Welcoming Families from Around the World
Imagine the following scenario: You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a childcare centre, 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 name of “your” family’s country of origin
I have chosen a family from Ivory Coast, West Africa whose daughter will be joining my early learning classroom.
- At least five ways in which you will prepare yourself to be culturally responsive towards this family
- Research the language(s) of this country and what language(s) the family speaks and prefers to communicate in. If possible, find a translator prior to this family’s arrival to assist with the transition that this family will be experiencing.
- Gain a general understanding of the political, economical, and educational system of this country in order to understand this family’s possible background experiences and the dominant culture that they are experienced with. Even with this information, it is important to understand that the family’s experiences and beliefs may or may not match the dominant culture of their home country since doing so would create assumptions and biases towards a family I have not met and know little about.
- Connect with colleagues who are experienced in anti-bias educational approaches and have experiences with assisting new families transition to their new environment. This may mean going outside of my workplace and tapping into community resources.
- Ensure that time for a transitional meeting is in place before the child and family become part of the program so that the child and family can have an opportunity to express their needs, wants, current situation, and family background. This time assists the family in transitioning smoothly and comfortably and helps me as a professional to create this smooth and welcoming transition.
- Revisit my personal biases and prejudices in order to self-reflect on my current behaviour, beliefs, and classroom structure and philosophy in order to ensure that anti-bias education is truly taking place in my classroom and make any necessary changes in practice or thoughts before the arrival of this family.
- A brief statement describing in what ways you hope that these preparations will benefit both you and the family
I am hopeful that these preparations will create a welcoming environment that expresses respect for this family and their cultural identity while portraying a commitment to work with them in a collaborative manner that always has the best interest of their child and family at the heart of each discussion. My hope is that this family will recognize the efforts made to create a supportive transition to their new environment and that this recognition will create confidence in building an honest and open relationship with each other. I am optimistic that this confidence in the program and our relationship will transfer to the child so that she also enters the classroom feeling welcomed and respected for who she is. For myself, this experience is an opportunity for me to model the positive impact of anti-bias approaches to education to my colleagues while also growing in my own understanding and skills as an anti-bias educator.
Early Childhood Studies 
Hi Sandra, I like your supportive transition for this new family, especially the idea of using a translator, which I am using now when I talk to children who do not speak English or Chinese at all and are new at school. Thus when it comes to some issues, we can make ourselves understood and children also can feel secure. I also like your idea that we should revisit our own bias and prejudice to self reflect on our “current behaviors, beliefs, and classroom structure and philosophy in order to ensure that anti-bias education is truly taking place in my classroom”, which I will try to put into practice. Thank you for your insights!
Xiaowan
Hello Sandra,
I think your five ways to prepare the little girl for transition to your class are awesome. I love that you decided that you would connect with colleagues who are experienced in anti-bias educational approaches and have experiences with assisting new families transition to their new environment. Your colleagues can also take this experience and use it for their gain if they ever came across diversity issues.
Thanks for sharing,
Sharon
As an early childhood educator, researching the languages of you student’s native tongue is a good strategy to utilize within classroom practices as well. Herein, its incorporation is sure to engage the student from abroad. The understanding gained from political, economical, and educational, system will enable you to examine the differences between her country’s dominant culture and yours. Engaging additional resources such as those within the local community is another valuable component of welcoming a foreign student. Not only are you assisting the student but the family as well by tapping unto the resources available unto them. Among all is our ability to reassess our own personal bias and prejudice acts. As a result, we are able to capitalize upon our efforts to welcome families with a genuine, respectful and understanding approach in hopes of gaining trust. Thus, we are mobilizing efforts to eradicate prejudice, bias, and discriminatory acts committed against one another.
Hello Sandra, I like the fact you chose a part of Africa as well. I agree it is important to learn the culture, language and welcoming the child and her families through a transitional effort to assurance the respect of what they have to bring into the center or classroom. I believe it is important to learning much as possible about the child and family from Ivory Coast Africa to avoid any personal biases or prejudices as a teacher as well as letting it happen with the classroom among children.
I did not include community resources and programs to help the family transition in my ways to prepare for the new family but I think it is a great idea. I think the most important thing is to make sure that the family feels comfortable and supported. Directing them towards assistance is a positive gesture and can contribute towards a positive view of your caring personality, professionalism and the early childhood system.
As a early childhood educator, researching the languages of your students native tongue is a good tool to utilize within classroom practices as well. Herein, its incorporation is surely to engage the student from abroad. The understanding gained from political, economical and educational system will enable you to examine the differences between her country’s dominant culture and yours. Engaging additional resources such as those within the community is another valuable component of welcoming a foreign student. Not only are you assisting the student but her family as well by tapping into community resources. Among all is our ability to reassess our own personal bias and prejudices. As a result we are able to capitalize upon our efforts to welcome families with a genuine, respectful and understanding approach in hopes of gaining their trust. Thus, we are mobilizing the nation’s effort to eradicate prejudice, bias and discriminatory acts towards one another.