Community Research Project: Cultural Diversity in Canada Paper Example

Canada is one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse countries in the world. Recent research shows that over 1.1 million people immigrated to Canada between 2011 and 2015 with the large number from Asian countries, European countries, and the Middle East with approximately 17, 015 immigrant children aged between 0-19 years old (Tanaka, 2015). This implies that Canada has a linguistically, culturally, and ethnically diverse children in the country. The immigrant families hold ambitious expectations for their children to succeed and better their lives despite the considerable barriers and challenges they face. Therefore most immigrants come to Canada with the same goals for a better life for themselves and their children (Banks, 2015). However, these families always faced difficulties concerning education due to their linguistically, culturally, and socially diverse children. The diversity of these children is the primary challenge for Early Childhood Education (ECE) since it becomes difficult for early childhood professional to provide rich learning opportunities (Ontario, 2007). Therefore early childhood educators need to consider ways in which they can develop immigrant children cognitively emotionally and socially in comparison to non-immigrant children in Canada. This paper addresses how early childhood professionals need to support immigrant children development based on their culture, values, beliefs, and worldviews in a preschool setting. Early childhood professionals usually interact with pre-school children during the early stages of learning. They typically face challenges when providing immigrant children with a supportive environment that can enhance their well-being and development. The experiences of immigrant children are different from those of nonimmigrant children because of limited access to resources, limited English skills, and lack of familiarity with the new cultural practices and customs (Ontario, 2007). Therefore, educators play a critical role in understanding the unique needs and challenges of immigrant children. The principal purpose of an early childhood educator is to create a supportive environment for children to feel comfortable and safe when learning (Banks, 2015). Teachers can only foster a supportive classroom environment when they create and maintain a close relationship with children. Tanaka (2015) states that strong interaction and relationship between children and teachers helps to promote their social, emotional, linguistic and cognitive development. Other researchers have also indicated that student-teacher relationship such as instructional support has a positive impact on a child's cognitive development, general numeracy, early writing, and language (Banks, 2015). Although it may be difficult to create a positive, close, and strong teacher-child relationship with immigrant children due to their language barriers and differences, there is a need for educators to become culturally sensitive and responsive to children with a diverse background (Tanaka, 2015). Early childhood educators who value and understand the cultures of immigrant children can enhance their learning process and development. Therefore understanding and valuing the diverse cultures from which immigrant children come from would help early childhood educators to form a close relationship with children and meet their needs.

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According to the holistic education theory, all aspects of human such as the learning and development of children are interconnected. This theory maintains that the spiritual, aesthetic, physical, social-emotional and actual development of children is connected (Tanaka, 2015). These aspects foster holistic education by facilitating connections between learning, exclusion, and segregation of students and integrating them regardless of the diverse backgrounds and levels of abilities in the classroom. The social-ecological system theory also looks into the importance of interconnectedness and relationship between children's development and the environment. The theory maintains that children's development does not happen in isolation; instead, it occurs through their social interactions and relationship within contexts of their environment (Tanaka, 2015). Taken together, both social-ecological systems theory and holistic education theory emphasise the importance of interrelationships and connections between immigrant children and their surrounding environment, and how it influences their learning, development and growth.

Early childhood educators should embrace cultural diversities and develop infective approaches that would help to meet the needs of these immigrant children in a holistic way. The curriculum needs to celebrate and affirm cultural differences and support the cultural identity of all children (Ontario, 2007). The education service needs to ensure that some resources and programs are responsive and sensitive to different heritages, and among the children attending their service. Therefore, the curriculum needs to support ethnic and cultural diversity, and be responsive to reciprocally teach children (Ontario, 2007). Early childhood professionals should also ensure that there is a bridge between school and home so that children may have meaningful learning experiences. For example, enabling the use of first languages is one of the strategies that educators should allow in there linguistically and culturally diverse classroom setting. They also need to understand that the children's identity is tied to their first language and they should sometimes refer to the children's home language to make connections and communicate with them (Tanaka, 2015). The teachers also need to partner with the community, and the families provide a curriculum framework that can help to ensure young children's learning and development. Thus, working closely with students, teachers and community help educators to become part of the society, this helps them to develop children's sense of belonging to the community.

From the interview with Cizzner and his family, I have learned that immigrant families hold ambitious expectations for their children to succeed and better their lives despite the considerable barriers and challenges they face. Therefore, most immigrants' families in Canada have the same goals for a better and safer life for themselves and their children. However, these immigrant families always faced difficulties with respect and education for their children due to their low economic status, language barriers and lack of equal opportunities as minorities. To care for them, they need to be integrated culturally and linguistically within their new communities and the environment. Therefore, educators need to acknowledge the diversified culture within their classrooms and realise that diverse student populations have a lot to contribute to the classroom, and that ethnic diversity is not an educational liability, but rather a resource. Besides, since teachers feel ill-prepared to teach ethnically diverse students, they need more professional training and development in the area of teaching in a multilingual and multi-cultural setting (Tanaka, 2015). Close relationships and positive interactions between students and teachers can help teachers connect with their students and recognize their needs. Teachers also need to be culturally aware this students cultural identity and history and reflect ways that this will influence their teaching processes. I encourage educators to continue to develop and explore ways that they can support immigrant children, and develop approaches that can ensure a diversity-positive-classroom environment where immigrant children are encouraged and feel safe to achieve their potential.

References

Banks, J. A. (2015). Cultural diversity and education. Routledge. Abingdon, United Kingdom

Ontario. Ministry of Children and Youth Services. Best Start Expert Panel on Early Learning.

(2007). Early learning for every child today: A framework for Ontario early childhood settings. Ministry of Children and Youth Services.

Tanaka, K. (2015). Supporting immigrant preschool children in culturally diverse preschools (Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia). Retrieved from: https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/graduateresearch/42591/items/1.0351959#downloadfiles