Early childhood education and care has a powerful impact upon child outcomes. To ensure every child can benefit from early childhood education, it is important that the learning environment is inclusive, equitable and respectful of diversity – including diversity of culture, ability, socioeconomic status, income and religion. Diversity does not only refer to multiculturalism, but it embraces everyone.
Educators can help to create a culture of diversity and inclusion by reflecting upon their own values, beliefs and assumptions and by promoting acceptance and inclusivity.
WATCH
In the following 2-and-a-half-minute video, you’ll hear children of different ages talk about what diversity means to them:
By the end of this topic, you will understand:
- How to explain the meaning of inclusiveness, diversity, equity and access
- How inclusiveness, diversity, equity and access can be demonstrated in early childhood education and care
- How your own values, beliefs and assumptions shape your world view.
It is important for early childhood educators to understand the meaning of four (4) key principles:
- Inclusiveness
- Diversity
- Equity
- Access.
The definition of each principle is provided in the following table, along with a description of what the principle means in early childhood education and care settings.
|
Principle |
Definition |
What This Means in Early Childhood Education and Care |
|---|---|---|
|
Inclusiveness |
Providing people with equal access to resources and opportunities, especially to those who might otherwise be excluded or marginalised |
All children can access and participate in early childhood education and care services regardless of their:
|
|
Diversity |
Respecting the differences that make people unique and different from each other. These differences include but are not limited to:
|
Every child has the right to be included in every aspect of life, including:
|
|
Equity |
Treating people differently depending on need. The principle of equity recognises that some people have unequal access to resources and opportunities, and to address that, inequality steps need to be taken to provide additional resources and opportunities to those who need them. |
Providing individualised or additional support to children who need it to ensure they can fully engage in high-quality education and care. Recognising barriers to learning and imbalances of power and addressing them. |
|
Access |
Having the means or opportunity to use or benefit from early childhood education and care services. |
Some children experience more barriers to accessing early childhood education and care than others. Barriers to access include:
|
WATCH
The following 3-and-a-half minute video explains the difference between equality and equity: as people all have different skills and needs, sometimes they need to be treated differently so they can live equally.
Embedding the principles of inclusiveness, diversity, equity and access in your everyday practice is a powerful way of supporting positive and respectful relationships with children and their families, demonstrating respect for them, regardless of factors such as cultural background and ability. Applying these principles to your work will also help to ensure that every child who attends your service has equal opportunities to learn and thrive.
|
Action |
Inclusivity |
Diversity |
Equity |
Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Use inclusive and respectful language when referring to children with disability or complex additional needs. |
✓ | |||
|
Support children with additional needs to participate in activities. |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
|
Show genuine interest in the cultural traditions of families, such as religious and cultural festivals and holidays. |
✓ | |||
|
Provide children with opportunities to hear and learn from people from a range of different backgrounds. |
✓ | |||
|
Encourage children to value the things that make another person special and unique. |
✓ | |||
|
Use decorations, pictures and materials that reflect the identity and culture of children and families. |
✓ | ✓ | ||
|
Ask yourself, ‘Who is advantaged when I work in this way? Who is disadvantaged?’ |
✓ | ✓ | ||
|
Modify environments and activities to ensure children with complex needs can participate. |
✓ | ✓ | ||
|
Avoid cultural tokenism such as:
|
✓ | ✓ |
Resource
For more information about supporting cultural diversity in early childhood settings, visit the ‘Information for Families and Early Childhood Educators – Component 1: Creating a Sense of Community’ resource published by KidsMatter Australian Early Childhood Mental Health Initiative on ACECQA’s website.
Little.ly Early Childhood Centre – Children with additional needs
Staff at the Little.ly Early Childhood Centre understand that all children have needs, some of them may have a few extra or additional needs. This is why they use inclusive and respectful language when referring to children with disability. For example, rather than saying ‘children with special needs’, they use the term ‘children with complex additional needs’. The term ‘children with special needs’ is not inclusive because it sets those children apart from other children (i.e. they are ‘special’).
WATCH
The following 3-minute video demonstrates how inclusion can make the world more vibrant:
Celebrations
Religious and cultural special events alter each year. In Australia, some dates are fixed, such as Christmas Day on 25 December and New Year’s Day on 1 January. (Note that some cultures and traditions celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Day on different dates.)
However, there are also celebrations that are based on a lunar (moon) calendar, such as Easter, which occurs on the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon. In addition, there are many other events to celebrate or commemorate, such as Anzac Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, NAIDOC Week, Book Week, Harmony Day, etc. There are calendars available online that outline most national events, national weeks of celebration, and cultural and religious dates. These calendars can be found on the Australian Government website.
Early children’s education and care settings should celebrate special occasions important to the individual children and families to recognise, respect and strengthen children’s appreciation of diversity and difference. This also strengthens children’s sense of belonging and the positive relationships within the service. However, celebrations must be handled with increased empathy to avoid any discomfort. For example, organising a Mother’s Day morning tea could be extended to grandparents if there are families where there is no mother due to different family structures (e.g. family with two fathers) or family circumstances (e.g. deceased mother). Communication with empathy and respect helps to handle these sensitive situations. If you are not sure how a family wishes to celebrate a special event, simply ask.
