Cultural Awareness and Competence: Early Childhood Education Report

This report examines the importance of cultural awareness and competence for early childhood teachers, particularly in the context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. It emphasizes understanding the values, beliefs, and communication styles of these communities and how these factors influence child-rearing practices. The report discusses professional conduct and ethical considerations for teachers, highlighting the need to follow cultural awareness practices and protocols when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. It underscores the significance of establishing respectful relationships and partnerships with these families through ethical and culturally sensitive approaches, ensuring inclusive and equitable learning environments for all children.

Running head: CULTURAL AWARENESS OF TEACHERS
CULTURAL AWARENESS OF TEACHERS
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author's Note:

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Executive summary
The report analyses the essentiality of cultural awareness and cultural competence for the early
childhood teacher especially working in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island context. The
report has focused on the expectations, values, beliefs and communication of these aboriginal
people and how these factors affect their rearing of their children. This report has discussed
professional conduct and ethical considerations in the practice of the teachers. There are several
factors in the cultural awareness practices and protocols for working with Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander families which needs to be followed in the professional and ethical considerations
for establishing relationships and partnerships with these families.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Cultural awareness and competence requirements of an early childhood teacher:.........................3
Professional conduct and ethical considerations:............................................................................5
Cultural awareness practices and protocols:....................................................................................7
Professional and ethical considerations for establishing relationships with families:.....................9
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................11
References:....................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction:
The aim of this report is to discuss, the importance of developing cultural awareness and
competence of the teachers involved in the early childhood education. Cultural competence
refers to the set of congruent behavior, attitude and policies which falls under a system or agency
which enable the teaching professionals to work together efficiently in the cross-cultural setting.
The teachers operating in the early childhood education practice, building cultural competencies
necessary for the perfect relationship building among the teachers, students and their families.
Therefore, the teachers need to follow the process of building competence, the principle of trust
among the students, respect for equality, diversity, social justice and fairness to build the
relationship of trust and dependence among the students, their families, communities with the
teachers of their schools.
This report will be discussing the factors of cultural awareness and cultural competence
requirements of an early childhood teacher, professional conduct and ethical considerations in
their practice, cultural awareness practices and protocols for working with Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander families and professional and ethical considerations for establishing relationships
and partnerships with these families.
Cultural awareness and competence requirements of an early childhood teacher:
Childhood is the best time to understand the identity of the individuals where they belong
and understand the difference among the different cultures. This is the reason why the teachers of
early childhood education practice the cultural competence though curriculum settings,
collaborating with the families and using agricultural competence for supporting other educators
in the same setting (Nakata, Keech & Bolt, 2012). In order to teach the students more efficiently,

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the teachers need to have cultural awareness and cultural competence within themselves.
Cultural competence is the will as well as actions to build among the students from their very
childhood so that they also learn to be respectful and open various cultural perception, strengthen
the cultural security and work towards the equality in opportunity (Nakata, Keech & Bolt, 2012).
Cultural competencies necessary for the perfect relationship building among the teachers,
students and their families. This is based on the understanding of the expectations and attitude of
the others, building strength on the knowledge by viewing from other’s perspectives and using
wide range of community members as well as resources for building understandings.
For the early childhood teachers, it is very important that they grow cultural competency
so that the respect for diversity and address injustice, exclusion, racism and inequity through
proper use of legislation can be grown. In addition to this awareness raising against cultural
exploitation through rights education as well as protection and maintaining of anti-bias
curriculum need to be developed (Lowe & Yunkaporta, 2013). Through the process of building
competence, the principle of trust among the students, respect for equality, diversity, social
justice and fairness, the teachers can grow the basic factors of building identity especially a
strong cultural identity among the children at their early age of education. This grow the sense of
where exactly they belong and who are they.
In the process of building cultural competency in teaching the early childhood students,
the teachers require the perfect knowledge about the individual cultural identities that helps in
developing cross-cultural understandings and relationships (Lowe & Yunkaporta, 2013). The
teachers need to have proper awareness and acceptance of the cultural differences along with the
awareness of their own cultural values. The teachers of early childhood education need to
develop proper understanding of the dynamics of differences. To Hart et al. (2012) the cultural

