Globalization and changing environment lead to improvement of cultural interactions between people and, thus, require new approaches to education. The diversity in schools and universities and different cultural and family background of students result in the new role of a teacher as a "guide" who is able to perceive each of his students as an individual with a personal set of skills and is able to find to each of them personal educational approach. It is especially challenging for early education when children just learn to interact with each other and to be tolerant. The terms "diversity" and "cultural competence" start to be especially crucial for modern education. The goal of this paper is to research and explain the meaning and importance of being a “culturally responsive teacher” and to discuss the ways of possible integration of cultural awareness into early educational programs.
The understanding of cultural responsibility is closely related to the understanding of diversity and cultural competence. Diversity means respect, acceptance, “understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences” (Queensborough Community College, n. d.). Individual differences of people include their race, ethnic background, physical abilities, age, socio-economic status, religion, etc. The same individual differences can be applied to school students, and it becomes especially challenging in the days of globalization. The concept of diversity is not the same as tolerance but goes beyond it and aims to celebrate cultural differences that everybody has. It values individuals and eliminates possible prejudice. The understanding of diversity includes the understanding of the interdependence of human creatures and environment, mutual respect, proper knowledge, and the understanding of the harm of discrimination. Furthermore, one should note that the concept of diversity also includes diversity in learning skills. For example, some students understand the information better when they see it in graphs and tables; at the same time, the others succeed more in an interpretation of texts or in projects. The understanding of the importance of diversity helps to eliminate the feeling of “not belonging” some children may have while being with their classmates or in the specific classroom setting.
The concept of cultural competence is interlinked with the concept of diversity. According to Cross et al., cultural competence is “a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency or among professionals and enable that system, agency or those professions to work effectively in cross-cultural situations” (NCCC, n. d.). In other words, cultural competence means transformation, integration, and application of knowledge to specific standards in specific cultural settings with the goal of increasing the quality of provided services. Cultural competence is crucial for modern education and modern teachers. For instance, the process of racial integration in the 1960s and 1970s led to the unification of African American and White students in the United States. As the result, American public school system had to deal with cultural sensitivity, as most teachers were Whites from the middle class. Nowadays, United States has a lot of subcultures including Jews, Mexican Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, refugees, etc., and the common education of students who belong to major and minor cultural groups requires teachers who are able to deal with various normative behaviors and value systems. Modern teachers should have enough skills to work with students from different social classes and backgrounds. Teachers are not only educational “guides”; they also help to solve the problems of poverty, domestic violence, etc. and possible cultural conflicts that may appear in the issues of the role of women, semiotics, or various cultural practices. The primary goal of training of cultural competence is to provide teachers with necessary skills and to prepare them for possible cultural issues.
It is important for culturally responsible teachers to foster cultural awareness and appreciation in early childhood programs. As it was said above, children in kindergarten and primary school just start to learn how to interact with each other and with society. At the same time, children are very curious, and they naturally ask a lot of questions about appearance, clothes, or English level of their classmates who belong to minor cultural groups. People usually process and form their cultural values in childhood, and it is crucial to explain children cultural differences and to teach them mutual respect. Quoting Ramsey, Ponciano and Shabazian write that in toddlerhood, children start to distinguish gender and racial differences between people, and in pre-school age, they are able to construct their self-identities and start to ask questions about gender, racial, and linguistic attributes (Ponciano & Shabazian, 2012, p. 24).
One of the best practices that could help to foster cultural awareness and appreciation in early childhood programs is an intercultural approach to education. The intercultural approach implies to the idea that none of the individuals can represent the whole race or ethnic group but represents own experience within it. Furthermore, interculturalism highlights that assumptions regarding similarities of people of the same race are undesirable as are closely related to prejudice. As Ponciano and Shabazian write, “An intercultural approach encourages children to share their cultural context and transforms children’s understanding of the group’s variations” (Ponciano & Shabazian, 2012, p. 24). Children, teachers, and families gather together and positively and constructively share their ethnic and racial values and life experience. Moreover, the teacher involves various multicultural activities and dialogues. The intercultural approach does not impose children the specific model of behavior but encourages the one provided by their family background. For instance, some children eat with chopsticks. According to interculturalism, the teacher should provide such children with chopsticks and be ready to encourage them to tell about the use of chopsticks to others. Also, the intercultural approach means an involvement of culturally familiar activities. For example, the teacher can encourage his students to introduce their family traditions to the whole class or can introduce different cultures through games and stories by himself. As the result of such practices, children learn that each of their classmates is unique, and that cultural differences are natural.
One more practice of fostering cultural awareness and appreciation in children is role modeling. Children learn what is good and what is bad looking at adults and perceive their behavior as the basis for their own habits. Thus, the teacher should show his students the example of proper behavior pattern in the issues of cultural awareness and tolerance. The teacher should be sensitive to various cultures and should behave to children without generalizing. Furthermore, the culturally responsible teacher should be aware of own cultural biases that could influence his attitude to children and teaching practices and should be able to suppress them.
Indeed, proper upbringing of cultural awareness in children requires the participation of parents, families, and community. Quoting Moll et al., Tarman and Tarman state, “When families share their funds of knowledge with the school community, teachers obtain a better idea of their students’ background knowledge and abilities and how they learn best” (Tarman & Tarman, 2011, p. 593). The differences in cultural education in family and in school can lead to the appearing of cultural bias, which would negatively influence the further development of a child and could result in such issues as aversive racism. One of the strategies that involve parents and families in the process of cultural education of children has already been mentioned above. It implies to interculturalism and specific training that suggest sharing cultural experiences of minor families in the major culture. The other strategy is the constant communication between teachers and families and the home-based learning activities that aim to solidify cultural knowledge given by the teacher. Cultural responsibility is not just the issue of teachers; it is the issue of the whole nation including families and community, and one could involve parents to specific training together with teachers.
Ponciano and Shabazian write, “As society becomes increasingly multiracial, multilingual, and multicultural, so too grows the need for educators’ abilities to support children’s development by instilling in them the tools they need to live together respectfully and stand up to prejudice” (Ponciano & Shabazian, 2012, p. 23). Nowadays, the world deals with lots of cultural problems including racism, sexism, homophobia, religious issues, etc. One should understand that these problems arise because of people and their cultural ignorance that usually appears in the early childhood. Culturally responsible teachers play an extremely important role being role models and providing children with the proper understanding of cultural differences, cultural awareness, and acceptance. They make children culturally educative and reduce the risk of cultural problems for further generations.
References
Levy, A. (n. d.). Culture in the classroom. Early Childhood NEWS. Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=141
National Centre for Cultural Competence (NCCC) (n. d.). Definitions of Cultural Competence. Curricula Enhancement Module Series. Retrieved from http://www.nccccurricula.info/culturalcompetence.html
Ponciano, L., & Shabazian, A. (2012). Interculturalism: addressing diversity in early childhood. Dimensions of Early Childhood, 40(1), 23-30. Retrieved from http://www.southernearlychildhood.org/upload/pdf/Interculturalism___Addressing_Diversity_in_Early_Childhood___Leslie_Ponciano_and_Ani_Shabazian.pdf
Queensborough Community College (n. d.). Definition for diversity. Retrieved from http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/diversity/definition.html
Tarman, I., & Tarman, B. (2011). Developing effective multicultural practices: a case study of exploring a teacher’s understanding and practices. The Journal of International Social Research, 4(17), 578-598. Retrieved from http://www.sosyalarastirmalar.com/cilt4/sayi17pdf/5egitim/tarman_ilknur_bulent.pdf
