Family and Community Perspectives: Voices from a Qualitative Statewide Study in the Southwest United States

This chapter draws from the family and community case-study component of a longitudinal, mixed-method evaluation of a statewide initiative for children birth to age five and their families in Arizona, United States. Unlike most of the chapters in this volume, we situate family and community engagement in a different context, as we take a statewide perspective, drawing from a qualitative study of diverse families, early childhood education and care service providers, and children in an attempt to foreground their voices and perspectives in a large-scale, primarily quantitative, evaluation project. Just as many early years programs and service providers seek to involve parents in more culturally inclusive and authentic ways, the project from which data for the chapter are drawn also attempts to respect the views of parents from a wide range of backgrounds and life experiences. The narratives of nearly 70 families and 110 care and service providers and community leaders convey perspectives that can be informative to early childhood programs both in the United States and beyond. They also provide a unique window into ways in which programs serving young children and their families can be more responsive to a range of issues that families face in the current economic and sociopolitical climate.