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competence requirements also include the development of cultural knowledge and capability to
adapt practices to the cultural contexts of the children and their families so that proper
implementation of inclusive environments can be achieved effectively.
Gaining cultural awareness and developing cultural competency in the teachers of early
childhood education is the process of increasing cultural tolerance to identify as well as
challenge the cultural assumption, beliefs and values so that communication process can be
promoted at the culture interface (Yeung, Craven & Ali, 2013). In order to grow the identity of
the individual child proper implementation of the teachers need to have knowledge about the
own world of their own, develop positive attitude towards the cultural differences among the
children as well as their families while dealing with them, developing willingness to know about
different cultural practices and their world views and develop skills for properly interacting and
communicating across culture (Fogarty & Schwab, 2012). This allows the individuals to
 Honoring cultural and racial differences
 Appreciating the centrality of the cultures in the belonging, being and becoming of the
children
 Continuing the learning process about the effective and professional conduct with the
students and their families
 Gaining knowledge about different cultural practices and ethnicity
 Supporting the children to grow their own cultural competence though curriculum
 Encouraging students and coworkers to maintain cultural competence

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Professional conduct and ethical considerations:
Professional conduct and observing proper code of ethics in the study centers and schools
in the culturally diverse region is essential for the successful operation of the teachers associated
with the early childhood education system. This is a system of moral principles as well as values
which relates to the individual behaviors, human actions and particular professional groups.
Ethics is a reciprocal process that facilitates critical reflection relating to the professional
obligation and behavior of the early childhood teachers (Evans, 2012). These are important as
ethical codes relates to the professional roles as well as responsibilities of the teachers,
acknowledge relationship among the teachers, students and their families and the entire
institution.
Through proper learning about cultural competence, the children in tehri early age
education develop a sense of belonging to the groups as well as communities. They gradually
develop the understanding of their reciprocal rights along with responsibilities. In this regard, the
teachers of the early education hold some particular responsibilities in their decision-making
process. They need to maintain proper professional conduct and consider ethical ground for
maintaining a sustainable and effective scenario for all inclusive growth of the children. In this
process of maintaining ethical consideration, the families of the children and other colleagues are
also included which also relate to the communities (Ens et al., 2012). By playing perfect roles
from the part of the teachers, the children become socially responsible and show respect for the
environment for attaining cultural diversity. In relation to the children, the ethical consideration
the teachers must abide by include:
 Recognizing and respecting the individual culture and practices of the children
 Helping children understand the essentiality of becoming a successful global citizen

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 Creating and maintaining healthy environment within the classroom so that the children
can respond to the cultural diversity with respect
 Respecting the relation of the children and their facilities and acknowledging their
interactions so that they become aware of fairness
 Understanding the vulnerability of the children for the dependence on the adults which
build their emotional cognitive, social and physical development
 Ensuring the culture, ethnicity, family structure and language are valued
 Considering the personal start and intelligence of the students and not discriminating on
the basis of culture and ethnicity (Fogarty & Schwab, 2012).
 Advocating and ensuring that the children are not decimated on the basis of the culture,
ethnicity, religion, national origin and lifestyle.
Professional conduct and ethical consideration of the teachers in the early childhood
include the duty in relation to the other teachers working under same circumstances. The
professional behavior includes respecting the difference of culture of the colleagues and
maintaining the attitude of integrity. The ethical consideration also includes showing proper
consideration towards the capability and strength of the individuals and encourage them to use
them without feeling dispirited for having different culture or ethnicity. The professional conduct
of the early childhood teacher includes sharing of knowledge to the fellow employees along with
the resources and experience without discrimination. In order to mane differences of opinion in
the workplace, the teachers must use constructive methods so that there are no issues of
disrespect to the cultural diversity.

