‘Partnerships’ in a Family Life Educator’s Work.
Philosophy uses sound reason and logic to acquire a better understanding of the world and the activities around it. The idea of partnerships to me means a set of collaboration between people, groups or organizations that agree to work together. It is on this basis the family life educators consider it a crucial aspect of family management. In meeting families that have partnered makes their work much easy. This implies that close relationships do not directly translate to partnerships.
For a family to be formed, it takes very close relationships that later build ties. These ties are evident in people who are distant from those who joined to create a family. From the developed family, people then start relating with one another. This relationship does not insinuate that the direct groups of people have partnered. A vital issue in a family is the aspect of growth and development. This runs from the kids who are born in the family to their parents. It, therefore, takes more than just a relationship to achieve this. Throughout the developmental transitions, there ought to be a partnership between the family members (Joyce 17). This will help them sail smoothly through the toils of life. In this case, mere relationships should be avoided as they will set boundaries between individuals. The advantage of going an extra mile into partnerships is that it breaks the border barriers. One is thus free to act, without territorial limitations.
Secondly, regarding family resource management, it is prudent that families come together and partner. This gives them an upper hand in managing the general material assets, money and being able to meet their goals. Partnerships clearly define who, what and when something should be done and the manner in which it should be done. In other words, partnerships would mean role definition. Considering a case where a family life educator is hired to equip and empower family members, his work is much easier when the family already formed a partnership. His is because it would mean that they have the required factors to enable them to sail through. These factors include proper communication skills, good interpersonal skills/relationships, and appositive self-esteem (Duncan, Stephen & Goddard 39). With this, therefore, the educators’ work is only to guide them on how to balance the aspects. It is thus worth noting that much as the family members may relate well, to run certain aspects of life needs them to partner.
Lastly, the general societal issues of education, economics, parenting, gender and sexuality, among others, need something more significant than a good rapport. It is in this case, that, when using family science, the Family Life Educators (FLE) encourages partnerships as a problem solver. Under such circumstances, it is regarded that one is bound to be keener with what they do if they are in a partnership with another person. For instance, in business, someone would not let the goods they trade in to get spoil anyhow knowing that they have a share it. This only applies to a state where a partnership exists. Contrary to this, people are bound to care but not as much as they would have done if they were just in a good relationship with their relationship. In such a case, it can thus be deduced that partnerships, unlike just good relationships drivers a sense of belonging and responsibility. This thus implies that partnerships are something more than just having a close relationship.
To some up, it is clear that close family relationships should not be mistaken to directly translate to partnerships. Partnerships, on the other hand, help family life educators in their work by a vast margin. Through partnerships, they are able to guide people on life developmental transitions, resource management and the general societal issues. At the site of partnerships, the family life educators meet the easiest work.
Work Cited.
Duncan, Stephen F., and H. Wallace Goddard. Family life education: Principles and practices for effective outreach. Sage Publications, 2016.
Epstein, Joyce L. School, family, and community partnerships: Preparing educators and improving schools. Routledge, 2018.