English Child Diversity

Early childhood education curriculums are becoming a national curriculum in most countries. With more governments and society thinking about education of under-fives we are seeing shifts in thinking and education to meet the changing world. We are developing children skills for the future to create a society where children feel they belong and can contribute to society. Curriculums are being influenced my social, political, cultural, historical and theoretical issues that are impacting different curriculums in the world. I am going to explore and develop my understanding about three different curriculums to recognise the different influences affecting curriculums. I am going to explore the curriculums of Te Whāriki: New Zealand, Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia and Curriculum for Excellence: Scotland. This will allow me to develop an understanding of other curriculums which I have not heard about to discover other way to education that I have not been taught in teacher’s college.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum in England differs greatly in structure and content to the Te Whariki curriculum in New Zealand; this therefore makes for an interesting comparison. The EYFS was introduced in England, in 2008, by the DfE as a framework that ‘sets the standards for learning, development and care of children from birth to five’ (DfE, 2012). Alternatively, Te Whariki was founded in New Zealand, in 1996, based on the aspirations for children ‘to grow up as competent and confident learners and communicators, healthy in mind, body, and spirit, secure in their sense of belonging and in the knowledge that they make a valued contribution to society’ (Ministry of Education, 1996). Throughout this essay, the EYFS

When delivering school curriculum, educators must meet the needs and strengths of all students. The Australian Curriculum allows educators to personalize their teaching and learning programs by selecting content that is stimulating, challenging and meets the individual needs and strengths of all students in a classroom (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2015). The Early Years Learning Framework (2010) explains how a student’s culture is central to who they are as a human being and gives them a sense of belonging (pp. 21-22). Using these two documents, educators can carry out learning programs that caters for all needs,

As teachers, how we treat and react to worldviews is significantly important for how all children can achieve and succeed in education in the classroom. Students should be able to feel comfortable with their identity, and find where they fit in the world, and the classroom. Teachers should encourage and nurture all the different identities and be sensitive to those who are unsure of their identity, as it is these interactions and perceptions that shape identities (Milne, 2013). With a secure identity, students are more likely to be connected and feel part of the world around them, and achieve well in education. Connections between home and school environments are also important in building normalisation, fitting into the classroom and school environment and achieving well in education (Lumby, 2012). By having the classroom and home environment working together in conjunction provides shared knowledge and a secure identity for the students to build on and learn from. Every student learns differently, which education should be tailored to suit. Instead of having to change the student to suit the normalised education system, we should be able to adjust the learning, so it can

Teachers must learn about their student’s cultures if they want to educate them to the best of their ability. Many of the students in culturally diverse classrooms will want to learn in different ways. Some will want to learn in pairs, groups, as a class, or just alone. If the teacher is educated in their culture then lessons can be adjusted to appeal to every student as much as possible instead of forcing some to forget about their culture and learn like others. Students from

First of all, it is important that every person is respected and appreciated despite differences. In this program we have four main goals for your child in this area. We will teach in a way that each child will be able to demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, pride in his heritage and culture, as well as teaching them to have positive social identities. Each child should demonstrate comfort and joy in our differences, in human diversity, they will learn appropriate verbiage for human differences, and we will work towards guiding them to make deep, caring human connections.

Critical analysis of your own values and beliefs and the assumptions that are made is the first step to becoming culturally competent. It is an ongoing learning process. In practice, it involves talking with families and learning what their culture, beliefs and values are and what aspirations they have for their children, how and what they expect their children to achieve and learn while at the centre. It involves looking at the broader community, what cultural groups are represented, looking at what diversity looks like in the early childhood centre and how the families and their culture is represented, and if it is not, looking for ways that it could be. It is having a commitment to ongoing learning, reflection and continued improvement.

Moreover, teaching multicultural diversity in preschool ages increase children’s awareness, appreciation and inclusion of diverse beliefs and cultures. It means that children with different needs are giving opportunities to participate in the general education curriculum based on their ages and grades. Those children are not separated by classrooms, but rather the curriculum and the rooms are conformed to meet their needs. Research shows that children are capable of understanding differences and abilities of surrounding people at the very early ages (Perlman, Kankesan, & Zhang, 2010). Therefore, a program, which fully regards to multiculturalism, allows children to explore varying cultures and create opportunities for them to recognise that even when people have various customs and traditions, they often share some similar characteristics as well. The ability to function compatibly and efficiently in a multicultural society is also promoted throughout a multicultural program. It is obvious that children are able