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Cultural awareness practices and protocols:
In order to work in a diverse cultural setting, the teachers need to have cultural
competence that they apply in working with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students as
well as their families. There are some cultural awareness practices and protocols. Cultural
protocols refer to the codes and customs which guide the attitude and behavior of the cultural
group (Fogarty & Schwab, 2012). Different cultures have different cultures that demonstrate
respect for history, cultural traditions and diversity of the community. In dealing with the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and families, cultural protocol is intended to
provide respectful manners of interactions with the indigenous people of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Island. These are important to know as these are essential to del with the children of this
particular region. According to the data provided by Supportingcarers.snaicc.org.au (2018), there
are some very important codes already established by the government of Australia how the
people from different culture will be behaving with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people.
This particular place has native title over the majority of land and sea which have a
number of governess arrangements. These must be considered while engaging with this
particular communities. To Hart et al. (2012), the lifestyle, origin, culture, beliefs and values of
the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are completely different from the culture of the
mainland Australia. Therefore, interaction and knowledge sharing with the families of the
students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island must be different and abiding toe cultural
protocol laid by the government. Proper demonstration of respect and dignity to the religion,
language are cultural practices are the chief ways to maintaining cultural awareness and

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competence of and early childhood teacher working with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander students and their families (Lowe & Yunkaporta, 2013).
The use of language mainly English is prohibited as this is the second or third language
of the company in one hand and there is complexity in the proper understanding of the meaning
understood. The teachers of early childhood education must show respect to the cultural diversity
and observe the cultural practices of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island students along with
their facilities (Fogarty & Schwab, 2012). They consider the usage of complicated language,
behavior that are unknown to this indigenous people and the contexts unknown to the
communities, completely unusable. The teachers may use basic English in the interaction process
with the families but take care of the perfect understanding and conveying messages properly to
these people.
In order to develop respectful relationships with the families of the students from
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island, proper engagement of the students and families in the school
life is important. As mentioned by Nakata, Keech and Bolt (2012), by observing the community
events in the schools, the teachers and the institution create scope for the proper communication
and interaction with the culture of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (Evans, 2012).
Therefore, the families are to be encouraged to take an active part in the celebration of the
community cultural events so that the schools can effectively develop cultural tolerance among
the students in one hand ad get the support from the families of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Island. Secondly, the teachers need to be aware of the history as well as culture of the Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islanders so that the curriculum can be set accordingly and use learning process
that do not affect the culture of these students. Thirdly, as discussed by Ens et al. (2012) the
centers must be welcoming and intent to get knowledge from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait

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Island communities. fourthly, the engagement with the communities establishes environments
and experiences can support children in developing confidence and strength in their personal and
cultural identity. Finally, the teachers can attain a collaborative relationship with the families of
aboriginal students along with their communities by engaging personal backgrounds on the
attitudes (Price, 2012). These processes will be helpful to build the relationship with the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders based on trust and dependence.
Professional and ethical considerations for establishing relationships with families:
In order to strategize the professional and ethical considerations for establishing
relationships with families of the Aboriginal and Torres Island, the teachers need proper
knowledge about the cultural aspects of the students as these differentiate them from the other
children of the class (Bodkin-Andrews & Carlson, 2016). In this regard, Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander perspectives must be included into the early childhood curriculum of the schools
on a daily basis. The main factors that the professional and ethical considerations of the teachers
in the early childhood curriculum setting expect partnerships, cultural safety and health. As
mentioned before, the best outcome in such cases will be attained through perfect development
of trust and engagement among the communities and the educational institutions
(Supportingcarers.snaicc.org.au, 2018).
In order to gain professional and ethical considerations for establishing relationships with
the aboriginal families, the teachers begin with building relationship of trust. To Rhea and
Russell (2012), they need to acknowledge the country and its heritage through their professional
communications process that will be preferred to ask rather telling or ordering them. this is
important as these brings a feeling of dependency between the two cultures rather than pointing
out the differences and superiority. The communities of Aboriginal and Torres Island follow

