EARLY CHILDHOOD I I CREATING ENVIRONMENTS AND PROVOCATIONS
TEACHING WITH A MULTI-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Teaching with a multicultural perspective encourages appreciation and understanding of other cultures as well as one's own. Teaching with this perspective promotes the child's sense of the uniqueness of his own culture as a positive characteristic and enables the child to accept the uniqueness of the cultures of others.
Children's attitudes toward their race and ethnic group and other cultural groups begin to form early in the preschool years. Infants can recognise differences in those around them, and young children can easily absorb negative stereotypes. Children are easily influenced by the culture, opinions, and attitudes of their educators. Teachers' perceptions of ethnic and racial groups can affect the child's attitudes toward those minority groups. Early childhood educators can influence the development of positive attitudes in young children by learning about and promoting the various cultures represented among the children they teach.
Young children can develop stereotypic viewpoints of cultures different from their own when similarities among all individuals are not emphasised. Teachers can help eliminate stereotypes by presenting material and activities that enable children to learn the similarities of all individuals. Circle time is particularly helpful in this respect, as it provides children with a feeling of group identity and introduces them to the variety of cultures represented in the class.
A multicultural program should not focus on other cultures to the exclusion of the cultures represented in the class. Children from different cultures often have to make major behavioural adjustments to meet the expectations of the school. Teachers should take whatever measures are necessary to see that children do not interpret these adjustments as evidence of cultural stereotypes.
PROMOTING A MULTICULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Multicultural education embodies a perspective rather than a curriculum. Teachers must consider children's cultural identities and be aware of their own biases. It is tempting to deny our prejudices and claim that we find all children equally appealing. Teachers and parents need to acknowledge the fact that we, like our children, are inevitably influenced by the stereotypes and one-sided view of society that exists in our schools and the media. Not only must we recognise those biases, but we must change the attitude they represent by accepting all children as we receive them.
One problem with the current thrust in multicultural education is that it pays little or no attention to teaching people how to recognise when culturally and racially different groups are being victimised by the racist or biased attitudes of the larger society. In order to change people's oppressive ways, we must learn about oppression. We must examine our responses to diversity, devoting as much effort to changing them as we devote to learning about culture. Nurturing diversity means making multicultural education a process of action, through which we as adults achieve clarity about our condition in this society and ways to change it.
Teachers and parents can take several approaches to integrate and develop a multicultural perspective. The promotion of a positive self-concept is essential, as is a focus on activities that highlight the similarities and differences of all children's lives. Children's play, particularly role play, is an excellent strategy for developing new perspectives on culture and lifestyles.
The treatment of children as unique individuals, each with something special to contribute, is an important strategy. If a teacher is to understand the whole child, he or she must become aware of the child's cultural background. Children can benefit from understanding the teacher's heritage and background. The feeling of connection that results is vital to the child's acceptance of the similarities and differences of others.
Through multicultural literature, children discover that all cultural groups have made significant contributions to civilisation. A well-balanced multicultural literature program includes literature that depicts people with a variety of aspirations, from different sociometric levels, with different occupations, and with a range of human characteristics.
TEACHING TOLERANCE
In its Declaration of Principles on Tolerance, UNESCO offers a definition of tolerance that most closely matches our philosophical use of the word:
Tolerance is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world's cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human.
Tolerance is harmony in difference.
We view tolerance as a way of thinking and feeling — but most importantly, of acting — that gives us peace in our individuality, respect for those unlike us, the wisdom to discern humane values and the courage to act upon them.
A multicultural society does not reject the culture of the other but is prepared to listen, to see, to dialogue and, in the final analysis, to possibly accept the other's culture without compromising its own
Being in a multicultural environment in childhood is going to give you intuition, reflexes and instincts. You may acquire basic responsiveness later on, but it's never going to be as spontaneous as when you have been bathing in this environment during childhood.
Cultural differences should not separate us from each other, but rather cultural diversity brings a collective strength that can benefit all of humanity.
Intercultural dialogue is the best guarantee of a more peaceful, just and sustainable world.
We may have different religions, different languages, different coloured skin, but we all belong to one human race
Peace is not unity in similarity but unity in diversity, in the comparison and conciliation of differences
Our cultural strength has always been derived from our diversity of understanding and experience
Difference is of the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth and it should therefore never be the source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect it. Therein lies a most fundamental principle of peace: respect for diversity.
The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?
Peace cannot exist without justice, justice cannot exist without fairness, fairness cannot exist without development, development cannot exist without democracy, democracy cannot exist without respect for the identity and worth of cultures and peoples
How do we create a harmonious society out of so many kinds of people? The key is tolerance -- the one value that is indispensable in creating community
Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.
No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive
Respect for the rights of others means peace
We all smile in the same language
Keep your language. Love its sounds, its modulation, its rhythm. But try to march together with men of different languages, remote from your own, who wish like you for a more just and human world
Where humanity
sowed faith, hope, and unity,
joy’s garden blossomed
We need to give each other the space to grow, to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity. We need to give each other space so that we may both give and receive such beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity, joy, healing, and inclusion
Diversity: the art of thinking independently together
A lot of different flowers make a bouquet
I can see myself in all things and all people around me
Diversity is the one true thing we all have in common. Celebrate it every day
We all live with the objective of being happy: our lives are all different and yet the same. – Anne Frank
We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.
We should all know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their colour
Children become culturally sensitive and respectful when they see adults who are culturally sensitive and respectful, and who take a stand against bias, racism or insensitivity
Culture is the arts elevated to a set of beliefs
