castro culture.pdf

The Environment

Katherine’s experience shows how a professional can build on the existing home environment to promote interactions that make children feel included and give them the opportunity to learn in their typical home and community environments. Early childhood professionals should regularly examine the physical environment and materials they use to ensure that the materials support multicultural practices. The physical environment (room decorations, toys, displays, books, music, art, food) should reflect the lives and interests of those within the program or classroom and also encourage knowledge and respect for individuals from various cultures in our own country and around the world.

Room decorations should not only incorporate all the races, ethnicities, cultures, and personal realities of the children in the program or school, but should also expose children to visual reminders of diversity that exists outside of the early childhood setting. Displays should include pictures of people of many colors, different forms of housing, various geographic settings from rural to urban, different family styles, and different expressions of cultural events and holidays (Sandall et al., 2005). Toys and books that reflect diversity in languages, races, ethnicities, cultures, and abilities should be available for children to explore. For example, if there are different languages (including sign language) in the program or classroom, then it is particularly important to include books, signs, and other materials in those languages.

Children should be exposed to music, art, artifacts, and foods from different cultures and allowed freedom for exploring and cooperative learning. Given that developmental outcomes vary with cultural interpretations, it follows that methods of child care or education vary from one culture to the next. Practices in other cultures may challenge the values and beliefs about child development prevalent in the mainstream. For example, a teacher might purposely select materials for the classroom that encourage cooperation and altruism, such as large building blocks that are too big for one child to carry alone.

Avoid using pictures, books, or objects that reinforce stereotypes when choosing materials for a program or classroom. Some professionals are unsure about including cultural diversity and end up having books and materials that just show animals. But choosing culturally and linguistically appropriate materials means finding books and materials that show people within cultural groups enjoying a range of customs and activities, living in a variety of settings, and belonging to a variety of socioeconomic groups, as well as single-parent families, two-parent families, and other styles of family composition. Do not confuse images of past ways of life of a group with its contemporary life or confuse images of people’s holiday life with their daily lives. For example, Native Americans should not always be presented in traditional clothing, participating in traditional customs, and living in tepees. Look for bias or stereotypes in materials before selecting them. For example, books and materials should show women working inside and outside the home and men as caregivers.

Keep in mind that not all materials marked multicultural are good materials for your classroom or for the children you serve. It is essential that you find out about the children and families and about the cultural backgrounds and the communities in which they live. This information, together with guidance on selecting appropriate materials (see the Antibias Observation Checklist in Appendix C at the end of the book), will help you choose the materials that are right for the children and families you serve. A preschool teacher with a diverse classroom, including Caucasian and African American children as well as Spanish-speaking Latino children, some of whom had hearing impairments, decided to enrich her classroom environment with multicultural materials, displays, and dolls. She bought posters, puzzles, and other materials showing children from various racial and ethnic backgrounds, as well as children with disabilities. She labeled classroom objects in both English and Spanish. She added an African American doll and a Latino doll in the housekeeping center and put a hearing aid on the Latino doll.

Hints for Selecting Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Materials

When choosing materials for your program or classroom, look at them closely to ensure that they are truly multicultural and appropriate. The following questions and ideas are from Santos and Reese (1999).

  1. Does the publication, DVD, or CD take into account both implicit and explicit assumptions, beliefs, or values that are appropriate or potentially problematic for the receiving family?
  2. Is the information presented in a format preferred by the receiving family?
  3. Is the literacy level appropriate for the receiving family?

Types of Bias to Look for in Books

Be aware of the types of bias that can be found in books when choosing culturally and linguistically appropriate materials. If you are familiar with the following types of bias (Sadker, Sadker, & Long, 1997), then you can recognize them in materials and avoid having biased books in your program or classroom.

Conclusion

This module discussed the concept of developmentally appropriate practices and how it has changed to include cultural and linguistic diversity. The module talked about multicultural education, its primary goals, and persistent myths that have prevented its full understanding. In addition, it presented some strategies for incorporating a multicultural approach to child care and education, including activities that promote cultural awareness and incorporate the home culture and language. Finally, the module talked about transforming programs and schools so that education—content integration, knowledge construction process, prejudice reduction, equity pedagogy, and empowering school culture and social structure.

Key Ideas to Remember