- The guiding principles of the NQF are:
The rights and the best interests of all the children are basically of higher importance. These rights include being nurtured, supported and loved. They must have the right to experience their joy of childhood, feeling safe and protected and also they must have the right to play. Inclusion, fairness as well as diversity support the framework and they should be given the best education as well as child care services.
- The EYLF defines cultural competence as much more than just the awareness of the cultural differences. It is basically the ability of the children to understand, effectively interact and communicate with individuals across the cultures. It encompasses being aware of one’s world view, developing a positive attitude towards the cultural differences, developing communication skills and interact with people across cultures and gaining various knowledge regarding different practices of culture.
- The most important reason to pay attention to the cultural competence is that knowing more regarding varied cultural ways and respecting those help children accept every culture and welcome everyone. It also helps in building a sense of oneness for all and equips all the children to accept diversity.
- The three key words used in EYLF that reflect the support of children’s cultural identity and relationships within the family are;
- Belonging: To understand that the children are a part of their family.
- Being: To experience what the situation is and what it will be in the future.
- Becoming: To experiences the changes through various events as well as circumstances in an individual’s life.
- EYLF describes diversity as a major component and each and every child must show a respect to the diverse culture, reflecting their family values as well as cultural beliefs. It is as important as their histories, traditions and languages. The major focus in on promoting an understanding of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
- At the time, when the educators make curriculum decisions, they aim to base their decisions on the strengths, interests, needs as well as abilities of the children. The aim to apply the knowledge to the planned learning routines, experiences, physical environment and interactions.
- Six ways on how the educators can promote respect for diversity:
- By being a role model: Educators can promote diversity by being a role model in front of the kids and showing a respectful behaviour. It is important to show a positive behaviour towards diverse culture as the children are watching.
- Create connections between the communities: Providing and making links between the community services, social networks, groups within the local community.
- Mutual respect: It is important for the educators for being open towards different approaches and ideas.
- Counter discrimination and racism: Being aware of discrimination and racism which may occur inside the educational institution.
- Being open towards different family types: Families will feel good if they are welcomed in a warm manner and valued.
- Being thoughtful regarding communication: Using plain languages, interpreting where English language is a barrier and thinking whether diversity is communicated through the services.
- Four strategies to support and welcome all children and families:
- Providing translated brochures, pamphlets and notices.
- Creating a place to display the community information as well as providing bilingual information.
- Acknowledging the traditions.
- Displaying a specific calendar of cultural events to share with all the family members.
- Paper Handouts are useful.
- Projector slides.
- Black and white boards, in order to explain the daily routines, ideas and concepts.
- Flip chart.
- Three strategies to assist families to work in partnership with the services:
- Building a trust in the early childhood setting.
- Responding to the care giving conflicts.
- Supporting parents for maintaining peace and harmony between child care and home for the welfare of the children.
- Six ways educators can encourage children to explore other cultures in outdoor playing environment:
- Designing outdoor activities for the children.
- Environmental education in a playful manner.
- Physical interaction and innovativeness.
- Outdoor playing materials will help children learn about what makes the world operate.
- They experience the natural world.
- Outdoor learning activities will help the children explore new things and learn at the same time.
- The three reasons are;
- Sleeping and rest times are considered as a key part of most of the children’s daily routine, particularly for the babies and younger ones.
- Talking with the families, who are non-English speakers, will help in ensuring best outcomes for their children.
- They will get an idea of the sleep time practices.
- Eight tips the educators need to consider for those families for whom English is a second language:
- Providing the families with bilingual support whenever possible and being positive towards their home language.
- Making several efforts to include the non-English speaking families in the range of verbal communication, gestures as well as non-verbal languages and group experiences.
- Providing the families with a wide range of activities which will encourage the interactions.
- Using simple and easily understandable language that can be supported by visual aids.
- Providing lot of opportunities for the families to hear as well as use their own languages.
- Giving them frequent opportunities to use questions and respond verbally.
- This will help in increasing the complexity of the educator’s language with the families.
- Using the technique of code switching which is a common technique of blending two different languages, in order to make the non-English speaking families understand.
- Culture is defined by the National Centre for Cultural Competence as the shared and learned knowledge which the specific groups use in order to generate the behaviour as well as interpret their experiences regarding the world. It consists of beliefs regarding reality, how the individuals should interact and how they should respond to the social environment. It is further reflected in their morals, technologies, religions, survival strategies and customs.
- Stereotyping occurs at the time when an impression is built regarding an individual as well as a particular group and is then applied to those groups. Majority of the individuals have certain stereotypical beliefs in relation with the cultures which are different from their own. Very often these beliefs are generated by misunderstandings, misconceptions, racism and biasness within the community or family. It is immensely necessary for the educators to impart knowledge on such things to the children.
