Culture In A Preschool
- Saturday Jan 1,2011 03:18 AM
- By article king
- In General
New Zealand is a multi-cultural society. The number of immigrants and refugees from around the world is increasing, with our communities growing in cultural diversity.Now, more than ever, our children need to be in environments that are sympathetic to other cultures, and teachers who are culturally sensitive.
In order to meet the individual needs of the children in their care, early childhood educators (ECE) must give some thought to and understand the varied aspects of the children’s life and values that are part of their culture. It’s not just the children from overseas, but children who are considered ‘kiwi kids” whose cultures must be considered.
Teachers need to change their own perceptions and assumptions about what are believed to be “normal” family values and belief systems so that they can meet the children’s cultural needs. They also need to understand when they need to adjust the early childhood environment to help the child and their family feel at ease, acknowledged and valued in the early childhood community. We need to learn more about the families’ cultures and backgrounds before we can adjust our own attitudes and the child care environment. It is not possible for partnerships to be developed between teachers and parents unless we have a good understanding of a family’s background and important cultural differences. Without this understanding we will not be able to provide quality care and education.
Ritblatt and Obegi (2005) research cultural competence in American early childhood educators and the environments of early childhood centres. They acknowledge that in child care setting, a culturally knowledgeable person is an individual who has made a commitment to learning about the cultural group as a whole, and finding accurate information about the uniqueness of a family’s individual culture. Their result s indicated that child care professionals came across culture conflicts which could be divided into three themes, these were: daily children rearing practices/interactions, specific cultural customs and biases/preferences to specific groups.
Examples of the types of conflicts that can arise from these themes are revealed in the following comments from teachers Ritblatt and Obegic Interviewed; “I have had an Asian child who was hand fed by her parents at 18months” and “A parent believed it was bad luck to cut a baby’s hair before the age of 1”, while the caregiver was afraid of obstructing the child’s vision. In a separate situation a Hispanic caregiver felt that people were comparing her with her Caucasian peers (p 6)
In their concluding statement on their investigation’s results, Ritblatt and Obegi (2005) state, “it is crucial that caregivers receive more training specifically aimed at increasing communication training about working with culturally different children and families”.
Pelletier and Brent (2002) wrote a research paper entitled “Parent participation in children’s school readiness: The effects of parental self-efficacy, cultural diversity and teacher’s strategies”. They found that parents with high self-efficacy can make a positive difference in the process of transitioning to school and highlights how parents form different cultures may be feeling when trying to transition their child. The study emphasizes that different families have various beliefs and expectations that they bring to the experience of school. As an example, in some cultures parental participation in school issues is neither desirable nor encouraged, whereas parents from other cultures may possibly participate very actively, by challenging policies. Pelletier and Brent (2002) acknowledge that “when teachers engage in culturally responsive communication with parents, an opportunity for continuing dialogue, and the potential for partnership between the schools and the families, are created” (Delgado- Gaitanm 1991 p 4). The study concluded that when parents believe they are able to effectively influence their children’s education, they are more capable and willing to become involved with activities such as the transition process. But to encourage high efficacy in parent’s, educators need to embrace family’s different values and beliefs by acknowledging their difference and attempting to incorporate them in the transition process.
There’s much more to being culturally aware than token acceptance of families of different ethnic backgrounds, and being friendly to them. Being culturally aware is about being prepared to find out about and understand other people’s belief systems, life values and world views as best we can. Educators who understand how to do this professionally will in turn be able to encourage the children in the centre to follow their modelling and they will likewise naturally learn to accept and accommodate other no matter what their race, religion or colour.
For more preschool information and the effect of good childcare on a child’s development check out my section on child care centres” >child care centres at our website.
People who are want to get more info about bookkeeping lessons, then please make sure to check out the site which is mentioned in this passage.