Welcoming Families from different cultures

Each time I'm giving the assignment to include diversity about families around the world it seems to devaste me because of my lack of knowledge about the families origin.  Through this course I have been enlightened about diversity and the difference between surface culture and deep culture. To truely learn and understand diversity and the origin of the family I choose I will have to explore deep culture.

The family that I choose origin has rootes from Chilie. In order to understand and make them feel welcom in my classroom I will have to learn about their language. This can be done through research and collaboration from fellow practitioners. I will also have to understand their family bonds and relationships with extended family members. I can read about this, but the best examples will come from watching them interact with each other. While home visits are rarely done, I will visit the community where they live to observe their interactions and roles. I will have to understand their values. The role of children within their culture. I need to know whether they value education, and desire their children to have access to educational opportunities. To me, it is important to understand if the parent's understand how important and valuable a good education can be for the child. Even though the parents may not speak the language, can I help them understand the value of learning.

As a practitioner, I understand the value of an education. By  learning about the diversity of the families that I will be servicing, it will enable to center activities, and the learning environment around things that will help them feel culturally accepted and be able to embrace. Going to a new environment is overwhelming within itself, having things put in place to show that you are at least willing to learn and accept them helps ease the culture shock that comes along with diversity and migration.