Introducing ‘Culture’ to Young Children

When thinking of developmentally appropriate ways of introducing ‘culture’ in child care settings, it is
important that young children can easily understand, relate to and connect what they learn to their own
lives. In the past. multicultural and anti-bias early childhood programming often did not stress this
relevance and connection. Some teachers would “do” a particular culture or country for one or two weeks,
and then move on to another one. This leads to what is called the tourist curriculum (Derman-Sparks).

A tourist curriculum is likely to teach about cultures through food, fun and festivals. The weakness of this
approach is that cultures are represented only through special events in a centre, and not in the ongoing
daily program for the children. For example, if the only recognition of Chinese culture in the classroom is
the yearly celebration of Chinese New Year when we make dragons, wear “Chinese” clothing, cook
“Chinese” food and eat with chopsticks, we are falling into the “tourist trap”.

The danger of the tourist approach is that it can be patronizing and stereotyping if we only emphasize the
“exotic” aspects of the culture such as celebrations and entertainment. Children only “visit” the culture or
country and then “go home” to the daily life in their classroom. (It is important to note that the “dominant”
or “mainstream culture” is seldom portrayed in this food, fun and festivals manner.)

The focus on holidays, although it provides drama and delight for both children and
adults, gives the impression that it is all ‘other’ people – usually people of color – do.
What it fails to communicate is real understanding (Derman-Sparks, p.7).

In order to avoid the “tourist trap”, implement the following Key Concepts of Multicultural Early Childhood
Education:

• emphasize human similarities before differences

• make learning concrete and interactive

• represent the range of cultures and family lifestyles present in your program, and then in the
wider community

• reflect mainly local and contemporary cultures, rather than those which are international or
historical

• incorporate multicultural, anti-bias programming in each curriculum area and every learning
centre

• support and encourage a child’s home language

• provide both “known” and “new” experiences and materials for each child in your program

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 To Celebrate or Not: Guidelines
WMDS Seasonal Celebration Resource Guides offer support for using holidays as a time to connect and
celebrate, and promote meaningful learning about similarities and differences. Caregivers should
consider the following when planning celebrations:

Plan Ahead

• Be clear about your goals for each activity, keeping children’s interests and developmental
abilities in the forefront.

Involve Families in the Planning Process

• Encourage families’ involvement in planning and implementing holiday activities.

• Make no assumptions about which holidays families celebrate. Find out what kinds of activities
are acceptable to families who don’t celebrate certain holidays, or any at all.
• Brainstorm possible activities that will include everyone.
• Leave the decision about children’s participation in activities to each family.

The Environment

• Ensure that all children’s holidays are reflected equally.

• Involve children in the planning and creation of holiday related displays, decorations and
celebrations.
• Be careful not to overwhelm the environment with holiday related items or abandon regular
routines and curriculum.

Programming

• Link children’s own experiences to holiday and celebration activities.

• Make links between everyday and special day curricula.
• Highlight that there are many ways to celebrate holidays and that families from the same culture
may approach celebrations quite differently.

What to Say (and When to Say It)

• Gifts are not the main thing! Involve children in a discussion about the many different things we
can do to show we care about ourselves and others.

Clarify Your Own Views

• Learn all you can about which holidays families celebrate and how they celebrate them.
• Respect families’ views about holidays and celebrations.
• Be clear about your own holiday philosophy and show flexibility in your planning.

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 To Celebrate or Not:
A Question for Careful Consideration!
Holidays often serve as a focal point for multicultural programming in early childhood care and education
(ECCE). More recently, a number of well respected researchers and authors have critiqued this approach
and alerted us to some of the pitfalls of a “song and dance” focus.

In our efforts to ensure culturally sensitive child care and to integrate diversity education into our
programs we have several options to consider with regard to the role of holiday celebrations. We can
choose to celebrate all holidays, we can choose to celebrate no holidays or we can find a comfortable
place somewhere in between.

Coming to a consensus about the role of celebrations in your program can be challenging. While some
staff and families may have no strong feelings about this issue, others may hold very particular beliefs for
or against holiday activities based on roots, religion and the visibility of holidays as a symbol of cultural
expression. To help inform and clarify your decision-making, consider the following approaches:

Let’s Celebrate Everything!

This perspective presents an opportunity for an inclusive, proactive approach to “living multiculturalism” in
your program.

