.................We still had lots of time to prepare ourselves
and lucky enough we had their contact information and e-mail, so we began our
process by taking pictures of the educators, children, and the environment and
sent them to the family so they could get a feel for our early learning program.
The children really got involved and began writing this child letters of how
they are awaiting her arrival. Now that we began the process, we thought that
we better come up with some concrete ways that we could prepare ourselves to be
culturally responsive towards this family.
My colleague and I talked about how lucky we are
that I am enrolled in a diversity course and that we can apply what I have
learned to our situation. We realized that we will need to learn about the
country of Botswana and some of the culture, customs, and traditions that you would
find there. Although it is important to learn about their country, we knew that
we could not rely solely on that
information as this family will have their own distinct family customs and
traditions; however, we knew that we would only be able to learn this when we
actually get to meet the family and have time to connect with them. Their
arrival will enable us to get to them know them on a more personal level.
Once we knew that the family spoke a little
English, we thought that it would be nice for us to learn some common words in
their native language such as; hello, good-bye, eat, bathroom, etc. We also
wanted to ensure that we were familiar with how to communicate with this family
with regards to greetings so we are being respectful. We don’t want to assume
that we can shake hands, so this was something that we thought was important to
find out. We also thought it would be important to look for images and
materials that we could include in our program that would represent their culture
as this would make the environment more inclusive for this child and her
family. We thought that it might be helpful to find out what types of food is
most common in Botswana and see if we could incorporate some of the food into
our program that would be familiar to her and this would give the rest of the
children an opportunity to be exposed to food from a different country. We also
thought that in order to be culturally responsive, we would need to think about
our curriculum. We will need to be prepared and ready to implement a diverse
curriculum which will encourage her to become an active learner in the
environment that that she will be part of. This will also help to make her feel
included and respected for who she is and what she brings to our program.
Our goal as a team is to hope that the
preparations we made together will create an environment where this family
feels that they belong. I know that it will take some time as this will be a
new experience and environment for this family. Being respectful, greeting them
with a “hello” spoken in Setswana, providing materials in the environment that represent
their culture, I hope it will make them feel welcome. These preparations will
let us know that we did our best to make an environment where everyone feels
included and that we tried to make a peaceful transition from their country to
a new one. Once the family has time to settle in, we will continue to get to
know this family so they remain on the path towards a sense of belonging.
Hi Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I love the fact that you included pictures and information about the staff and the program in your communication with the family. What a great way to reach out and help them to start preparing for this big transition! This action along with the request for pictures from them shows the family that you are thinking about them and are eager to include them in your community. This family would be lucky to be entering your program with such a pro-active and inclusive staff!
Melissa
Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteI like how you would gather your team together to find out ways to truly culturally responsive to the families. Creative idea on sending the family the pictures of the teachers, children and the environment to prepare their arrival and they would not be too surprising for the child! Using their native language to greet them is also a great way to show the family that we valued their uniqueness.
Hi Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteYou have provided a plethora of ways on how you will make your student and her family feel welcomed. I know I would certainly feel welcomed and safe if I was a student in your class. I think it is great how you plan on recreating a Botswana dish in order to make your student feel at home, while also giving your other students an opportunity of trying a new dish from a different country. This is very creative, as your student may feel homesick at times and this, including the pictures in the classroom will provide her some comfort.
Elizabeth
Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteYou seem to have gathered your information quite well and plan to welcome them with open arms. I see that they second language is English which is great, so that's something you don't have to worry about because you can communicate with the family. Do you know what type of foods they eat in Botswana?
Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteIt was nice meeting you this class; I want to thank you for all your positive feedback and support. I enjoyed reading your posts; you help me to understand the resources much better than the readings and I appreciated that. I am continuing on my core classes on teaching and diversity, I am not sure what your core courses are going to be but I hope to see you in my future classes. Take care.