New Zealand.comWith a patchwork history of Māori, European, Pacific Island and Asian influences, New Zealand's population of five million people is a melting-pot of cultures.
New Zealanders share a set of values that arise from Māori cultural influences, early pioneering spirit, and a love of sports and the outdoors. With more and more people choosing to relocate to New Zealand, we are constantly learning about new cultures and communities.
In early childhood education, it is important that you continue to learn about the various cultures, values, and beliefs within your local community and across the country. The principles and strands of Te Whāriki highlight the importance of learning about the various cultures that live together in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Activity - turn and learn
Learn about the ethnicities and cultures that make up tamariki in New Zealand.
We have indicated that it is important to acknowledge the diverse communities that make up tamariki in a daycare setting in New Zealand. Alongside our rich Māori culture, many of the people in those communities came here from other countries.
This activity provides a quick glimpse into which they are and how many people from those communities call New Zealand their home.
Note: This information was gathered using the 2018 Census Ethnic Summaries tool, which can be found at https://www.stats.govt.nz/tools/2018-census-ethnic-group-summaries. It is an excellent resource for learning more about each community.
This activity only includes ten communities in Aotearoa; can you think of others? Each locality in New Zealand will enjoy a number of diverse communities. Please find out about the people in yours.
Let’s take a closer look at China — one of the communities identified in the exercise above.
Spotlight on the Chinese Community
Overview
- The Chinese community have migrated to Aotearoa for many reasons over the years, dating back to the 1860s when many made the journey for the gold rush that was happening in the South Island of New Zealand at the time. Today, Chinese immigrants move to New Zealand for a better lifestyle and education for their family.
Needs Of The Chinese Community
- LANGUAGE:
As with every culture, language is important to their sense of belonging and knowing who they are (Mana Whenua). It is important to have educators in early childhood services maintain the language and encourage and promote their language every day in their service. - EDUCATION
In the Chinese culture parents have high expectations for their children’s education, and from early ages are encouraging their children to achieve higher education. This includes what they are learning in early childhood education. Parents look at their children’s cognitive abilities other than social or physical skills, and are less concerned with social learning, as this is a big part of the New Zealand culture and curriculum, it is important to find a balance for our tamariki in the Chinese community. - CULTURE
Taking time to acknowledge Chinese events and holidays helps to give our Chinese tamariki a sense of belonging and shows them their values and history are important to us too. Events like Chinese New Year and the lantern festival are events that we can support in our centres, which are fun and provide an engaging learning experience for all of our tamariki.
Activity - Get to know Chinese New Zealanders
Reflect on the information you just read:
- Was there any information that was new to you?
- Is there any knowledge you would like to research more about that you think is important?
- Visit the Wikipedia page about Chinese New Zealanders and add at least one new thing to the resource list of culture-specific information you are creating from the previous activity.
We have provided information about Chinese New Zealanders, but as we have shown you, there are many other rich cultures that live within the shores of New Zealand. Each of them will have different norms and taboos (tapu).
Activity - Dive into a culture of your choice
Your turn! You will now choose one community within Aotearoa, NZ (not your own, Chinese, nor Māori), and create a small digital poster about your chosen community.
Instructions:
- Select the community you would like to research
- It doesn't have to be one of the ten we listed.
- Write a brief overview of the community and their culture.
- Identify a minimum of three needs of that community, in the ECE setting.
- For example, if you have a South African child come into your home base care, what do you think would be a challenge for the child and their family?
- Needs could be, language, culture, religion, sport, education, employment, and/or relationship in the community.
- Create a digital poster showing information about your community.
- Use colour and pictures to ensure it is engaging.
- Don't use a lot of text, see what you can do with imagery instead.
- Create a journal post and upload your poster, then publish it so others can view it.
- Take a look at the posters of your peers and leave respectful feedback for them.
- You can then use these as information for your assessment.
In this section, we'll create a detailed plan with proven strategies for achieving success in various situations.
Activity - Watch and reflect
Video 1: Teaching strategies — Gaining Children's Attention
Video 2: Strategies — Being a communicator
Reflect
Think about the strategies that the teachers used:
- Do you use similar strategies when you are reading to children?
- Are there any other strategies that you use when reading to increase engagement?
When thinking about strategies:
Think of ways to promote, include, and involve the people around you, how to work with others and or how to come together.
Your strategies could include:
- cultural events
- dress up events
- arts and crafts around the centre
- teachers with knowledge and understanding about the child’s background
- dancing
- celebration
- parents day
- show and tell, where children bring in something from home that is important to them.
Activity – Create a strategies resource
Thinking back to the community that you chose earlier and the needs of that community group, what strategies would you put in place to make the children and their families feel that they belong and are a vital part of the new community in the childcare space.
- Note down your strategies and create a journal post with your thoughts, publishing it to the class.
- Then, reflect on the work of your peers in their journals and place respectful feedback if you are moved to do so. Note down any strategies from your peers that you want to use in your own service to create a useful resource.
