Multiculturalism Within A Preschool

It is vitally important that all cultures be acknowledged and accepted in early childhood education services. Multiculturalism then becomes an exciting and rewarding way to learn and to teach.

New Zealand is accepting more and more different cultures into its society every year. As a result, ECE services are enrolling more and more immigrant and refugee children. It is important that these children experience a smooth transition into the centre. This happens when staff members include the new religions, languages and customs into their activities.

Teachers are required to work with children and families from diverse cultures whether they agree with their own personal beliefs or not. Therefore it is vital that to better understand a child their family and culture is to be understood as well. This can be achieved by building meaningful relationships with the caregivers of children, where teachers can gain greater insight to the lives of the children they teach.

Families' cultures can be incorporated into the preschools learning environment in many other ways, including:

Making a family tree with photos from every family in the centre
Creating a world map or a globe with the children, and marking where all the families come from with names or photos
Playing music and singing songs from the children's countries
Making the flags of different countries with the children
Inviting parents to come to the centre to cook the ethnic food of their country
At least once every term, hold a cultural day. Ask the children to dress in their country's traditional clothes on that day
Learn a new greeting each week
Acknowledge different cultural celebrations not just Easter and Christmas
Provide various ethnic clothes in the dress up area
Have books in the centre from around the world. A number of these books will be written in English as well as the native tongue.
Put up posters and pictures of children in different countries
Create a time when the children's family members can come and share something special
Have family evenings where families get the opportunity to meet others in the community
Use the notice board to provide useful information to newly-arrived families

These are just some of the exciting ways early childhood education services can support the newly-enrolled families and provide them with what they need.

People can only live fully by helping others to live. When you give life to friends you truly live. Cultures can only realize their further richness by honoring other traditions. And only by respecting natural life can humanity continue to exist. -Diasaku Ikeda.