On the one hand, celebrating everything can:

• affirm children and their families in expression of meaningful cultural activities

• provide opportunities to expand children’s horizons
• introduce children to new knowledge about cultural diversity
• build respect and appreciation for our human similarities and differences
• offer enriching cross-cultural learning

On the other hand, celebrating everything has the potential to:

• overwhelm our program with a theme based rather than an emergent curriculum approach
• promote commercialism and consumerism
• reinforce overgeneralization and stereotypes about holidays and festivals
• contribute to a “song and dance” exotic or tourist approach to multicultural education
• result in tokenistic and superficial learnings
• create dilemmas and conflicts regarding religious issues
• cause unintended hurt or offence to families

Let’s Celebrate Nothing!

This perspective can help us avoid the risks and challenges identified above.

One the one hand, celebrating nothing can:

• provide more opportunities for child initiated, flexible and open-ended program planning
• ensure greater sensitivity to children and families in low income or poverty situations

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 • decrease the potential for trivializing religious or cultural elements of holidays
• reduce the possibility of conflict between and among staff and families
• eliminate the potential for developmentally inappropriate programming with respect to holiday
celebrations
• downplay the emphasis on our differences and increase opportunities to focus on our similarities
• refocus our efforts and energy to celebrate other kinds of events, issues or successes that are
meaningful for children

On the other hand, celebrating nothing can:

• diminish opportunities for cross-cultural learning

• prevent children from participating in a host of hands-on, concrete and enjoyable activities
• decrease opportunities for staff to learn and integrate new cross-cultural understanding
• reduce the potential for meaningful family involvement in the program
• limit “teachable moments” for children
• limit staff ability to implement the program’s active commitment to diversity philosophy and
practice

Your choices about holiday celebrations will be influenced by your own and other families’ values, beliefs,
environment and experiences. We invite you to reflect, consider and engage cooperatively with co-
workers and families as you decide upon the role that holiday celebrations will play in your program.
Consider the following framework to assist staff and families in deciding whether or not to include
celebrations in their ECCE settings.

A. The PROCESS of how we ask and answer the question “to celebrate or not?” is, in itself, key.
Together, staff and families can make a commitment to questioning, sharing, listening, and
incorporating different perspectives in overall decisions and plans. By being respectful, inclusive, and
open-ended as we examine whether or not we include celebrations, we are, at the adult level,
engaging in the actual practice of cross-cultural and anti-bias learning. If we model this process in the
presence of children, we show them not only how we solve a particular issue, but also that similarities
and differences are a natural part of human life which can be accepted and incorporated as part of
positive problem-solving. So for our own sake, and for children’s, the process of asking and
answering questions about celebrations is as important as the outcome.

B. Beyond process considerations, it is important to consider celebrations within a broader CONTEXT. If

we agree with Louise Derman-Sparks’ “Four Anti-Bias Curriculum Goals” we then can balance how
celebrations might become part of overall curriculum that:

1. Fosters each child’s construction of a knowledgeable, confident self-identity.

2. Fosters each child’s comfortable empathetic interaction with people of diverse backgrounds.
3. Fosters each child’s critical thinking about bias.
4. Fosters each child’s ability to stand up for herself/himself and for others in the face of bias.
(Louse Derman-Sparks, 1992)

With these goals in mind, celebrations, as a human commonality, may be something we want to
share as part of our anti-bias curriculum, but only if we do it accurately, appropriately, and in ways
that do not overshadow other learning. This suggests that answers the questions “to celebrate or not”,
an all or nothing approach, denies the opportunity to introduce children to the full spectrum of human
experience, aspirations, and cultural expression.

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C. A third general consideration is IMPLEMENTATION: as with all other programming choices, how we
include celebrations will strongly affect whether learning outcomes will be reflective of our overall anti-
bias goals. Implementation choices do involve decisions about what songs to teach or what art
materials to offer. But more importantly, adult modelling is crucial. The way we introduce celebrations,
ask questions, and link similarities and differences to children’s own experiences, makes a profound
difference to what children do or do not learn. We can use celebrations as the basis for respectful and
thoughtful enquiry into diversity – instead of just going through the motions of superficial “song and
dance” activities.

Taken together, process considerations, context issues, and implementation strategies suggest that “all
or nothing” approaches are not the most supportive or broad anti-bias goals. As staff and families
consider options with this in mind, they may decide to include some celebrations within their ECCE
setting. Many excellent resources are available on what, how, and when to offer developmentally
appropriate and contextually relevant programming. If staff and families answer “yes” to the question “to
celebrate or not?” they can then use these resources for fine-tuning celebration activities as part of a
broad-based, anti-bias, multicultural curriculum.

Adapted from: Gyda Chud, Ruth Fahlman, Carol Cordle

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