Chapter 5

Serving Culturally Diverse Children and Families

Overview

• Children are capable of learning to function in more than one cultural context.

• By creating an environment of unconditional acceptance of different cultures in early childhood programs, children can learn to accept, respect, and function across cultures without compromising their appreciation of their own individual culture.

• Chapter 5 helps early childhood professionals recognize that children learn to value diversity not just through a well-designed multicultural learning environment, but very importantly from the attitudes revealed to them each day in the actions of the adults around them.

Objectives After reading this chapter, you should be

able to:1. Define culture.

2. Appreciate the importance of culture in

positive child guidance.

3. Recognize and terminate prejudice,

bias, and ethnocentricity.

4. Identify early signs of discrimination in

young children to “nip in the bud.”

Objectives After reading this chapter, you should be

able to:

5. State the criteria for selecting multicultural items for the early childhood environment.

6. Be aware of cultural differences among children and parents.

7. Reflect one’s own cultural affinity.

8. Reflect on one’s own sensitivity to other cultures.

What Is Culture?

• Traditional values and patterns of behavior passed on from parents to children

• Beliefs held by members of smaller groups of people within the larger society who are part of social, religious, ethnic, or other distinct groups

Giving Unconditional Acceptance

• Helps children learn to accept and respect others who have differences

• Supports children as they learn to function across cultures

• Allows children to become multicultural without giving up their appreciation for their own individual culture

Culture Infuses Body Language

• Body language, like spoken language, can mean different things in different cultures

• Gestures, facial expressions, and body postures that people use to communicate along with or instead of speech are distinctly related to cultural background 

Children are Best Understood in the Context of Their Community

the parentsthe workplacethe community

the societythe schoolthe economy

Affected by the interactions of…

Bronfenbrenner’s Social-Ecological Model of Development

Children are Developmentally Harmed by Biased Treatment

• Racism

• Sexism

• Negative stereotyping

• Discrimination

Books and Pictures Should Show a Diverse World

• People of different ethnicities

• Both genders in nonsexist activities and roles

• People with disabilities doing ordinary things

• A range of ages (elderly people should be included)

Music, Art and Literature Should Reflect a Diverse World

• Ethnic and cultural diversity

• The lives of children with disabilities

• Girls in heroic and exciting roles

• The rich variety of cultural expression from around the world

Children’s Names are Integral to Their Identity in Any Culture

• Learn to pronounce names correctly!

• If the child is hearing imparied, learn to sign the child’s name correctly

Cultural Tendencies

— Before we can be effective in working with children and families, we should examine our own racial and cultural attitudes

— We can only be sensitive to others if we are honest in confronting and analyzing our own racial and cultural point of view

Style of Control

• Authoritarian – Interactive (or control) style relying on one-way

communication, rigid rules, and punishment—“the sledgehammer.”

• Permissive – Interactive style relying on neglect, abdication of

responsibility, or overindulgence—“the doormat.”

• Authoritative– Interactive (or control) style relying on two-way

communication, collaboratively developed rules, and positive guidance—“the guide.”

Learning Approach

• Accept Knowledge – The learner is not expected to create knowledge.

Throughout history a great deal of knowledge has been passed down to younger generations by wise elder generations. Some people take this knowledge without question.

• Construct Knowledge– Just because something was always believed to be true

doesn’t mean that it really is true. Some people always like to confirm things for themselves. They believe that knowledge is something anyone can construct.

Social Role Expectation

• Cohesive Interaction – Reciprocal teamwork; sticking together to

carry out tight-knit group activity

• Individual Development– A particular person, distinct from others in a

group, changes, advances, or progresses to a more advanced state

Language Code

• Visceral – Proceeding more from instinct than from

logical thinking. Characterized by or showing strong emotions.

• Differentiated– To make detailed distinctions. Categorizing

systematically; making specialized discriminations that are broken down into subcategories.

Intelligence Mode

• Social-Emotional Competence – The level of one’s self-awareness, mood

management, self-motivation, empathy and understanding of one’s inner feelings

• Cognitive Knowledge– The aggregate or global capacity of a person

to act purposefully, think rationally, and deal effectively with his or her environment

Darkness cannot drive out darkness;

Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out

hate;Only love can do that.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Sermon On Loving Your Enemies Delivered, At Dexter Avenue Baptist Church,

Montgomery, Alabama, November 17, 1957