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.
6.
7.
8.
State the criteria for selecting
multicultural items for the early
childhood environment.
Be aware of cultural differences among
children and parents.
Reflect one’s own cultural affinity.
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
Affected by the interactions of…
the parents
the workplace
the community
the society
the school
the economy
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
Martin Luther King, Jr. Sermon On Loving Your
Enemies Delivered, At Dexter Avenue Baptist Church,
Montgomery, Alabama, November 17, 1957
Darkness cannot drive out
darkness;
Only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate;
Only love can do that.