The case study

Data for this research study was collected through interview. The interview was conducted with the participants that volunteered through social media platforms. The three participants were “Francesca” (age 30, African-American), “David” (age 17, African-American) and “Trevor” (age 44, Haitian).Francesca is a single mother of two children, David and a daughter that is aged 7. In the interview, she claims that being a single mother, she has struggled financially to cater for both her children’s needs and education. Francesca reports that her son dropped out of school at the age of 15 while in the 10th grade. During her son’s early years, he ran into legal troubles that led in having a felony record. More often than not he was very defiant at home and regularly sneaked out of the house. Francesca was skeptical that her son had indulged himself in drugs and alcohol, neither did she know of his sexual status which was pretty much vague to her. According to David he has always wanted to move out of town and major on fashion design. Currently, David is obtaining his General Educational Development Test (G.E.D) as a condition of his probation. David acknowledges the fact that he does not aspire to further his education but would want to go and learn about fashion designing. The next interview was with Trevor a middle-school teacher in a local school in South Florida who explains the various reasons why children drop out of school, how various factors affect the child’s education and school’s based on his experience as a teacher.

Analysis

Macrosystem entails the cultural environment in which an individual lives as well as all other systems that affect them such as political systems, cultural values and economy. In addition, cultural context in macrosystem involves socioeconomic statuses of individuals involved such as ethnic group, county of residence and family (Gonzales, M., 2020). However, in this case the macrosystem will mainly focus on the peoples’ cultural values, societal laws and customs influence on decision making as far their education is concerned. According to research, at this level various cultural issues, cultural forces and perhaps political organizations have an effect on the child’s education. This is because it is made up of cultural pattern and values of the child, specifically their dominant ideas and beliefs as well as economic and political systems. The study shows that macrosystem has a cascading influence which is evident through the effective collaboration between school environment and home environment. Moreover, social affiliations embraced by the macrosystem are social relationships by the community as a result of the integration of the child to school, family and the community.

In this case study, there are several things that influenced David’s decision to drop out of school. This include first, cultural issue and secondly, influences that are related to family or parent involvement in his education. Not only have culture issues have affected children’s performance in school but also contributed to their possibility of school dropout. The effects of these cultural issues results to the impact of ethnicity as a predicting factor to school accomplishment. Example, in some schools they have a culture of viewing the low-income minority children as individuals that are not ready to learn which can lead to school dropout. Example, according to Trevor, lack of cultural responsiveness in schools is because of the ideas of culture influence communication, perception of information and the thinking process not being acknowledged. David is raised by a single mother and he lacks a father in his life to look up to and mold him to be a better man in future by lending fatherly advices, hence making him have extremely poor relationship with his mother. Francesca being the only parent was expected to participate and take responsibility in her son’s education as well as providing for him. This has made her participation minimum or non-existence due to the busy work schedule for her to be able to provide for the family. Therefore, the lack of significant parent participation in the child’s education has played a direct role in David’s decision to drop out of school. Parent’s participation is primarily important to the child’s education for example, according to Trevor, students like David barely see teachers as significant role models hence making the parent’s influence more important. School dropout is influenced by parent or family involvement especially financially wise. Usually, children or students develop mistrust and begin to view school environment as not making any meaning as well as not worth staying, when the culture of school does not to children’s needs. As a results, children like David might start spending little time on studies and end dropping out (Muller, C., & Kerbow, D. 2018).

Cultural forces and influences affecting the school operations is entirely based upon the culture of the school with respect to the responsiveness of the students’ needs. Usually, the school culture comprises of the beliefs, relationships, attitudes, written and written rules that influence all the aspects of how a school functions. Teachers, students, administrators, parents and the community in which the school is located contribute to their schools culture and its functionality. Example, Trevor stated that a number of schools have not been considerate as far as selecting the cultures that exist between their school systems making the cultural forces affect the administrative structure and the normal functionality of the schools. However, other factors such as family income, parent’s number in the house, home life stability and cultural influences such as geographical factors can affect the child’s education. These factors and cultural influence are affecting the education David is still getting. Example, David’s current school location is far from the hood, therefore it has resulted to poor school attendance and might led to poor performance. These influences are also affecting the child’s school readiness through home life aspects (Hayes, N., 2017). In conclusion, macrosystem influences as cultural issues and ethnicity affect the school and its functions as well as children’s education.

Reference

Gonzales, M. (2020). The Macrosystem. In Systems Thinking for Supporting Students with Special Needs and Disabilities (pp. 111-122). Springer, Singapore.

Hayes, N., O’Toole, L., & Halpenny, A. M. (2017). Introducing Bronfenbrenner: A guide for practitioners and students in early years education. Routledge.

Muller, C., & Kerbow, D. (2018). Parent involvement in the home, school, and community. In Parents, their children, and schools (pp. 13-42). Routledge.

· Case studies let us practice examining topics from multiple angles and share information and ideas with our colleagues. In this course, you have practiced with group case studies and an individual case study that was presented to you. With this final project, you are given the opportunity to create your own case study and to develop ways you would strategically approach a problem, combining knowledge and leadership skills to enact change. This is your chance to apply and demonstrate your knowledge of early childhood and educational theories, as well as to advocate for practices that improve learning for young children. Being able to successfully complete this project will give you a meaningful example of applied work, and would be a good project to save for a portfolio.

There are four segments of this final project.

Segment 1 – Macrosystem Case Study

First, create your own case study. This involves writing a 3-4 page paper describing and analyzing your case, which should be taken from real-world people. Interviews with parents, a child, and a teacher or an administrator are all to be included for a multiprong look at the situation you are writing about. The case must exemplify various issues related to the macrosystem. These issues are not limited to, but should cover an analysis of:

· The cultural issues and influences related to family involvement in education (to include family structure, economics, and ethnicity).

· The cultural forces and influences driving the way the school currently operates.

· Other factors and organizations affecting the child's education.

· How these influences affect the education the child is currently getting.

Segment 2 – Suggestions

Using the case you have created, offer suggestions for improving the child's education based on the issues outlined above in an additional 3–4 page paper. In this section, you should utilize various scholarly references to support your answers and suggestions. These references should come from course material, journal articles, academic books, and appropriate Web sites that relate to the issue. The solutions you address should include answers to the following:

· How can the school include and support families, especially those from racial and ethnic minority groups?

· How can the school actively engage children and families beyond the immediate school environment?

· How can the school develop collaborative relationships with other professionals and organizations to ethically improve education?

Segment 3 – Action

In this section, you need to identify an agency, organization, or individual that may be in a position to help you promote change. First, identify who or where that is, and state why this would be a good choice. Then, write a letter that outlines the issue, and suggest ways in which you think changes could be made to rectify or improve the situation. Articulate how you think policies should be changed to improve the development and learning environment for young children in relation to this specific case. Include this 2–3 page letter (do not send it) in your final project.

Segment 4 – Feedback and Reflection

The final segment is reflective. Share your findings and suggestions with the parent and teacher or administrator (and child, if appropriate) and gather their feedback on your ideas. Add this and your final thoughts about the entire process to the paper. This last segment should be about 2–4 pages in length.

To successfully complete this project, you will be expected to:

1. Analyze the cultural influences at work in a child's education.

1. Analyze and recommend effective ways the school can include and support families, especially those from racial and ethnic minority groups.

1. Analyze and recommend effective ways the school can actively engage children and families beyond the immediate school environment.

1. Analyze and recommend effective ways the school can develop collaborative relationships with other professionals and organizations to ethically improve education.

1. Evaluate recommendations based on feedback.