The country I chose for my family to have immigrated from is Chile. The five ways I will try to prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this new family I have in my classroom is to:
· Make sure that I am not using in personalized biases towards the family.
· I would also want to be aware of the language barriers that may be present, and to understand the use of “safe words” to make the child feel more comfortable in school and the family to feel at ease when their child is in my classroom.
· I would want the post a family photo and put some facts about the family and the family culture in the classroom for others to see to bring awareness.
· I would do research on how individuals from Chile interact with others and learn more about what is important to them about education.
· I would also treat them respectfully at all times, and treat them individually and not as a group.
I would hope that the family would appreciate my efforts to understand their culture and what factors are important to them when it comes to education, family, and life in general. I want my Chilean family to feel comfortable and welcomed in my classroom. They need to know that this is an environment free of bias, prejudice and discrimination. The classroom is a place of peace and acceptance of diversity and culture, and the more we know, the more we can grow.
Ketrice,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. I like the list of ways that you will make the child and the family feel comfortable. My sister in law works in diverse classroom and when she runs into a case like this one, she try to prepare herself by researching the family background. She also try to find out if the family choose to speak English or their home language. If the family prefers for the child to speak their home language; my sister in law would ask the parent to make a book of words and pictures of basic items such as bathroom, kitchen, playground, outside, and items like that so that she can communicate with the child. She also ask the parents to teach her how to say some things in their home language and she invites the family to come in and do a cooking demonstration or read a story about their home country. Great post and I think your family would appreciate your efforts.