Cultural Awareness and Competency
Discuss about the Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Mental Health.
Cultural awareness and competency are crucial requirements for early childhood educators to teach children. Further, children who are at risk from various factors need to be counseled as per the cultural and legal requirements. In a country like Australia, it is an added responsibility of the educators and service providers to consider the issues and needs of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. According to Scarino (2014), educators often fail to recognize the scrupulous implication and importance of the cultures and place obstacles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the way of true understanding. For many years, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been denied participation and access to many areas of significance including education, healthcare and safety and employment (Earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au, 2018). The reason for this neglect is the discrimination done by the policy makers and legislators while preparing and framing the policies. Even today, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and children face racism largely due to ignorance of the people.
The report tries to provide an elaborate discussion on the cultural awareness and competency needed for addressing such issues especially in education and healthcare sector. In addition, the report will also focus on the ethical considerations and professional conduct needed to follow while addressing early childhood issues. The practices and protocols of cultural awareness required working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families will be discussed. Teachers and service providers also need to establish a relationship with the families for which they have to consider certain ethical requirements. The report will discuss these as well.
Cultural awareness refers to the complete knowledge about a specific culture other than one’s own. Cultural awareness also means the ability of an individual to value and respect other’s culture. Cultural competency on the other hand, cultural competence refers to the expressions where people think that they know what certain things mean but it means something different. The principles of cultural competence are clearly outlined in the Early Years Learning Framework of Australia. These principles include:
- Safe, considerate and mutual relationships
- Partnerships
- High potentials and justice
- Respect for multiplicity
- Continuing learning and reflective practice
Educators need to clearly comprehend the fifth principle and reflect on their own beliefs and biases and overcome these by acquiring knowledge and information. In childhood education, culture plays a fundamental role and educators must learn to understand and respect it. Further, they must ensure that the child’s culture is included in their teaching process. The EYLF provides a broader definition of cultural competency in which it states that it is much more than being aware about cultural differences. It refers to the capability to understand, effectively interact and communicate with people across cultures. The EYLF lays stress on the three levels on which cultural competence must be applied in the context of care setting and early education.
Cultural Competence Principles
The individual level – At this level, it will be evident in the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors of every educator in their relationship with the children, families and colleagues.
The service level – Cultural competency will be evident at this level in the policies, measures, prospects and practices of the locale and the means by which children, families and community views influence decisions
The systems level – At this level, cultural competency will be evident by observing the relation of the services to local society people and organizations and respect local code of behaviors
The educator thus needs to understand these requirements while educating children belonging to different cultural backgrounds. Apart from having strong personal values and beliefs related to diversity, educators must also take strong approach to respond to racism and prejudice when encountered. The educator has to play the role of an individual who is able to make conscious decisions for promoting cultural competence of the children as well in order to ensure a fair and comprehensive Australian society.
In case of providing educational opportunity to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, the educator must lock the gap in existing educational outcomes for children of this community. Further, educators also contribute to the improved learning outcomes for Indigenous children by establishing strong bonds with their families that ensures children grow strong in culture and engage with learning. In addition, the educators contribute to improved learning outcomes by preparing educational programs that mirror children’s cultural traditions of being and knowing. These are the direct ways by which educators could contribute to improved educational outcomes. The less direct ways include teaching the children about the long and rich history of the Indigenous people.
Early childhood teacher is the one who is responsible for disseminating education to children between the ages of 0 to 14 years. According to the EYLF guideline for educators, teachers must acquire competency to teach by involving in practices to promote learning of children by (“EDUCATORS BELONGING, BEING & BECOMING”, 2018)
- Adopting holistic approaches, which means the teachers must acknowledge the children’s association with their culture and traditions.
- Being responsive to children, means the educators respond to the expertise demonstrated by children, their cultural traditions and the multiple languages they speak like the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
- Intentional teaching, where teachers engage intentionally that is by their own choice with the belief that learning occurs in contexts of social and cultural importance
- Forming an environment of learning that has both physical and social aspects thus influencing children’s learning positively
- Valuing cultural and social backgrounds of children as well as their families, ensuring that educators become culturally competent to respect the different ways of seeing knowing and living
Apart from these above practices, the educators also engage in practice of providing for stability in experiences and facilitating children to have successful change and so on.