Here are some examples of useful calendars available online to track special events. Services should consult families and other stakeholders first before choosing special events to celebrate. These special events should be relevant to all stakeholders:
- Yearly calendar of cultural celebrations and events for early childhood services on Aussie Childcare Network
- Calendar for early childhood from NSW Government
- Special days and events calendar on Childcare Centre Desktop
Check your understanding
Read the following statements and decide whether they are TRUE or FALSE:
WATCH
The following 4-minute video is a case study on cultural and linguistic diversity, demonstrating and showcasing some useful strategies for implementing inclusive practices:
Understanding your own values, beliefs and assumptions can help you encourage and promote inclusiveness and diversity. Many of our values, beliefs and assumptions are unspoken – they are so ingrained in our everyday life and thoughts that we are unaware of them.
Think
You can use the following self-reflective questions to help you understand your own unspoken values, beliefs, and assumptions:
- How would you define the word ‘culture’?
- How would you define or describe your culture? If you find it hard to answer this question, why do you think you find it difficult?
- When you were growing up, what did you learn from your family about:
- Parents’ roles
- Children’s responsibilities
- Elderly people
- Marriage
- Gender roles
- Independence
- Freedom
- Meaningful work
- How does what you learned about these concepts as a child influence your values and attitudes now?
- Which beliefs and practices that are different from your own make you feel uncomfortable?
- What makes it easy or difficult for you to put yourself ‘in someone else’s shoes’?
- After talking with different types of families, what assumptions do you make? What are you curious about?
You can also help children understand how their own values and beliefs influence their worldview. For example, if a child is demonstrating prejudiced views or behavior, you can ask them about where their beliefs stem from and sensitively challenge assumptions and stereotypes. You can also encourage empathy by asking children to imagine how they might feel if they experienced discrimination.
Little.ly Early Learning Centre – Alma’s cultural beliefs
Alma was raised in a middle-class suburb in a nuclear family with parents from an Anglo-Celtic background. During a professional development session Alma and her colleagues are asked to reflect upon their cultural background and how it influences the way they interact with the children they work with and the children’s families.
Alma finds it hard to describe her culture. She thinks of herself as someone who was raised in a typical family. Her parents were born in Australia. Their parents were born in Australia. It is difficult for her to imagine how her culture influences her interactions with children and families when she does not even know what her culture is.
When she reflects on it further with a colleague, Alma realises that, even though she finds it difficult to define her cultural background, at the back of her mind there are expectations and assumptions that inform how she thinks.
For example, Alma was raised to believe that people who lived with their extended family (e.g. aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents) did so because they had no other choice. Living in a nuclear family (i.e. parents and children) was upheld by her parents as the ideal. Alma often assumes that the children at her centre who live with their extended family are at a disadvantage to children who do not. By realising this hidden assumption, Alma can then explore the benefits that children might get from living with their extended family.
watch
In the following 5-minute video you can learn more about how people understand their own culture:
Use the following questions to check your knowledge.You can check the correct answer by clicking on the 'Answer' button:
1. What are the definition of the following terms?
- Inclusiveness
- Diversity
- Equity
- Access
|
Inclusiveness |
Providing people with equal access to resources and opportunities, especially to those who might otherwise be excluded or marginalised |
All children can access and participate in early childhood education and care services regardless of their:
|
|
Diversity |
Respecting the differences that make people unique and different from each other. These differences include but are not limited to:
|
Every child has the right to be included in every aspect of life, including:
|
|
Equity |
Treating people differently depending on need. The principle of equity recognises that some people have unequal access to resources and opportunities, and to address that, inequality steps need to be taken to provide additional resources and opportunities to those who need them. |
Providing individualised or additional support to children who need it to ensure they can fully engage in high-quality education and care. Recognising barriers to learning and imbalances of power and addressing them. |
|
Access |
Having the means or opportunity to use or benefit from early childhood education and care services. |
Some children experience more barriers to accessing early childhood education and care than others. Barriers to access include:
|
2. Provide an example of how each of these principles could be applied in an early childhood setting.
Inclusiveness can be implemented in an early childhood setting by setting the following examples:
- Ensure each child’s culture is reflected in the experiences.
- All children are treated equally with respect and dignity by educators.
- All experiences are set up in a manner that is accessible to all children.
- Any form of exclusion is addressed straight away.
Diversity can be implemented in an early childhood setting by ensuring the following:
- Have a diverse range of educators working daily.
- Set up experiences that celebrate the diversity of people and families.
- Supply a variety of books, songs and music covering different styles and cultures, such as jazz, hip hop and Irish dancing.
Equity can be implemented in an early childhood setting by ensuring the following:
- Get to know each child’s routine and care needs.
- Meet each child’s individual care needs.
- Share the needs of children with other educators.
- Build relationships with each child’s family and sharing information.
- Teach the children to be helpful and supportive of their peers.
- Provide individualised or additional support to children who need it to ensure they can fully engage in high-quality education and care.
- Recognise barriers to learning and imbalances of power and promptly address them.
Access can be implemented in an early childhood service by ensuring the following:
- Consider all families when setting a fee for enrolling in the program.
- Make sure children and families with disabilities can physically access the service.
- Make sure ESL families have the translated documents they need.
- Allow children access to aid and additional support if needed.
- Put effort into welcoming all families and being able to support them.
