Early Childhood Education: Cultural Diversity, Poverty, and Children with Diverse Abilities

Running head: EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Early Childhood Education
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

1EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Cultural Diversity
Cultural diversity is a prominent issue in New Zealand. The country considers cultural
diversity as one of the most important principles of the New Zealand Curriculum. The
framework that has been provided to the schools in order to help their decision-making, asks the
schools and the educators to acknowledge the presence of the diverse cultures within the country.
Moreover, all students are to be considered as individuals and it is the duty of the educator to
celebrate and held their diversity (Rau & Ritchie, 2005). It has been recommended that the
process of early childhood education is to be held as responsive to the diversity that is present
within the groups. In addition to this, it can also be said that the cultural diversity amongst
students also influence factors such as socio-economic backgrounds, cultural heritages and so on.
Being a culturally and linguistically diversified country, New Zealand needs to incorporate such
frameworks so that the children need to acquire skills and knowledge in order to cope up with
the multi-cultural setting (Haworth et al., 2006). In an early childhood teaching set up, it is thus
important incorporate the wider views and values, respect for other cultures and languages.
According to Zhong (2013), the educational set ups that acknowledge cultural diversities
are equipped with teachers those are aware of the cultural differences amongst the children.
Hence, various cultural contexts are included into the teaching learning programs. Every child is
provided with the opportunities so that they can share their culture and heritage with others. This
in turn makes the children more confident and proud of their culture. In addition to this, by
sharing and knowing about different cultures, the children learn to respect other cultures and
heritages as well. It is the primary responsibility of the teachers to create and support an
inclusive atmosphere for the children belonging to the minority section of the country. To

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illustrate it furthermore, an example of the inclusive childcare set up can be taken. It is found that
in most of these schools, the teachers stand at the door to great welcome and farewell to the
students as well as the parents. According to the teachers, this help the children and their families
to feel welcomed. In many of the cultures and communities, it is a custom to greet people
standing at the door. Moreover, the early educators speak the native language of the children, so
that they can feel connected to the teachers. This helps them to open up more and communicate.
In addition to that, the children in a classroom learn to value other languages and to accept the
diversity. In addition to that, language has been identified as one of the most effective tool in
bridging the cultural gap. Language is considered as an effective tool that helps in the process of
completing thoughts. According to Karen, (2010), language as a powerful tool that helps the
children to make sense of the world and building cognitive development.
Educators in an inclusive learning set up often takes up teaching and learning strategies in
order to promote a sense of belonging. The strategies of incorporating the minority children often
involves parents in the learning process. As the children feel most secured with their parents, and
the instructions given by the parents are easier for them to understand, educators often find that
engaging parents into the procedure is highly effective. In addition to this, the inclusive approach
includes developmental programs for the teachers as well ("Module 5: The inclusive approach to
teaching and learning | UNRWA", 2018). The program provides the teachers with the
opportunity to reflect upon their own teaching methods and their learning. The self-reflection and
the learning through the entire program help them to explore the nature of their profession and
the learning a professional. In addition to this, the inclusive practice also asks the educators to
reflect on the influence of the program upon the teaching learning procedure and the impact that
it has on themselves. Along with that, the practice also explores the various ways of connecting

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with the parents. Usage of a range of strategies and tools are also important in order to maintain a
healthy and regular contact with the parents. By applying these strategies, the cultural diversities
can be retained and practiced in an early childhood set up.
Poverty
In New Zealand, poverty is one of the biggest and consistent problems. The problem is
being persistent throughout decades and this in turn is affecting the physical and mental
development. In addition to this, high rates of poverty indicates social and political injustice to
the families as well as the children belonging to the underprivileged section of the society. The
Food and Agricultural Organization refers poverty as a situation where the children are unable to
achieve the acceptable standards of social living. According to the studies, it is found that low-
income is the primary reason behind the poverty. It can also be understood that child poverty is
not only a mere economic issue, but it also creates educational, health and philosophical
problems. As a result of the poverty issues, the children are facing difficulties in accessing their
basic necessities (Di Cesare et al., 2013). It is very alarming to find that these children do not
have the bare necessities such as proper housing, nutritional foods and education. In addition to
this, the children are facing inequalities in their everyday activities. Hence, they are being
marginalized. It has been found out that the persistent problem of poverty is a result of plethora
of political, social and economic factors. In the absence of a market, that is functioning
effectively, a society witness economic underdevelopment. Moreover, due to the inability of the
weaker section of the society to participate in the economic scenario is another issue that
weakens the strength to overcome. Moreover, the political issues are very much effective in this