Cultural Needs In The Preschool Environment

New Zealand is a multi-cultural society

New Zealand is a multi-cultural society. Its diversity is rapidly expanding with immigrants and refugees from around the world settling into our communities.The need for culturally sensitive teachers working in environments that are sympathetic to other cultures has never been more required than now.

A persons culture includes many diverse aspects of their life and values, all which early childhood educators (ECE) need to consider and understand in regard to the individual needs of each child in their care. These cultural considerations apply not only to children from overseas but also to the children who are considered kiwi kids.

Meeting the cultural needs of children requires teachers to change their own attitudes and assumptions about what are considered normal family values and belief systems. 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. Before we can begin to change our attitudes and child care environment we need to learn more about the cultures of the families that we have enrolled within our centres. Without a good knowledge of a familys background and important cultural differences it is impossible for parent/teacher partnerships to be developed. This lack of understanding will hinder the opportunity to provide quality care and education.

Research into the cultural competence in American early childhood educators, and the environments of early childhood centres, has been carried out by Ritblatt and Obegi (2005). 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 familys 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 babys hair before the age of 1, while the caregiver was afraid of obstructing the childs vision. In another situation a Hispanic caregiver felt she was being compared to her Caucasian counterparts (p 6)

Ritblatt and Obegi (2005) make a concluding statement based on the results of this investigation, they 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) prepared a research paper entitled Parent participation in childrens school readiness: The effects of parental self-efficacy, cultural diversity and teachers strategies. They found that very capable parents can have a positive effect when their child is in the process of starting school. They show how parents from different cultures might be feeling when getting their child ready for the change. 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. According to Pelletier and Brent (2002), 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 childrens education, they are more capable and willing to become involved with activities such as the transition process. But to encourage high efficacy in parents, educators need to embrace familys different values and beliefs by acknowledging their difference and attempting to incorporate them in the transition process.

Being culturally aware is more than token acceptance of and being nice and friendly to families of different ethnic backgrounds, its about being willing to learn about and understand to the best of our abilitys anothers belief system, world views and life values. Educators who know how to do this professionally will encourage the children in the centre to do the same, and children will naturally learn to accept and include others no matter what their race, religion or colour.

by: Pluto BeckBeck

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