Session 2

Introducing “Culture” to Young Children

 

When thinking of developmentally appropriate ways of introducing “culture” in child care settings, it is important that teachers be sure that young children can easily understand, relate to, and connect what they learn to their own lives. In the past, multicultural and anti-bias early childhood programming often did not stress this relevance and connection. Some teachers would “do” a particular culture or country for one or two weeks and then move on to another one. This leads to what is called the tourist curriculum (Derman-Sparks).

 

A tourist curriculum is likely to teach about cultures through food, fun, and festivals. The weakness of this approach is that cultures are represented only though special events in a centre and not in the ongoing daily program for the children. For example, if the only recognition of Chinese culture in the classroom is the yearly celebration of Chinese New Year when we make dragons, wear “Chinese” clothing, cook “Chinese” food, and eat with chopsticks, we are falling into the “tourist trap.”

 

The danger of the tourist approach is that it can be patronizing and stereotyping if we only emphasize the “exotic” aspects of culture, such as celebrations and entertainment. Children only “visit” the culture or country and then “go home” to the daily life in their classroom. (It is important to note that the “dominant” or “mainstream culture” is seldom portrayed in the food, fun, and festivals manner.)

 

One of the dangers of the tourist curriculum is that the approach fails to develop real understandings of others.

 

In order to avoid the “tourist trap,” implement the following Key Concepts of Multicultural Early Childhood Education:

• Emphasize human similarities before differences.

• Make learning concrete and interactive.

• Represent the range of cultures and family lifestyles present in your program, and then in the wider community.

• Reflect mainly local and contemporary cultures, rather than those that are international or historical.

• Incorporate multicultural, anti-bias programming in each curriculum area and every learning centre.

• Support and encourage a child’s home language.

• Provide both “known” and “new” experiences and materials for each child in your program.

To Celebrate or Not: A Question for Careful Consideration!

 

Holidays often serve as a focal point for multicultural programming in early childhood care and education. More recently,
a number of well-respected researchers and authors have critiqued this approach and alerted us to some of the pitfalls of a “song and dance” focus.

 

In our efforts to ensure culturally sensitive child care and to integrate diversity education into our programs, we have several options to consider with regard to the role of holiday celebrations. We can choose to celebrate all holidays, we can choose to celebrate no holidays, or we can find a comfortable place somewhere in between.

 

Coming to consensus about the role of celebrations in your program can be challenging. While some staff and families may have no strong feeling about this issue, others may hold very particular beliefs for or against holiday activities based on roots, religion, and the visibility of holidays as a symbol of cultural expression. To help inform and clarify your decision making, consider the following approaches:

 

Let’s Celebrate Everything!

 

This perspective presents an opportunity for an inclusive, proactive approach to “living multiculturalism” in your program.

 

On the one hand, celebrating everything can

• affirm children and their families in expression of meaningful cultural activities

• provide opportunities to expand children’s horizons

• introduce children to new knowledge about cultural diversity

• build respect and appreciation for our human similarities and differences

• offer enriching cross-cultural learning

On the other hand, celebrating everything has the potential to

• overwhelm our program with a theme-based rather than an emergent curriculum approach

• promote commercialism and consumerism

• reinforce overgeneralizations and stereotypes about holidays and festivals

• contribute to a “song and dance” exotic or tourist approach to multicultural education

• result in tokenistic and superficial learning

• create dilemmas and conflicts regarding religious issues

• cause unintended hurt or offence to families

Let’s Celebrate Nothing!

 

This perspective can help us avoid the risks and challenges identified above.

 

On the one hand, celebrating nothing can

• provide more opportunities for child initiated, flexible, and open-ended program planning

• ensure greater sensitivity to children and families in low income or poverty situations

• decrease the potential for trivializing religious or cultural elements of holidays

• reduce the possibility of conflict between and among staff and families

• eliminate the potential for developmentally inappropriate programming with respect to holiday celebrations

• downplay the emphasis on our differences and increase opportunities to focus on our similarities

• refocus our efforts and energy to celebrate other kinds of events, issues, or successes that are meaningful for children

On the other hand, celebrating nothing can

• diminish opportunities for cross-cultural learning

• prevent children from participating in a host of hands-on concrete and enjoyable activities

• decrease opportunities for staff to learn and integrate new cross-cultural understanding

• reduce the potential for meaningful family involvement in the program

• limit “teachable moments” for children

• limit staff ability to implement the program’s active commitment to diversity philosophy and practice

Your choices about holiday celebrations will be influenced by your own and other families’ values, beliefs, environment, and experiences. We invite you to reflect, consider, and engage co-operatively with co-workers and families as you decide upon the role that holiday celebrations will play in your program. Consider the following framework to assist staff and families in deciding whether or not to include celebrations in their child care settings.

 

A. The process of how we ask and answer the question “to celebrate or not?” is, in itself, key. Together, staff and families can make a commitment to questioning, sharing, listening, and incorporating different perspectives in overall decisions and plans. By being respectful, inclusive, and open-ended as we examine whether or not we include celebrations, we are, at the adult level, engaging in the actual practice of cross-cultural and anti-bias learning. If we model this process in the presence of children, we show them not only how we solve a particular issue, but also that similarities and differences are a natural part of human life which can be accepted and incorporated as part of positive problem solving. So for our own sake, and for children’s, the process of asking and answering questions about celebrations is as important as the outcome.

 

B. Beyond process considerations, it is important to consider celebrations within a broader context. If we agree with Louise Derman-Sparks’ “Four Anti-Bias Curriculum Goals,” then we can balance how celebrations might become part of overall curriculum. We can plan a celebration that

• fosters each child’s construction of a knowledgeable, confident self-identity

• fosters each child’s comfortable empathetic interaction with people of diverse backgrounds

• fosters each child’s critical thinking about bias

• fosters each child’s ability to stand up for herself/himself and for others in the face of bias

With these goals in mind, celebrations, as a human commonality, may be something we want to share as part of our anti-bias curriculum, but only if we do it accurately, appropriately, and in ways that do not overshadow other learning. This suggests that answering the questions “to celebrate or not,” an all or nothing approach, denies the opportunity to introduce children to the full spectrum of human experience, aspirations, and cultural expression.

 

C. A third general consideration is implementation. As with all other programming choices, how we include celebrations will strongly affect whether learning outcomes will be reflective of our overall anti-bias goals. Implementation choices involve decisions about what songs to teach or what art materials to offer. But more importantly, adult modelling is crucial. The way we introduce celebrations, ask questions, and link similarities and differences to children’s own experiences makes a profound difference to what children do or do not learn. We can use celebrations as the basis for respectful and thoughtful inquiry into diversity—instead of just going through the motions of superficial “song and dance” activities.

 

Taken together, process considerations, context issues, and implementation strategies suggest that “all or nothing” approaches are not the most supportive of broad anti-bias goals. As staff and families consider options with this in mind, they may decide to include some celebrations within their child care setting. Many excellent resources are available on what, how, and when to offer developmentally appropriate and contextually relevant programming. If staff and families answer “yes” to the question “to celebrate or not?” they can then use these resources for fine-tuning celebration activities as part of a broad-base, anti-bias, multicultural curriculum.