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some of the practices which are common in every family and significant in maintaining their
individuality in Australian context (Behrendt et al., 2012). Therefore, the teachers of early
childhood programs need to seek more than an opinion so that there is no conflict between the
institution and aboriginal community.
The aboriginal families of Torres Island have some particular family structure as well as
parenting style that need to be understood be the teachers. The parents often do not feel
comfortable to meet the teachers from the other cultures due to these different belief and
communication complexities. As mentioned by Arens et al. (2014), these extended family
structure shares engaging relationship and kinship for enjoying psychosocial and emotional
support for wellbeing of the children. In this regard, the teachers need to be more aware about
the parenting model followed by the aboriginal parents in the rearing of children hence must not
be infringed while communicating with the families. There are some issues regarding family
violence in these aboriginal families where the teachers need to intervene for the wellbeing of the
students under such circumstances (Woods-McConney et al., 2013). However, in such cases
also, the teachers need to follow the protocol and demonstrate respect to the cultural differences.
Therefore, the teachers working to educate the early childhood students need to be skills at
different interactions.
Conclusion:
Therefore, it can be concluded that in order to teach the students more efficiently, the
teachers need to have cultural awareness and cultural competence within themselves. Cultural
competencies necessary for the perfect relationship building among the teachers, students and
their families. They need to grow respect for diversity and address injustice, exclusion, racism
and inequity to deal with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their families.

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There are issues in proper managing and parenting the students having aboriginal background.
Hence, proper understanding of the cultural factors and respecting them is essential for the
teachers.

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References:
Arens, A. K., Bodkin-Andrews, G., Craven, R. G., & Yeung, A. S. (2014). Self-concept of
Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian students: Competence and affect components
and relations to achievement. Learning and Individual Differences, 32, 93-103.
Behrendt, L. Y., Larkin, S., Griew, R., & Kelly, P. (2012). Review of higher education access
and outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Bodkin-Andrews, G., & Carlson, B. (2016). The legacy of racism and Indigenous Australian
identity within education. Race Ethnicity and Education, 19(4), 784-807.
Ens, E. J., Finlayson, M., Preuss, K., Jackson, S., & Holcombe, S. (2012). Australian approaches
for managing ‘country’using Indigenous and non‐Indigenous knowledge. Ecological
Management & Restoration, 13(1), 100-107.
Evans, C. (2012). Your professional experience and becoming professional about working with
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and communities. Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander education: An introduction to the teaching profession, 52-62.
Fogarty, W., & Schwab, R. G. (2012). Indigenous education: Experiential learning and learning
through country. ANU, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR).
Hart, V., Whatman, S., McLaughlin, J., & Sharma-Brymer, V. (2012). Pre-service teachers’
pedagogical relationships and experiences of embedding Indigenous Australian
knowledge in teaching practicum. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International
Education, 42(5), 703-723.

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Lowe, K., & Yunkaporta, T. (2013). The inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
content in the Australian National Curriculum: A cultural, cognitive and socio-political
evaluation. Curriculum Perspectives, 33(1), 1-14.
Nakata, M., Keech, S., & Bolt, R. (2012). Decolonial goals and pedagogies for Indigenous
studies. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1(1).
Price, K. (2012). A brief history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education in
Australia. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education: An introduction for the
teaching profession, 1-20.
Rhea, Z. M., & Russell, L. (2012). The invisible hand of pedagogy in Australian Indigenous
studies and Indigenous education. The Australian journal of Indigenous education, 41(1),
18-25.
Supportingcarers.snaicc.org.au. (2018). Cultural Protocols - Supporting Carers (SNAICC).
Retrieved from http://www.supportingcarers.snaicc.org.au/connecting-to-culture/cultural-
protocols/
Woods-McConney, A., Oliver, M. C., McConney, A., Maor, D., & Schibeci, R. (2013). Science
engagement and literacy: A retrospective analysis for Indigenous and non-Indigenous
students in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. Research in Science Education, 43(1),
233-252.
Yeung, A. S., Craven, R. G., & Ali, J. (2013). Self-concepts and educational outcomes of
Indigenous Australian students in urban and rural school settings. School Psychology
International, 34(4), 405-427.

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