Welcoming Families From Around the World

Every moment of every day, teachers' personalities, preferences, judgments, values, and abilities are on display. Our classrooms are filled with children who possess unique personalities and capabilities, children who may be quite different from ourselves in many ways. 
Our challenge in today's current education climate is "to see each student as a growing, dynamic, developing, stretching being-a fellow human creature-with specific needs and demands and hopes and desires and potentials" (Ayers, 1995, p. 2). 
When a child emigrates from one country to another, the parents usually seek a school that is deemed as being the right "fit" for their child's needs.When a child moves from Sao-Paulo, Brazil to Japan, there are ways that I can be culturally responsive to that child's needs.

Early educators can play a paramount role as young children move through fluid identities and start recognizing and navigating within and across spaces of cultural differences—e.g., between home cultures and the socially-dominant school culture. Being mindful that I must support my child and the others children need, in order to address the multiplicity of cultures present in  the classroom:

the children could sample how the holidays were implemented across cultures (Souto-Manning,2010). One teacher writes about her experience, "During my week, the first day we talked about who Santa was and what countries he visited. We talked about how holidays are typically a time for giving. In addition, we discussed Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and the Chinese New Year. I recall one of the kids’ favorite parts of their experience that year was a parent coming in to help make ornaments with the class. That parent presented first-hand experience and shared stories while actively engaging the children."

Involving more parents and capitalizing on funds of knowledge. Funds of knowledge are cultural artifacts and knowledge present in households which underlie family practices, cultural resources that are important in familial networks.

Embodying the stance of an ethnographer, learning about the histories behind children’s cultural contexts and values.

Fostering and observing dialogues at varied times-sometimes it happens at circle time, during meals and snacks; sometimes with the entire class, or with a small group of children.

Challenging assumptions and start embracing and applying a true sense of diversity in the classroom. To put it very simply, for example, Christmas (often called winter holidays in the school context) takes place in the summer in Southern Hemisphere countries such as Brazil and Australia.

With these ways I would incorporate into my teaching, I hope that from learning about the cultural knowledge and practices a child experienced at home, it is integral to incorporate these way all year ling. From learning alongside with your students and their families will you be able to honor diversities. the more parents and families are involved the better, whether they come and read a book or simply talk about their cultural practices, it is important to always get as much involvement as possible because they have the first hand knowledge.

                                                      

References

Ayers, W. (1995). Introduction: Joining the ranks. In W. Ayers (Ed.), To become a teacher: Making a difference in children's lives (pp. 1-4). New York: Teachers College Press.Childhood Education, 87(5), 337-340. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/875892825?accountid=14872

Souto-manning, M., & Mitchell, C. H. (2010). The role of action research in fostering culturally-responsive practices in a preschool classroom. Early Childhood Education Journal, 37(4), 269-277. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10643-009-0345-9