The early childhood teachers also have to maintain certain ethical considerations while teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. According to the Early Childhood Australia Code of Ethics principles, every child has unique interests and strengths and the capacity to contribute to their communities. The children are citizens from birth with all the right is another principle of the ECA Code of ethics (“Code of Ethics Core principles – Early Childhood Australia”, 2018). An important principle is that independent, fair and comprehensive practices encourage impartiality and a powerful sense of belonging. The early educators and teachers must realize this principle as an important foundation for them to proceed with their task of imparting education to Indigenous and at risk children. Another important principle is the partnerships with communities and families of Indigenous children to ensure a shared platform on which children could be supported overall from everyone. This principle shall be discussed in the later sections.
Educating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children
The EYLF and National Quality Standards (NQS) mentions “Respect for diversity” as the chief principle and “Cultural competence” as the main practice embedding the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (Kennedy, 2018). The Educator’s Guide further breaks down this principle and recognize that cultural competence in general is different from the cultural competence involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
In terms of professional conduct, it is important that institutions and organizations that provide educational and other services to children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background train and treat their employees properly. It means that the employers must ensure that the employees as well as clients are treated fairly. One of the biggest concerns thus is the reluctance of employers and employees to take up the responsibility of Indigenous children. The reluctance results from the fear of inflicting offence to their culture. In addition, the service providers also fear that they might run out of time to provide proper education to the children.
Thus, it is evident that a thorough knowledge and awareness about the culture and cultural protocols of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people would go a long way towards being culturally competent for teaching.
Working with and working for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people requires the educators and practitioners to be aware of the practices and etiquettes of their culture. The educators and caregivers must be aware of the things that Indigenous people consider sacred, pure and part of their culture. When this knowledge is earned, the educators could then be assured that they would not act or say anything that insults the Indigenous culture. To provide an instance, Indigenous people consider mental illness as a spiritual or religious occurring that means the person affected has committed some sin in the past. However, to a mainstream Australian, this concept might sound absurd and irrational. In such cases, the knowledge about the culture of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people would greatly help the practitioners.
As already mentioned in the previous sections, the knowledge about the history of the Indigenous people would help in understanding their situation. Establishing a strong relationship with the families of the children requires great effort on the part of the practitioner or educator. The 1991 reconciliation era when the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report was published, provides gamut of information regarding their history. It also enlists the ways mainstream Australians can reconcile with the Indigenous people. One of the ways of reconciliation is to understand the characteristics unique to Aboriginal people. For instance, they attach great value to the land, the sea and waterways. They are the traditional owners or the original inhabitants of Australia (“Aboriginal culture”, 2018). With this knowledge, the educator or practitioner could approach the families and establish a strong bond because, as Coombes, Johnson and Howitt (2013) state, reconciliation cannot happen if one does not even “know the other person’s culture”. Therefore, cultural awareness practices and knowledge of protocols are necessary while working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.
Ethical Considerations
Apart from the educators, the childhood care practitioners and professionals also have to be aware of the cultural implications in dealing with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In addition, the organizations that provide healthcare services to children at risk have to ensure that they follow the Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) legislation. The WHS legislation makes it mandatory for both employers and workers to maintain a secure and health workplace environment. The education and care settings of early childhood must provide such an environment to the children, the families and educators in which they meet all their physical, mental and emotional needs.
The WHS came into effect in 2009 that authorized a common legislation throughout Australia (Legislation.nsw.gov.au, 2018). All the providers of healthcare services had to comply by the norms of the legislation that included
- Each employer must ensure that their policies and procedures aligns with the safety policies and procedures of WHS
- Each organization must comply with the WHS act
- The aim of the employer or employees must be to minimize or eliminate the potential effect of workplace hazards
The WHS has framed separate responsibilities for the employers and employees of childhood education and care setting. The employers in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) could be the (Oecd.org, 2018)
- Committee of management
- Owner
- The local government
- The board of directors
- A church group or community organization
The employers must oblige by the WHS rules that states the employers must ensure the safety, health and welfare of their employees. An employer has the responsibility to ensure that the people under its protection are safe from any risk to their health and wellbeing that arises from the conduct of the employer’s undertaking at his place of work. The people in ECEC services include the children, the parents, the visitors who are mostly relatives of children, delivery people and so on and other workers.
