The Importance Of Diversity In Early Childhood Education

Working with children and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds can be a challenge to early childhood educators, in order to meet the needs of all members of the childcare and community, there are efforts that should be made to ensure that the community needs are meet as a whole and Child care components, which leads to individual classrooms that comprehends diverse and achieve cultural competence.
One example that can be put into practices for infant and toddler program, is the most valuable way for professionals to collaborate while working with infants/toddlers and their families in a culturally diverse environments, is to have a set of values and principles that recognize diversity, be able to demonstrate behaviors, attitudes, policies, and structures that enable them to work effectively cross-culturally and value diversity, conduct self-assessment to ensure sensitivity to cultural characteristics, be committed to manage the dynamics of difference, learn about and incorporate cultural knowledge into their practices, and, adapt to diversity and the cultural contexts of the communities that’s being served.
In the process of working with different cultures and backgrounds, some cultures may use a certain facial expression or hand gesture to get students’ attention or to quiet down the noise level, however others may joke about it.
During play, there may be a gentle touch that involves hands-on-hands guidance, which can be comforting and effective for some children and very disconcerting and upsetting to others. Levels of comfort with these types of interaction can also be affected by whether the nurturing adult is male or female. In some cultures children are encouraged to look down or away from the adult when being spoken to. Using this culture-specific respectful behavior can easily be mistaken as a show off, if not understood in a culturally competent
context. The key insights I have gain, and the most important ideas that I have encountered in this course is to establish and effective collaborate with the families, that involves sharing, flexibility, and a commitment to building and sustaining open lines of communication and understanding that supports the child. Another insight I gain knowledge is being able to recognition and response, understanding what you bring to the interaction, amongst the parent and yourself, from establishing this relationship, it can be built through honest self-reflection and having an open mind about ideas that can promote to a child’s accomplishment as well as struggles in the classroom.
In order not to judge families, because their backgrounds may be different from you as a teacher, you should explore some cultural characteristics that might be different from those of teachers and other students, in order to gain knowledge and understanding, in order to adapt your professionalism to families to support their needs and cultural needs and meet the families where they are. As a professional you should be acceptable to change as well as open for communication.