- I am Sarah Yeasmin. Honest, open-minded, reliable, values-fairness, religious care and beliefs, cultural beliefs- commitment towards family members.
- Religious care and beliefs: I believe and respect my religion from the core of my heart and my religion teaches me regarding care and respect for other religions.
- Personal attributes, at times referred to as personality traits as well as personal qualities, also contribute to the self identity. Few examples of my personal attributes: Sense of humour, sensitive towards others, hard working and good communication skills.
- It is very common for the diversified cultures to have their own practices and celebrations. These practices contribute towards the development of their own identity and also help them become a part of their culture. Few examples are; fasting at the time of festivities as this gives a sense of gratitude and purity.
- i) At times, when everything becomes different we feel lonely and poor.
- ii) Friends, Family, Relatives and also my favourite foods.
iii) Cooperation as well as some good suggestions.
- On reflecting the self identity, it is immensely necessary to understand that being adults, our values and beliefs are being generated over time via experiences, families, surrounding communities and upbringing. The values from the childhood are very often carried on to adulthood. These factors are; Importance of education and family, Importance of communicating over concerns and issues and the Importance of being honest and open-minded.
Environmental Factors |
Explain the meaning |
Language |
Method used by Human beings to communicate and write. Each and every culture has their own language. |
Attitudes towards time |
It means the importance of time in each culture and it differs between various cultures in quite significant manners. |
Space/proximity |
Proximity is often communicated for example through the usage of space, touching, body position and distance. The usage of space and distance between the individuals are related closely with specific culture. |
Gender roles |
Gender roles define who we actually are and what our sex is. If we have male sex then it is a boy and if we have female sex it is a girl. |
Familial roles |
Familial roles define who an individual is and how he/she relate to the people. It also mentions about how the factors are related and how it influences that individual. |
Taboos |
It means any word or actions that are avoided for social and religious reasons. |
Family Ties |
A connection or bond between two or more than two family members. |
Grooming and Presence |
The things an individual do to make his/her appearance neat and clean. For example, brushing teeth, taking bath and more. |
Autonomy |
The condition or right of the self government. |
Status of age |
The length of time an individual has lived or existed in a professional position or situation. |
Education |
The procedure of giving as well as receiving systematic instructions at schools and universities. |
- The term cultural responsivity refers to the capability of learning from as well as relating respectfully to the people of one’s own culture and other cultures. It is grounded to the awareness of the cultural contexts as well as the strengths which the students bring along to schools and educational institutions. It is a practice which can also be regarded as cultural competence that is the capacity of functioning effectively.
- Ten ways by which educators can become culturally responsive are;
- Anticipating probable responses to the controversial issues.
- Establishing guidelines in the class.
- Using various methods of creating learning groups.
- Being ready to challenge the assumptions and having culturally competent students in the group.
- Getting to know about the students by asking them write about their own-self.
- Examination of course contents.
- Being careful regarding the comments made during class discussions, lectures, recitations and more.
- Creating an environment which encourages the students to ask questions regarding the course contents and other factors.
- Making decisions regarding when and how to devote the unanticipated time.
- Being open towards the students’ reactions towards the course materials.
- The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are identified by their culture, beliefs and looks. They are basically dark skinned, blonde haired, broad nosed and blue eyed individuals. They define their aboriginality not by the skin colors but by their relationships. Light skinned people often face challenges in their community due to the stereotyping.
- Three key factors:
- Speak up to the children as well as their family members who need additional support.
- Suggest some improvements to the procedures, practices and policies in the society.
- Join certain associations and read some newsletters related to the needs of Aboriginal people.
Loss of Land |
Many people were forced of their traditional lands away from their lifestyle. |
Loss of Culture |
Forced to change their culture from active hunter and gatherer lifestyles, they were forced to adopt European culture. |
Loss of Kinship/ family ties |
Many of them were prevented to contact their family members and abused physically and mentally. |
- Four factors that contributed are;
- They were prevented to have any contact with their family members.
- They were being forced to adopt European culture.
- They were being tortured both physically and mentally.
- Many people died from infectious diseases.
- Three factors that contribute to the Aboriginal children being at high risks of emotional and behavioral difficulties;
- The children were being forced from their family members and raised in a different culture.
- They have seen violence in front of them, which affected them mentally.
- Their family members were forced to mix up with the European culture, which led to such behavioral difficulties.
- Two examples are;
- The importance of nature and hunting.
- The family clan groups share a common language.
- The Aboriginal people and their ancestors have occupied Australia for around 40,000 years.
