Culture influences every aspect of a child’s development and learning. As classrooms and society become more culturally diverse, there is a need for early educators to embrace cultural understanding – to be culturally aware, culturally sensitive, culturally responsive, and culturally competent. This lesson explores how educators can reflect on and cultivate practices to build cultural understanding and culturally competent approaches to working with children and families. (2 hours)
Objectives
- Define culture and related terminology.
- Identify approaches to building cultural understanding.
- Identify strategies that help support cultural competence, focusing on the family, the child, and the educator.
