Scenario:
You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.
The family’s county of origin is Barbados.
To prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family I would learn about their country and culture, examine my own biases and stereotypes, prepare the center for the new family by hanging important notices and welcome sign in family’s home language, ensure that the class the child will be in has material that represent them, and ensure I know how to pronounce their names correctly.
I would hope that these preparations make the family feel accepted and welcomed, that there is a connection between school and home, and for the child I hope it would strengthen his or her racial and ethnic identity. For me I hope the preparations would cancel all biases and stereotypes that I may have, to also be able to nurture the child’s needs, and set the tone to build a relationship and partnership with the parents.
Learning is Fun and Educational 