Bringing culture into the school Summary
Bringing culture into the school Summary

Summary/Abstract: It is the teacher’s responsibility to make the classroom culturally responsive. Children bring their own culture to the classroom with them. The teacher needs to make sure these influences are nurtured in a positive way. The current literature indicates that language, social interactions, and play are all influenced by a child’s culture. The author used the Kendell multicultural checklist to highlight key areas of the classroom that needed to be addressed in order to make the classroom more culturally responsive. A plan was developed and put into practice to better understand family cultures and to better teach the children about different cultures. A culturally responsive classroom is critical for families and children to feel safe and welcome in a positive learning environment away from home. In the United States, 25% of children are immigrants or come from immigrant families (Souto-Manning 2013). This makes it crucial for educators to learn how to have a positive and welcoming multicultural classroom environment. With over 75% of early childhood teachers being white and speaking only English, it makes it that much more important for them to learn about different cultures and set up a classroom ready to nurture a variety of cultures (Souto-Manning 2013).

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