In the event that I were to have a family join my center/
classroom from a country which I do not have any prior knowledge would make me
want to learn no more than five things from their culture before they entered
my classroom. I would do so as a sign of respect for their culture. The name of
the family's country of origin that I know nothing about is Afghanistan.
I would hope that the family would be on an internet social
network like facebook. This would give me the opportunity to view their
pictures and get a visual idea of how they portray themselves.
I would like to go online and look for information on this
country. I would want to learn things about the climate, geographic
surroundings, and the societal structure (city or countryside or jungle,...) of
that area.
I would go to the library or online to find information on
the history of the country. This would include the type of government it has
and the language or languages spoken.
I would then get written words in the language they spoke if
from what I looked on line would be the main language used there. Translated
words in English and their language like hello, restroom, friend and other
words that would facilitate.
I would not want to investigate any further as I would be
assuming they spoke, dressed, and acted a certain way. I would not want to
insult them if I took a tourist approach to address them. I would want to learn
as much as I could about the children and family once I meet them in person. I
hope that my attempts in learning about this family will benefit both them and
myself as I hope it would ease their welcome and make them feel respected.
Frank,
ReplyDeleteYou make a great point about not learning to much about the family before meeting them. Since there are so many different "cultures within cultures" it would be impossible to know exactly what your families beliefs and values are. I think asking them questions in person is best and observing the children in their natural environment and in the school setting.
Amanda
Frank,
ReplyDeleteI believe it is important to have the classroom environment established for all children of the world. I think it is important to show them respect and give them a feeling of belonging, being a part of. Communication is the key and this is a time where the children in the class can help the new child by showing him/her around the room, where the bathrooms are where they eat, Our children can communicate with each other without knowing the language that we as adults are so quickly to think that we need it. We can ask the parents to stay or give them the opportunity to come back and have lunch, so we can start building a parent/teacher relationship.
Sandra
I appreciate that you set about first to look for personalized rather than general information using social networking. This truly would make the information family-culture related rather than make assumptions about larger cultural values. Nice insight!
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