- The significance is that the land belongs to nobody. The land is unoccupied and unsettled.
- Two key policies;
- Separation by relocating the people and creating reserves.
- The Aboriginal Protection Act, The Child Protection Act and others.
- The two powers are removing the aboriginal children and placing them to homes, to educate the children for their wellbeing.
- The solution was to provide the community with protection and segregate them by the turn of the century.
- They were sent to homes and educational institutions and the conditions were good where they learnt and adapted new things.
- They responded to it in a positive manner and started adopting measures to educate them.
- The two outcomes were; acknowledging the continual relationship of the Aboriginal people, recognizing their continent as it was first occupied by their community.
- Three features;
- The people must have the right of self determination through which they can decide on their political status as well as freely pursue the social, cultural and economic development.
- All the individuals can freely dispose their natural wealth as well as resources.
- Administrative bodies should promote the realization of self-determination.
- Their skin color, appearances, lifestyles, culture, religion, taboos, traditions, food habits and health issues.
- It symbolizes red ochre, red earth used in the ceremonies, the Aboriginal people’s spiritual relation with their lands, the Sun that is the giver and protector of life.
- The black stripes represent the Torres people. The white star represents five major groups of island and the white dancer’s headdress represents the people of the community.
- They refer themselves as Nyoongar or Koori and also by their nation name.
- In the Aboriginal communities the idea of child care is not only the concern of his/her biological parents but also the entire community.
- Kinship, Population density, Languages, Culture, Societal changes, Lifestyle, Philosophy and family, Traditional values, Colonization.
- The kinship system was made on the basis of the equivalence of same sex siblings.
- It enabled the community to arrange official functions, special events and meetings.
- It is performed by an elderly local aboriginal tribe.
- In men’s business, men exclude women from certain ceremonies and in women’s business men are excluded by the women.
- By the use of several communication techniques, using appropriate languages and respecting each other.
- Taking photographs and writing the names of the deceased or speaking is not allowed. It is a very traumatic and sensitive event. In addition to this, a smoking ceremony is carried out to help the spirit depart from the world.
- The term used is Sorry Business.
- By referring the elders as ‘Aunty’ and ‘Uncle’.
Aboriginal Australians |
Torres Strait Islanders |
· Indigenous people living in Tasmania and mainland Australia. |
· Indigenous people originated from Torres Strait Islands. |
· They came from Asia and settled in Australia more than 40,000 years ago. |
· They descended from Papua New Guinea people and Melanesian. |
· Nomadic and engage in hunting activities. |
· Agriculture, food gathering and others. |
- The purpose of NAIDOC week is to celebrate the culture, history as well as achievements of the people belonging to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. The celebrations are held all across the country of Australia.
- Five ways by which children’s service can participate in the NAIDOC week are; displaying posters inside classrooms, inviting aboriginal dancers to perform, creating an aboriginal art, studying about aboriginal facts and listening to indigenous music.
- Five NAIDOC week awards categories are; Lifetime Achievement Awards, Person of the Year, Female elder of the Year, Male elder of the Year and Youth of the Year.
- The National Aboriginal and Islander Children’s Day is being celebrated each year on 4thof August, all across Australia. The event as well as the weak is the time for the community to celebrate the culture and the strengths of the children. This day is regarded as an opportunity for the Australians to show that they support the Aboriginal children. It also shows that the Australians have interest in learning about the positive impact regarding the Aboriginal community, family, lifestyle as well as culture. It also presents how the culture and lifestyle plays an important role in to the life of every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. In the year 2014, the Children’s Day focused on celebrating the positive impact culture plays in to the wellbeing and safety of the children. The year’s theme was: ‘Kids in Culture- Proud, Resilient and Strong’.
- The National Sorry Day is held on 26thMay every year all across Australia. The day gives people a chance to gather together as well as share their steps towards healing the Stolen Generations, along with their communities and families. The Stolen Generations refer to the Indigenous segment of people, who were actually forced out and removed from their communities and families. Several events and activities occur on this day all across the country which include; concerts, barbecues, Sorry Day flag rising ceremonies, street walks and marches, media statements made by celebrities and politicians, speeches from the community leaders, educators and elderly people and many more.
- Cultural Safety is a commonly used term which was coined by Williams in the year 1999. He defined cultural safety as the environment which is socially, emotionally and spiritually safe and also physically and mentally safe for the individuals. In such an environment, there is no assault or challenges or denial of the identities of who the individuals are or what their needs are.
- Cultural safety for the children means that the environment is safe for them and there is no assault or denial of their identity. It is about shared meaning, shared knowledge and the experiences the children learn from their environment, while growing up. It is also about living as well as learning together along with dignity and morality. They need to feel that their identity and self sense is highly valued by someone as well as the environment surrounding them.
