Welcoming Families From Around the World

Imagine the following scenario:

You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, 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 setting I chose for the scenario is a child care center and I imagine a family emigrating from Romania.

5 Ways I Will Prepare Myself to be Culturally Responsive towards this Family:

1.      Reflect to identify any personal biases I may have about the county or  culture

2.      Learn background knowledge about the family culture, family structure, behaviors, morals, values and traditions

3.      Share background information with staff and students to understand the culture of the arriving family and raise cultural awareness/diversity

4.      Prepare the environment: Display welcome signs in the family’s language and other artifacts that reflect their country or culture

5.      Recruit an interpreter to translate and support communication with the family to  establish effective communication

My hopes for these preparations are supporting the family in their transition, creating a welcoming environment and establishing positive relationships. Reflecting on my biases will increase my cultural awareness and increase my culturally responsiveness. Learning about the family’s culture and country will give background information into the family’s structure and way of life. This peek into their background will increase my understanding and respect for their culture. It will also allow me to share the information with staff and students to raise their awareness and encourage diversity.  Incorporating items from their culture is very important for children and families to see their culture reflected in the environment. I believe it sends a message of acceptance and membership in the community. Having a staff member that will be able to communicate with the family and child in their language creates positive communication. These preparations will support the family’s transition into a new country and education setting.