Abstract
National educational organizations highlight the importance of preparing preservice teachers to work with diverse families. As teacher educators in an interdisciplinary early childhood teacher education program, we developed a project using eco-maps to help students learn about children and their families. We analyzed students' written reflections and observation notes from class discussion and three major themes emerged from the data: importance of knowing about families, understanding the whole child, and recognizing assumptions. This paper presents details about the project, its impact on student learning and implications for teacher education programs.