For this assignment, I was asked to imagine the following scenario:
You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.
In order to complete this assignment, first choose a country you know nothing about as this family’s country of origin.
My family is from the Phillipines. To prepare myself to be culturally responsive I would start with a basic google search on the Phillipines country and culture. My next step would be to visit the closest Phillipines community center to see what I could learn from talking with others. Next, I would take stock of my own classroom and begin ensuring that there are things that will ease the transition for the child. This would include materials that represent her culture specifically. I would ensure that communication is not impacted by securing a translator and translation services for paper materials that go home. Once the family arrives I would arrange the initial meeting with an interpreter and ask about their school experiences and what they expect and want out of thier child's school experience. I would also ask the family about their family culture after explaining my reasoning for asking; to help ease the transition and respect their ethnic and family culture. Finally, I would ensure that they were aware of community resources including the communitiy center I visited as well as a means to contact and communicate with me via an intepreter using a telephone service that my school division uses.
My hope is that through these preparations I learn about the culture to prepare myself, the students and my colleagues and the family sees and understands that we are there for them. Our goal is to support them and their child and they are in a safe place with people who are looking out for their overall well being. The goal is also to create open communication so that myself nor the family ever feel that we can't exchange important information. The benefits also include the opportunity for my self and my students to learn about a new culture and for the new family to have the opportunity to share their culture with us.
You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.
In order to complete this assignment, first choose a country you know nothing about as this family’s country of origin.
- The name of “your” family’s country of origin
- At least five ways in which you will prepare yourself to be culturally responsive towards this family
- A brief statement describing in what ways you hope that these preparations will benefit both you and the family
My family is from the Phillipines. To prepare myself to be culturally responsive I would start with a basic google search on the Phillipines country and culture. My next step would be to visit the closest Phillipines community center to see what I could learn from talking with others. Next, I would take stock of my own classroom and begin ensuring that there are things that will ease the transition for the child. This would include materials that represent her culture specifically. I would ensure that communication is not impacted by securing a translator and translation services for paper materials that go home. Once the family arrives I would arrange the initial meeting with an interpreter and ask about their school experiences and what they expect and want out of thier child's school experience. I would also ask the family about their family culture after explaining my reasoning for asking; to help ease the transition and respect their ethnic and family culture. Finally, I would ensure that they were aware of community resources including the communitiy center I visited as well as a means to contact and communicate with me via an intepreter using a telephone service that my school division uses.
My hope is that through these preparations I learn about the culture to prepare myself, the students and my colleagues and the family sees and understands that we are there for them. Our goal is to support them and their child and they are in a safe place with people who are looking out for their overall well being. The goal is also to create open communication so that myself nor the family ever feel that we can't exchange important information. The benefits also include the opportunity for my self and my students to learn about a new culture and for the new family to have the opportunity to share their culture with us.
Kara,
ReplyDeleteVisiting a community center nearby is a great way to learn about the child’s culture. I never thought of that. By creating an open and welcoming environment for communication you are forming a partnership between the child and family, which can impact a child’s academic and social interactions.