- About 195 different countries exist in the world today.
- According to the U.S. census bureau, the Unites States' population includes individuals and families from 150 different countries.
I will imagine that I am working in an early childhood child care setting. I have received word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from Denmark, a country I know nothing about will join my group soon. I want to prepare to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, I am enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated I need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin (Denmark). Five ways I intended to prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family is to:
1. Contact local child care resource and referral agency's or any major officials about any pressing child care issues or concerns in the country.
2. Inquire about how families are engaged, supported, or encouraged in child care settings.
3. Investigate how child care settings are organized and set-up.
4. Investigate what early learning activities or educational philosophies are being practiced in child care settings.
5. Inquire what the work culture is like.
The five inquiries allow me to gain a richer insight about Denmark's educational views, practices, and philosophies that the family may align themselves with. In early childhood programs and in pre-school and primary classrooms, it is critical for teachers to address injustice and develop equity-based pedagogies, because children form ideas about fairness and their own sense of identity within the larger world during these early years (Boutte, 2008). Thus, the prior preparation will allow me the opportunity to acquire the knowledge to construct a culturally relevant environment and an open mind where the family and child may feel welcomed and embraced.
References:
Boutte, G. (2008). Beyond the illusion of diversity: How early childhood teachers can promote social justice. Social Studies, 99(4), 165--173.
Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Academic Search Complete database.
Hello Emily,
ReplyDeleteI believe it was important how you identified as educators, we have the opportunity to contact local agencies and officials to find out any child care issues or concerns within diverse countries. While we must remain vigilant each family holds their own views and beliefs based upon their culture, it is great to have a baseline about what to prepare for in case you do need to offer additional resources to the family in order to help ensure the child's developmental needs are met. Through open communication and being flexible in your program, I believe the five culturally responsive ideas you have listed will help many children to feel respected and welcomed within your classroom. Great post!
Hi Emily. Great ideas for how to prepare when welcoming a new child from a different country. I especially liked the idea of gaining more knowledge on how child care settings are organized and set up in Denmark, which would help you compare to understand the similarities and differences, thus being able to establish common ground and create a good initial foundation.
ReplyDeleteI had not thought about looking into other childcare centers in their country and how they would be set up. I think this would be a great step to helping them feel comfortable. Obviously there may be some things we can't do but if you can make the environments as similar as possible it will be less of a change for the student. As with anything I think the more research you do the more you can know ahead of time when meeting the family and then you can go from there and learn about them specifically.
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