Cultural Diversity
Cultural diversity is an important concept to grasp during childhood. Understanding that people are not all the same will enable your children to embrace and value the things that make each person or group of people different. Children notice differences, and taking time to teach what is important to each culture can help foster acceptance and understanding.
What is Culture?
An easy definition is that Culture is the customary beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group. It is the characteristic features of everyday existence (such as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time.
Culture is what makes travel so exciting- to see new places, and experience different ways of living.
Scotland has its own culture, and people who move to Scotland bring their culture with them, which in turn will change the culture of Scotland! Culture is always evolving due to influences like media, war, famine, technology, etc.
Cultural Relativism: The idea that cultural norms and values are culture specific and no-one culture is superior to another culture.
When discussing culture, remember to be open-minded. One culture is not better than another, cultures are just different. Different cultures have different ideas about education, child development, behaviour and play. It is important to keep these things in mind when a child from another culture joins your school or nursery.
What Is Cultural Tokenism?
Cultural tokenism occurs when aspects of cultures are acknowledged inadequately or because we have to. Some things to be aware of, include:
Placing cultural artifacts on display without knowing or providing children with information about the item’s heritage or significance.
Setting specific days for specific cultures and Celebrating a cultural event in a superficial fashion or using the event as the only form of exposure to that culture. For example, celebrating Chinese New Year for one day and not exploring other aspects of Chinese culture in day-to-day practices.
Using cultural attire or traditional foods as the only way of teaching about cultural diversity.
Food - While exploring different types of food is a useful starting point for teaching about diversity, respect for cultural differences should extend beyond an appreciation of different foods.
Clothes - It’s also important to be cautious when using different forms of cultural dress, as wearing traditional attire as a ‘costume’ can be offensive to people who wear it as part of their cultural identity. do not use it as "dress up" clothing.
Having a sign on the door that says Welcome! in many languages, then have staff rolling their eyes when someone from another culture or race walks through the door.
Displaying posters of cultural groups, just for the sake of it.
Avoiding Cultural Tokenism
It is important to acknowledge diversity and cultural differences throughout the program and avoid cultural tokenism. When working with a group of children there may be a number of children from a variety of backgrounds and cultures. Incorporate all cultures rather than focusing on each one individually. For example, when talking about where we come from include all children; such as Tommy was born in Stenton on a big farm, Houng was born in Vietnam in the big city and Maria was born in Italy in a small town.
There are many strategies that can be implemented to acknowledge culture respectfully. Some of these include:
Providing opportunities for children to participate in ‘open-ended‘ celebration activities.
Ensuring that the same amount of time and energy is dedicated to All celebrations.
Inviting Educators and families to share their own personal experiences of celebrations.
Ensuring that resources such as picture story books, images, and music are reflective of contemporary celebrations which children can relate to.
Ensuring that families who do not wish to be involved in celebrations have options for ‘opting out’.
make Cultures part of your continuous provision
Celebrating Cultures Respectfully Within Early Years
Educators can play an important role in facilitating a child-centered celebration and this can be done in several ways:
Ensuring children have the agency to make choices about the celebrations they would like to participate in.
Engaging families to give advice on customs.
Encouraging and supporting family members to be involved in sharing their customs and celebrations with your service.
Ensuring that children have the resources and time necessary to be able to celebrate effectively.
Creating an awareness of the celebration amongst the rest of the group.
Notifying the wider child care community about the celebration. For example, taking photos to display on the service notice board, or displaying children’s artwork and drawings about the celebration
Providing young children and toddlers with materials which reflect a significant event or celebration which they have recently participated in.
Scotland is becoming a very multicultural country. Children need to be made aware of the similarities and differences between cultures and show respect and consideration for diversity and as Educators, it's our duty to make children aware. Let's be considerate and sensitive and show inclusive practices within our setting for all cultures within our community and be role models to the children within our care.
neu335-refugee-teaching-guide.pdfAll children in Scotland, including refugee and asylum-seeking children, have a legal entitlement to education under Section 14 of the UK Education Act 1996 and the Standards in Scotland’s Schools Etc. Act 2000.
When welcoming Refugee and Asylum-seeking children into your setting, it is important to understand the culture and experiences of those children in order to meet their social, emotional and educational needs. There is no "one-size-fits-all" approach.
If schools fail to recognise and respond to cultural differences, it may unintentionally reinforce barriers to learning, and impede refugee children’s progress in school.
Discussion Questions for Self-Evaluation and Development
How have you identified any children with Cultural differences in your setting? Can you be certain that you are aware of all Cultures in your setting?
Do you have multicultural books that reflect your community available for children in your setting?
How can you introduce, talk about and acknowledge the different cultures of your school community?
Where would you go and who would you speak to in order to learn more about the cultures in your community?
Are you talking about other cultures with a cultural relative lens?
"Cultures are more than holidays", how else can you introduce different cultures in your setting?
