Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

This course is designed for individuals interested in early childhood education, parenting education, and family life education.  The course addresses various family compositions issues and trends, including single parents, intergenerational families, same-sex families, families of color, immigrant families, class issues, etc.

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

• Identify the major concepts and issues facing contemporary families.
• Understand families and their relationships to other institutions, including educational and occupational systems.
• Use an understanding of the structures, functions, and cultural variations of families in early childhood education and human service settings.
• Interact, communicate, and work with diverse families in a variety of contexts.

Individual reading assignments.

Discussions.

Quizzes.

Videos 

Written assignments and interviews.

Book reviews and field projects.

Select and analyze artifacts from mass media.

Interview a parent about their community relationships, connections, and culture.

Analyze communication between an educational institution and families (home-school connection).

Complete a field project or book review relevant to the topic of family studies, early education, parenting, parent support, or parenting education.

Families in societal contexts.

Family cultural variation.

Changing gender roles in family partnerships.

Demographic trends.