Education is an essential tool in national building. Early Childhood Education which is also called Early Childhood Care and Education (ECC$E ) is the kind of education that is obtained by children in their early stages in life. This time is very crucial particularly for the development of mental functions of children. Preschool education is actually meant for children at the ages of 3 to 6. This education is more of a formalised process where children between two and five are subjected to in selected nursery and kindergarten institutions. Children establish cognitive, social and emotional foundation in the first years of life upon which they build their features and that is the reason why it is a crucial time period for the growth and development of the mental functions of these kids. This is the ideal time when they develop skills and abilities in areas including language, psychosocial cognitive, motor skills and learning.
Working with children from culturally and linguistically diverse setting and background is seemingly a special challenge to childhood education and to the educators as well. A cultural gap is widening in many schools in different nations as educators continue struggling to serve students from cultures other than their own in regards to the demographic changes that create cultural diversity in schools. Cultural competence is the ability to successfully teach and educate all students who come from different cultures other than their own. It involves developing certain interpersonal and personal sensitivities and awareness, mastering a set of skills and developing particular bodies of cultural knowledge.
Cultural competence is basically what happens when particular knowledge about groups and individuals is incorporated into policies, standards and practices. Arguably, that particular process of attaining cultural competence leads to major reflections including family and background appreciation. It also plays a major role in appreciating an increase in the effectiveness and quality of services, yielding better outcomes. For early childhood education to be described as culturally competent, it needs to have a set of principles and values that recognize diversity. It should also adapt to the cultural context and diversity of the children of various communities they serve. Subsequently, early childhood education affects performance and learning in wide-ranging ways. For instance, within the early childhood educational setting, cultural competence involves finding coherent ways to infuse appreciation and knowledge on different cultures into daily practice (Gay, 2010, p. 321).
Quite often, early childhood classrooms are filled with children from various linguistic and cultural backgrounds. There are unique features in these classrooms particularly the different cultural communities that are not quite well understood by teachers and educators. For this reason, it is not pretty well integrated into classroom practice. By and large, the establishment of cultural competence is a long-term and an ongoing process which demands curiosity, enthusiasm and congeniality about other cultures as well as the willingness to adapt various practices in education to reflect both values and the exceptional characteristics of children and their parents as well. Examples of how cultural competence can impact learning include:
- A certain facial expression in some cultures could be sufficient to quiet down the noise and get the students’ attention in the room while in others, verbal mockery and shouting is the norm.
- During play, gentle hands-on-hands guidance may be effective and comforting for some children but quite upsetting and disconnecting to others. With these kinds of interactions, levels of comfort can be affected irrespective of the gender of the nurturing adult.
- In some institutions and homes, children are encouraged to look away or look down when being addressed by adults. To a great extent, these culture-specific respectful behaviour may be mistaken easily as show of defiance not well understood particularly in a culturally competent context (Gestwicki, 2011, p. 289).
Keys to developing collaborative and effective relationships within communities that are culturally diverse include; establishing collaborative relationships that are effective which may involve a commitment, sharing and flexibility to developing and sustaining open lines of understanding and communication.
References
Gay, G. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. New York: Teachers College.
Gestwicki, C. (2011). Developmentally appropriate practice: Curriculum and development in early education. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