Gaining learning and experience about other cultures background will enrich my multicultural knowledge. Therefore, as an educator I must learn about others culture. As I begin to learn about others cultures I will understand how values influence the ways families interpret the instruction that feels right to them. A close study on Figure 3.1 implies that a teacher’s point view or the way the students are treaty can affect their learning. It keeps narrating the story of a teacher that had to learn her students’ roots, their culture values, to get to know them in order to reach them in an academically level. The cultural values are very important and cannot be overlooked, they shape our intrinsic motivation. Many families try to keep their values and belief intact at home, so their children when they step in a classroom. Monica Brown, is the Department editor of Diversity Dispatch, argues in her article, Educating All Students: Creating Culturally Responsive Teachers, Classrooms, and Schools, that nowadays it is noticeable the diversity growths in schools, however, this is not the problem. The problem is the way teachers have responded to the diversity growth. (Brown, M. 2007). Therefore, this will affect the students learning. Brown cross with a strong point in regarding the lack of sensitivity some educators show towards their students’ culture. As educator I don’t want to be one of many teachers Monica Brown speaks on her article. I will understand that I must respect my

To enrich children's understanding and respect of cultural identities within the service’s community educators need to first gain a solid understanding of the cultural identities within the centre themselves. Open communication between educators and children and their families is a key to gathering information from each child’s cultural background and cultural identity. Using collaborative partnerships between educators and family members will assist with gathering information and inclusivity between all cultural groups represented in the Centre's community. Collaborative Partnerships are defined as “involving two-way communication and negotiation where educators and family members share information, exchange ideas and work towards shared goals” (Arthur et al. 2015 P37).

The objective for the workshop will be to educate the foster parents on multiculturalism and anti-racism before children begin to be placed in their homes. The workshop will include information on how to care for a child’s individual cultural needs and how to ensure that a child from a different

Humans are special. They are the same when they are born but as they grow and develop, they begin to show their own differences and specialness. Some have gifted talents and some have diverse needs which mostly can be seen in the first three years of a child such as Hearing impairment, Visual impairment, Physical disabilities and Challenging behaviour which will be focused in this essay. As a human, we all have the basic right to live and learn and we all should not discriminate each other but respect one another especially children who cannot speak for themselves. The United Nations convention on the rights of the child [UNCROC] stated that all children should be respected and their rights should be protected despite the “child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, Colour, sex, language, religion…properly, disability, birth or other status” (United Nations, 1989, Article 2, 1,). Parents and teachers are the first people who recognise these differences and it is significant for the children as it can affect their success in future development and learning. In early childhood education [ECE] setting as stated in Te whāriki (1996), “all children should be given the opportunity to develop knowledge and an understanding of the cultural heritages” (Ministry of Education [MoE], p.9). We as a teacher need to include these children into the centre planning not to exclude them due to the challenges of the diverse needs. . .

During my block school experience at an Early Years Centre in Croydon I was able to experience a wide variety of languages in use in the classroom. There were many children with English as an additional language (EAL). Although fifty eight children out of a nursery class of sixty could speak English it was not their first language. The range of languages included: French, Arabic, Polish, Greek, Somali and Tamil. English as an additional language was a barrier for many children; however, the staff had a number of strategies in place to support the children’s learning and development.

On the other hand, the concept of critical multiculturalism is about looking critically from the perspective of institutional racism and oppression that exists in the dominant Pakeha culture (Chan, 2009). Critical multiculturalism establishes, and advocates social justice for all concerned (Nieto, 1999, cited by Chan, 2009). In order for this to happen, early childhood educators need to start by first recognizing and addressing their own cultural identity, in order that they may be able to see, understand, and appreciate the cultural and ethnic diversity in others (Rhedding-Jones, 2010). This idea is further reinforced by Ponciano and Shabazian, (2012) who state that only through such self-reflection, and personal interactions with the various cultures, can

This report is on Te Whariki: Early Childhood Curriculum in which we follow as a framework for teaching in New Zealand. This report is going to cover the three broad age groups Te Whariki is based upon. It will explain the principles and strands of Te Whariki and the impact it has on a developing child. It will describe the purpose of Te Whariki and discuss ways it is used by early childhood education services throughout New Zealand. It will describe Te Whariki’s support for bi-culturalism throughout the early childhood sector. This report will discuss the importance of a partnership between home and the early childhood education settings, and will also discuss the Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system theory and how