- Six elements are; the origin (family, history), personal identity, family members, where do the person belong, occupation, cultural values and beliefs.
- Six examples are; what the child likes to do, what he/she can, what he/she will, who will help him/her with this, what would be good to and what he/she wants to be in future.
- It is described as a spiritual connection with the country, regarding the creation as well as life and death.
- Their learning procedures are connected with the development of the personal values, spirituality and more factors.
- It helps in recognizing the importance of cultural knowledge, enhances their personal values, development of cultural support plans and cultural expressions.
- National Aboriginal and Islander Children’s Day, NAIDOC, Coming of the Light Festival and Sorry Day.
- Five factors are;
- The gap between the mortality rate of the Indigenous and Non-Indigenous populations.
- Higher rate of poorer health conditions.
- Low birth weight of the children.
- Higher emotional and behavioral disorders among the children.
- Low performance of the Indigenous children in terms of literacy as compared to the Non-Indigenous ones.
- Five barriers are;
- Few Aboriginal educators.
- Lack of Infrastructures.
- Not enough history of the Aboriginal culture.
- Uneducated parents and poor quality of teaching.
- Five key beliefs in relation with the goals are;
- Culture enhances a deep sense of belonging to one group.
- Culture involves a spiritual relationship to the land.
- Culture involves an emotional relationship to the land from where the individual belongs.
- Culture enables the broader side of the community to understand the resilience.
- Culture enables the community to appreciate the pride of the aboriginal people regarding their beliefs and activities.
Discriminatory responses |
Explain the meaning |
Head in the sand |
Unwilling to acknowledge or recognize any situation or problem. |
Giving out |
Giving out means completely using up something. |
Making space |
It means an empty area which is available for using. |
Getting support |
Getting support from individuals in a way for coping up with a traumatic experience. |
Seeing the big picture |
It simplifies the complexities of the businesses and how the individuals can build the credibility of the business, be it big or small. |
- Six ways by which the educators can challenge discriminatory or bias comments from the children are;
- Asking questions to the children to develop critical thought processes.
- Creating several opportunities in order to make comparisons between the stereotypical images as well as the variety of the real images.
- Taking actions in order to protest biasness.
- Creating problem solving opportunities.
- Continually re-evaluating strategies in order to integrate the anti-bias approach in all aspects.
- Gathering educational materials to contradict stereotypes.
Families |
Development of mutual trust and relationships with honest, open and positive communication. |
Colleagues |
Learning about the communities and the priorities and promote shared aspirations among the colleagues. |
Communities |
Promoting culturally sound knowledge as well as understanding regarding the individual needs and learning about the community activities. |
- In order to promote learning the educators can adopt six strategies. They are;
- Acknowledging and responding sensitively to the children’s signals and cues.
- Responding sensitively to the attempts of the children in order to initiate interactions as well as conversations.
- Support the children’s secured attachment through warm and consistent procedure of nurturing relationships.
- Supporting the children at the times of changes and bridging the gaps between the familiar things and unfamiliar things.
- Acknowledging every child’s uniqueness in a positive manner.
- Recognizing their strengths and weaknesses.
- The director is planning to introduce several training development procedures in order to introduce cultural safety inside the workplace. It includes; WHS obligations of the employer and the employees, safe usage of the electrical equipments and chemicals and also managing workplace stress.
- The key protocols are; timeframe for the completion, workplace requirements related to the dressing standards, safe use of equipments and chemicals, first aid procedures, managing workplace stress, emergency evacuation procedures and many more.
- The director has the right to be concerned because;
- The employees are making racist comments against someone, which is hampering the protocol.
- It is important to maintain social interactions in the workplace.
- Workplace barriers are often perpetuated as because the individuals fail to explore and acknowledge the cultural differences.
- The director of the company can easily make Jack and Kate understand the importance of diversity within the workplace culture. In addition to this, the two employees can be given special trainings on diversity policies inside the workplace.
- The scenario is a positive example because a culturally competent person can help others to see the world through their cultural lens and also explore different ways of accepting culture. It is true that the concept of culture may differ from one person to other, but education imparted on this can help people become more culturally sensitive and competent.
- The six different ways by which the culture of the community can be integrated in the curriculum are;
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures.
- Mathematics- Cross-Curriculum priorities.
- History- Cross-Curriculum priorities.
- Science- Cross-Curriculum priorities.
- English- Cross-Curriculum priorities.
- Ways of learning Aboriginal concepts.
