questions and the ways that our individual experiences can influence how we view the experiences of the families we serve.

Key Terms

Before we share these scenarios, we want to take a moment to define what we mean by structures, identities, and cultures, as well as offer a bit of context around the differing descriptions that exist.

Families and Family Structures

The definition of a family varies due to the use of the definition and we acknowledge that a great deal of research across fields necessarily defines a family as a basic unit of study. Why? Because the family as a unit of study in medicine helps researchers understand the epidemiology and history of disease. As a unit of study to determine social benefits, it may function as distinctions between related and unrelated individuals living together or apart, and therefore impacted by policies regarding qualification for assistance, for example. As a unit of study across fields such as psychology, education, sociology, and more, it functions as an important variable in a person’s development and well-being.

For our purposes, we think about the function of a family as the most immediate circle of important adults and peers who consistently influence and make decisions for a child. When we (the authors of this text) discuss a family structure, we refer to those who live in a home together as well as those who comprise an extended family, looking after one another’s children, co-parenting across households, or interacting in additional caregiving ways.

Identities

By identities, we refer to our socially constructed selves. For example, there is no racial gene that delineates those with more melanin in their skin than others, though the boxes checked for race in the U.S. census, for example, make delineations between us. By reviewing the census categories over time, we find changes in how race was defined and understood. Racial categories and many other socially constructed identities continue to evolve as our society evolves. Our social experiences in the world around us are different based on our physical appearances, the sounds of our voices, and even whether we can find food on a local restaurant menu that we can eat, make-up tailored to our skin tones, or products designed for our hair types. Other identity categories include gender, ethnicity, religion, and, as we move through and beyond adolescence, the musical, athletic, and gaming communities in which we engage (among other types of group and role-based identities). These are important not only because of the ways others perceive us, but also how we define ourselves in relation to those around us. Understanding the social construction of identity is key to understanding the malleability of the communities we join and build, including the intersecting identities that make each of us who we are.

Cultures

Just as family structure and identity are not fixed, cultures also continuously evolve. And just as our identities reflect intersections among, for example, our gender, ethnicity, language, and vocational or avocational roles, our cultures reflect the bigger and smaller communities in which we move. Within a larger Jewish culture, for example, we may find distinctions between Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi ethnicities and cultures. Beyond the religious traditions that overlap and are distinct based on origin, we find higher risk of breast cancer among those with Ashkenazi lineage (something that has nothing to do with religious affiliation), descendants of genocides that occurred in different time periods and world regions, and those who chose to join a Jewish religious community based on faith or family.

These are just a few ways we might begin to challenge our own assumptions of a culture as reflective of only religious belief. Culture reflects our shared histories, the foods we eat, the stories we heard as children, and the ways we make meaning of the world around us. We may have the same or different cultural points of reference, such as knowing what a wake is (or not!), familiarity with certain names, our ability to define the Italian sayings in a popular television series, or the importance of a religious day on the calendar.

As you read, we encourage you to consider what commonalities, strengths, and barriers currently exist in your community and to imagine what might be possible. As you read the stories that follow, write down your responses to the driving questions above.