On the other hand, the employee of an ECEC service has a duty of care to take conscientious care for the health and safety of those who visit the center and are inflicted by the employee’s acts or lapses. Here, it needs mentioning that the ‘duty of care’ is frequently used as a legal term. Children and young people are in major need of duty of care because they do not possess that capability to look after themselves. Those working with these children and young people must possess great knowledge about the factors influencing the duty of care management .
These form the professional conduct that educators and caregivers must consider in their practice. When it comes to ethical considerations, the knowledge about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history is very important. Possessing a sound knowledge about the history of the Indigenous people would ensure the practitioner or the educator addresses the issues of the children properly. They must understand that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have had a struggling past and that they are not completely attuned to the customs and lifestyle of other mainstream people. Children in particular had to withstand the worst of the colonial past when they were forcefully separated from their parents. More than 5000 children were estimated to be separated from their parents during 1909 to 1969 (Parker & Milroy, 2014). The reason given was that the children had the right to have a better upbringing in a superior culture. The 1965 event of the formation of SAFA – Student Action for Aborigines by Charles Perkins furthered the battle of the Indigenous people to earn the attention and care they deserved (Trometter, 2015). The movement led to the passing of a referendum by the government in 1967 that removed two negative references to Indigenous people. Almost 90% Australians welcomed the referendum by voting for it, which implied that the mainstream attitude towards the Indigenous people was also changing. The 1991 period of reconciliation, the 2008 issuance of National Apology – these later events signified the importance given to the voice of the Indigenous population management (Philpot et al., 2013).
Professional Conduct
Ethical considerations are formed by knowing thoroughly about these events. The educators and service providers must borne in mind that when they address the issues of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, they must put their stereotypes aside and think ethically.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it needs to be stated that cultural awareness and competency both are crucial in fulfilling the educational and health needs of the Indigenous people. It is important to understand the concept of cultural competency before proceeding with the ways to become one. The report provided a detailed explanation and description of cultural competency and awareness and its significance on the Australian context of early childhood education and care. The multiplicity of the Australian culture demands increased competency from the educators and teachers while engaging with students and their families as well. The report described the professional conduct and ethical considerations that need to be taken while establishing relationship and partnership with the families of the Indigenous children. Further, the report highlighted the historical events that changed the way Indigenous community was viewed by the mainstream Australians. It also talked about the significance of the events in equipping oneself with cultural skills to deal with people of these communities management .
References:
Aboriginal culture. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/
Code of Ethics Core principles – Early Childhood Australia. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/our-publications/eca-code-ethics/code-of-ethics-core-principles/
Coombes, B., Johnson, J. T., & Howitt, R. (2013). Indigenous geographies II: The aspirational spaces in postcolonial politics–reconciliation, belonging and social provision. Progress in Human Geography, 37(5), 691-700.
Earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au. (2018). Indigenous culture: It’s everybody’s business. Retrieved from https://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/nqsplp/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/EC1201_Indigenous_culture_its_everybodys_business.pdf
Educators Belonging, Being & Becoming. (2018). Retrieved from https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/educators_guide_to_the_early_years_learning_framework_for_australia.pdf
Kennedy, D. (2018). Ethics: a part of everyday practice in child care. Retrieved from https://ncac.acecqa.gov.au/educator-resources/pcf-articles/Ethics_a_part%20_of_everyday_practice_Mar09.pdf
Legislation.nsw.gov.au (2018). NSW Legislation. [online] Legislation.nsw.gov.au. Available at: https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/regulation/2011/674 [Accessed 26 May 2018].
Oecd.org. (2018). Quality Early Childhood Education and Care – What does it mean and how can it be monitored?. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/education/school/ECEC13thMtg(06)_Item_7_Quality_ECEC_What_does_it_mean_and_how_can_it_be_monitored.pdf
Parker, R., & Milroy, H. (2014). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health: an overview. Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice, 2, 25-38.
Philpot, C., Balvin, N., Mellor, D., & Bretherton, D. (2013). Making meaning from collective apologies: Australia’s apology to its indigenous peoples. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 19(1), 34.
Scarino, A. (2014). Situating the challenges in current languages education policy in Australia–unlearning monolingualism. International Journal of Multilingualism, 11(3), 289-306.
Trometter, A. L. (2015). Malcolm X and the Aboriginal Black Power Movement in Australia, 1967–1972. Journal of African American History, 100(2), 226-249.
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