- a) Two practical suggestions that can be provided are-
- Children show increasing appreciation and care for the natural and built up environments.
- Children explore relationships with others and respond to change
- b) It can be said that there are many historical and cultural factors that need to be considered before working closely with the Aboriginal people to have a better understanding of their background.
- c) The services can focus on adopting an action research approach by cultivating networks and relationship among the parents with poor literacy skills.
- a) The two key facts in relation to Aboriginal language and dialects are that there is no universal aboriginal language and each nation has their own distinct language or dialect. It can be suggested that there are around 300 aboriginal countries that speak about 250 various languages including 600 dialects.
Previously the aboriginal people were abstained from speaking their language and as a result of that the teaching of the language between generations were ruined. Being an oral culture this action had a devastating impact on the conservation of language and knowledge too.
- a) The conventional meaning of the aboriginal elder is someone who achieved recognition in the community as a custodian of knowledge and is allowed to reveal cultural beliefs.
- b) The term ‘mob’ is extremely important to the aboriginal because it is used for their identification and to where they belong or their roots.
- c) Traditional owner is a descendent of the clan or ethnic group who had captured a specific area before European settlement especially when the occupation is under the Australian law.
- d) The six terms which are considered to be offensive while communicating with the aboriginal people are as follows-
Blacks, Yellafellas, Nunga, Half caste, Primitive and Tribe.
Communication Barriers |
Suggested ways to overcome these barriers |
Welcome |
Introducing in a warm and friendly way |
Relationships first |
Building rapport |
Tone of voice |
Extended period of silence are considered to be valuable |
Language |
Kriol, Aboriginal English and Torress Strait Criole |
Smile, relax |
Avoding eye contact is a gesture of respect |
Introduction |
Not using complex words or jargons |
Rapport (build relationship) |
Story telling and asking about small personal details |
Eye contact |
Follow the opponent and make changes in eye contact accordingly |
Silence |
Observing silence to understand the right time for speaking |
- a) Interpreters deal with spoken language and translate orally while translators do the same thing but in a written form.
- b) Interpreters are used when there is a necessity to convey important or sensitive information to ensure that the services re confidential or impartial.
- c) A non- professional interpreter will be used in time of conveying general information such as routine needs or daily issues of the service.
- d) the issue with non- professional interpreters is that there might be a family who are not literate in their first language and they have limitation in English too.
- e) The translating and interpreting services can be accessed from their website and they can be reached 24 hours at the given email and phone number.
Term |
Explain the meaning |
Racism |
It is a prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism that is aimed against someone from a different race or culture and believes one race to be superior than the other |
Bias |
It is the inclination or or prejudice either for or against a single person or a group specifically in such a way which is considere tobe unfair or illegal. |
Bigotry |
It refers to the intolerance towards those who are of different opinion from each other |
- a) Anti biass education is an approach towards primary childhood education which sets the value based on principles and also methodology to respect and commit to the difference against bias and unfairness.
- b) This is evident when the children build safe and secured attachments with one or more familiar educators of the services. They have abundant inquisitiveness which provides them with the opportunity to explore the differences.
- c) The four goals are- each child will reflect self- awareness and confidence; each child will show comfort and joy; each child will identify unfairness and biasness; each child will reflect empowerment.
Respond immediately. |
So that there is no negative impact on the children |
Respond simply. |
So that thaey can react in a cool and calm manner |
Respond authentically. |
So that the children understand that they are given proper value and use that in their life long learning process. |
Acknowledge differences. |
So that the children can take time in learning better in the growing years and implement the teaching in the long journey |
Model behaviour. |
So that the children can learn that sometimes the words hurt and those are unacceptable. |
- The three strategies by which the educator can address the bias in the scenario is;
- The child is getting wrong education from her parents. Therefore, it is important for the educator to call up her parents and address the mis-information they are giving to their child and the stereotypes.
- It is also important for the educator to give the child factual and real life examples and also promote diversity in the educational policies.
- Furthermore, education must be given to the children regarding the knowledge of diversity and how they should welcome individuals from various cultures and backgrounds.
- i) Dramatic Play: Decorations reflecting the traditional cultures, props that support various occupations and lifestyles and lastly, the girl and boy puppets as well as dolls with different features, color and skin tones representing various cultural groups.
- ii) Block Area: Distributing posters, pictures and photographs of people and buildings to the local community, representing different cultures in the form of representational toys and lastly, reflecting various cultures as well as lifestyles through photographs.
iii) Games and Puzzles: To check whether there are ample amount of games available for the children to learn about other countries, puzzles and memory games related to the maps and symbols of other countries and lastly, community languages so that the games are played bilingually and the children come to know about different languages.