Welcoming Families From Around the World

You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.

**********************************************************************************************************************************

Barbados 

If I was a working at an early childhood facility of any kind and I learned that I was about to get a new student who is from Barbados and is new to the United States I would feel happy to meet him/her and their family because I love to meet new people and learn new things if they are from a different state or country. I would want to definitely make sure that I am open minded and ready to learn and adapt to a new culture and their way of thinking and doing things as well as introducing the student and their family of the way things flow in the US. I would make sure to do the following things before the student arrives in my classroom so that I may be culturally responsive towards them:

1. I would go over ALL paperwork/applications that is filled out because those documents will let me know the gender of the child, age, likes/dislikes, interesting facts and I would be able to get a little bit of the child's characteristics and personality just from the paperwork that is filled out by the parents or guardians. I would establish personalized contact with the parents and other individuals of the family to let them know they are more than just a parent to me - they are a person.
2. I would develop and use vocabulary of greetings and key phrases in the child's primary language to show that I have taken time to enter into their world which can in turn become an "ice breaker" which sometimes helps other feel more comfortable with you.
3. Try to discover some commonalities of experiences. I would try to find out what their favorite hobby is, styles of cooking, parenting secrets or anything that we may have in common. I would use those experiences to establish a bond that will help me relate to the student and family as individuals rather than as student/parent.
4. I will do my best to accommodate the needs of the family. I would keep in mind the work schedules of the parents/guardians, transportation needs, religious or cultural holidays and child care arrangements when scheduling meetings, visits, etc.
5. Lastly I would try to convince myself that just because someone else's customs and beliefs are different from mine, there are no right and wrong cultural beliefs. All beliefs and customs are correct in the culture in which it occurs. I would make sure to keep an open mind to ALL of the students' beliefs and customs and discuss them with the parents/guardians if needed and sometimes the differences could result in more choices and options. 

I hope that the above preparations would help my whole classroom and not just one student in particular - I feel as if I have an open mind and free spirit so that no one would feel left out or excluded from any activity. I hope that the preparations would help the parents or guardians feel extremely comfortable with me and in return we are able to develop a great relationship.