Today's global society is finding its way into our child care centers around the country. By the year 2000, the Census estimates that one of every three Americans will be a "minority." This is a world that requires all child care providers to learn more about people with different cultural backgrounds, values, beliefs, and responses to everyday life situations. Being a culturally competent child care provider helps you to provide a safe and welcoming place to a young child. It also helps you create a satisfying and meaningful experience for the child, the child's family, your staff, and you.

WHAT IS CULTURE?

Culture is the shared values, norms, traditions, customs, arts, history, folklore, and institutions of a group of people. A cultural group is made up of people with common origins, habits, styles of living, and with a sense of identity and shared language.

WHO HAS CULTURE?

We all do! Too often, many people think culture is something that "other people" have. How often have you heard someone say "I don't have a culture?" Sadly, these individuals have not learned to recognize and value their own history and ancestral connections. Before you can appreciate, understand, and value another person's culture you must understand your own culture first. Culture guides how we interact with, respond to, and influence people, events, and conditions in our environment. We see cultural differences characterized in:

• family structures
• important events in the life cycle
• roles of individual members
• rules of interpersonal interaction
• communication & language rules
• rules of decorum & discipline
• standards for health & hygiene
• food preferences
• explanation of natural phenomena
• education & teaching methods
• perceptions of time & space
• religious beliefs
• perceptions of work & plan
• dress & personal appearance
• history & traditions
• holidays & celebrations
• attitudes toward pets & animals
• arts & music values & tastes
• life expectations & aspirations

Taking the time to explore your personal and family history, traditions, and heritage is an important first step to gaining cultural competence. Culture provides the framework within which we define ourselves, interpret and make sense of our world--and in turn helps us see our own needs for more information and understanding as it relates to people from other cultural backgrounds.

In child care settings, societal issues and cultural differences need to be addressed. A child care provider must consider issues of teen parenting, homelessness, poverty, unemployment and under-employment, and disabilities.

WHAT IS CULTURAL COMPETENCE?

Basic cultural competence refers to the provider's capacity to accept and respect differences and continually self-assess his or her reactions to different cultures. It involves careful attention to the dynamics of difference, the continual expansion of culture knowledge and resources, and a commitment to using a variety of service modes in order to better meet the needs...(Torres)

Cultural competence requires a willingness and ability to draw on community-based values, traditions, and customs, and to work with a knowledgeable person of and from the community in developing services, communications and other forms of support. More simply, cultural competence is the state of being capable of functioning in the context of cultural differences --an ongoing and evolving process.

As a child care provider, cultural competence affects the quality of care and service you provide to families. It also affects policies for staff, interactions with family members, and procedures used to carry out daily routines in your center. There are four arenas of competency. Increasing your ability in each of these arenas is a continuous, ongoing process that moves you closer to achieving cultural competence.

1. Cultural Awareness-process of becoming sensitive to another's culture--values, beliefs, practices, lifestyles, and problem-solving strategies; examine and appreciate own culture and learned biases and prejudices toward others;

2. Cultural Knowledge-process of understanding the world views of another and the frameworks from which other groups operate;

3. Cultural Skill-learn to interpret another's cultural mode of interacting with the outside world so they may reach and provide cultural relevant services; and

4. Cultural Encounter-directly engage in cross-cultural interactions with people from different cultural backgrounds and gain culturally relevant information from which specific, appropriate, and individualized interactions may occur.

When creating an action plan to work with a new group, understand that the steps may be different each time you encounter another group. Some pitfalls to watch out for in striving for cultural competence in child care include:

• forming impressions of people and families too soon;
• drawing conclusions before learning about the family or community in which the family lives;
• generalizing from an individual experience that is non-typical for a cultural group and applying it to a whole cultural group; and
• forgetting that individual variations exist between families, cultural group, and individuals.

  WAHT ARE SOME CONSIDERATIONS FOR SPECIFIC CULTURAL GROUPS?

  There is no one guidebook that will lead you through the array of beliefs, values, and behaviors for each cultural group now living in the United States. In fact, the best way to learn about a group is to spend time with that goup, listen, ask questions, test your ideas, and include members of that group in planning meetings and advisory councils. If you are in a leaderhsip role in your child care center, you need to develop good facilitation skills that aid in tapping the ideas and talents diversity brings to such groups.

  Some strategies for taking the steps toward cultural competence include:

  • increasing your own awareness about the major cultural groups in your area by examining local Census data;
  • participating in special events hosted by local cultural groups;
  • learning to convey respect to others, in particular, respect for their values, beliefs, and cultural practices without judging them;
  • becoming aware of imposing cultural practices on children and staff(especially important during holidays);
  • developing effective communication practices and habits and maybe even learning a second language;
  • paying attention to your own communication style and habits;
  • observing behaviors or individual beliefs that differ from your own and discuss the similarities and differences with others; and
  • reminding yourself and your staff that skin color does not determine a child's staff members, or family's culture.

  These are some general considerations when working with different groups that may start you in the right direction. To provide effective child care services, the provider must learn about the individual differences based on social class, country of origin, occupation, religion, socio-economic status, educational level, urban or rural residence, and regional origin of the families, staff, and communities involved.

  Increasing your cultural competence increases the opportunities for you, your staff, the children in your care, and their families to learn and grow. It is the personalized AND culturally based ways of providing child care that build an effective and rewarding child care program.

  Helpful Resources to learn more:

  Strategies for Working with Culturally Diverse Communities and Clients(1989) by Elizabeth Randall-David

  Cultural Sensitivity in ADVANCE for Nurse Practitioners(July 1993), 16-18 by Sara Torres.

  Copyright/Access Information