Welcome families to our program! We are so glad that you have chosen to be a part of Early Childhood Education culture. Within our program, we hold numerous values that we believe with benefit the overall success of our children, helping them to reach their academic and developmental goals. Our core values are respect, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
While creating an inclusive equitable learning environment for students, our staff embrace cultural competence (Curenton & Iruka, 2024). We strive to incorporate the diverse backgrounds and tend to the diverse needs of our students and families in our program through the incorporation of specific materials and activities in the classrooms and teaching our children about each other’s cultures. Additionally, we display the children’s artwork, allowing each child to show their individuality. Continuing the support of diversity and the children’s learning and development, we include books into the classroom of diverse backgrounds, including family dynamics, cultural values and traditions, disabilities, and languages (Martinez, 2018).
As our children, families, and staff engage with each other, we press to establish and maintain levels of respect within our program, especially the classroom learning environment (Granata, 2014). Teaching everyone to respect others will enable children to maintain an inclusive mindset when viewing others with differences, such as people with atypical development and people with different cultures and lifestyles. More importantly, as the children feel respected within their learning environment, they increase their confidence to share their perspectives and values, and they feel more comfortable engaging in their own learning.
While considering personal biases, we strive to promote a respectful early childhood environment by taking time to learn the each child as a whole and their family, honoring their values within their cultures and traditions, and sharing information on others’ cultures and abilities. In addition, we will offer resources to families who may be in need, such as those who are of a low socioeconomic status. Please note that we are here to help your meet their needs to be academically successful. Feel free to reach out to us with any concerns or questions you may have that will help the children continue their academic progress.
References
Curenton, S. M., & Iruka, I.U. (2024). Cultural competence in early childhood education (updated ed.). Bridgepoint Education.
Granata, K. (2014). Welcoming family diversity in the classroom. Education World. http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/welcoming-diverse-family-structures.shtml
Martinez, C. (2018, October 4). 10 tips for dealing with language and cultural diversity in the classroom. Teaching Strategies. https://teachingstrategies.com/blog/10-tips-language-cultural-diversity-classroom/