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RUNNING HEAD: Multicultural Curriculum 1

Pacific Oaks College

HD 412- Spring 2016

Carla Franklin

Multicultural Curriculum

Rebecca De Leon
RUNNING HEAD: Multicultural Curriculum 2

We live in a Multicultural world therefore having a multicultural curriculum is very

important. Id like to create a curriculum that it is based on Social Emotional Development. I

think as educators we know that for an infant it is important to master a secure attachment. For

preschoolers is it the time where they are exploring the world around them and exposing them to

social emotional development is a great introduction to what waits for them in the school age

years where most of them during this time are experiencing and trying to find themselves.

Just like any other curriculum it is important to know how to create a secure environment.

When working with children you have to keep in mind that you might have tools that will work

for some children but not for all . You need to get to know the child individually in order to

address their personal (if necessary), social, and academically needs. This multicultural

curriculum serves all children from 3-12 years old. This program will be called Community

Beliefs.

Identity:

Like I mentioned earlier in the paper the first years of life is when as educators and parents we

want to make sure we create a strong secure attachment with our kids and this attachment can be

from biological parent to caregiver it really does not matter what we want is for the child to feel

comfortable and safe within his surroundings. Preschool years come. We want our preschoolers

to feel independent and free to explore the world around them in a safe way in a secure

environment. As educators our duties are to make sure the preschoolers are developing those

skills that will help them later in their school years. School age years come. We want to make

sure the child feels a sense of belonging in his or her community and in their household as well.

This will help the child find his or her sense of identity. It is during these years where the child is
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getting a taste of what the real world is looking from them. We are not just teaching children, but

we are teaching them to become good individuals in this world.

Bias: We are aware that we are now living in a diverse world, therefore, we include any

feedback from parents, family cultures, and diversities. We are pretty much open to share and

exchange points of views to introduce diversity in our classrooms. With our staff well trained we

assure we will have the best quality of care and education for your child.

Social Justice: We know that this is a tough field to work in, but we offer special trainings that

we like to call workshops for parents and staff to be informed about the issues we are facing in

our society and how that can affect not only our communities but the lives of our children. We

try our best to provide more privileges to our staff other than paid vacation and health care to

better serve our multicultural program. We feel that a happy well treated staff performs at his or

her best. Bottom line we want our services to be beneficial to our children we are serving, to our

community and to our staff. Let us make it a learning community for all of us as well.

Parent Communication: Our program strongly believes and has concluded that parent and staff

communication is the key for a successful outcome. Whether talking about the childs

academically success or emotional development. We want to provide parents with as much

resources available as needed. We want our parents to feel comfortable knowing that we are here

to help them in any circumstance. We understand that being a parent is a full-time job and a

lifetime commitment. As a well-educated program we want to offer our services to help those

parents who might need an extra hand. We offer counseling for couples, workshops for parents

who might need them and extra curriculum activities for their kids during summer breaks and

such.
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Over all, we want to assure the parents understand the uniqueness of this program's multicultural

curriculum. We want parents to be well informed about the importance of our program and what

our goal is as a multicultural curriculum based program. We also want to assure them that it all

starts with team work. Parents team working with educators. Some information that will be

provided for parents during the first initial meeting will be some philosophies from our favorite

philosophers. This is partly based on Bronfenbrenners Ecological Systems Theory and

Bowlbys Attachment Theory. We will also be providing some basic information from one of

our favorite books Diversity in Early Care and Education-Honoring Differences by Janet

Gonzales- Mena sharing some of her cultural frameworks that will help us as a guide. Her

framework influences the way she thinks and acts and how she perceives, handles, and interacts

with people and materials. Cultural Frameworks are influenced by and includes what are

called attributes of culture:

Race

Gender

Age

Abilities and disabilities

Language

Social class, including status and economic level

Ethnicity and national origin

Religion and/or spiritual praise

Original geographic location of my family, where I grew up and present location (if

different) and

sexuality, including sexual orientation


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(Janet Gonzales- Mena Pg. 1)

We want to remind the parents that this program serves 3-12 and it is during this age where kids

start to question and wonder about the world around them. We want to educate them. Lets do

that together.

As a program we are also aware that many children who we will be providing services for will be

perhaps immigrants from any country. Our curriculum allows these kids to feel comfortable

learning the material in whichever language and style he or she is used to from his or her

previous country. Even though immigrant children have left behind their systems of

communication, their cultural beliefs, and the cultural identity that once gave meaning to their

lives, the psychological traumas of uprooting are less visible and less easily measured than their

language proficiency (The Inner World of the Immigrant child pg.39). Our program believes

that a child has his or her own way of learning. Just like some of us might be visual learners and

some might not.

Community Beliefs will also be a language diversity place where the child will be allowed to

express him or herself in whatever language he or she feels comfortable with. Many school and

programs reinforce the standard English but we have come to the conclusion that that is not

always the best way to teach We must keep the perspective that people are experts on their own

lives (Other peoples children by Lisa Delpit pg. 47) by sharing this quote we strongly believe

that a child will be open and free to express by letting them speak in any language he or she

feels comfortable. Once again our goal is to create a safe environment where the child feels

included and ready to learn.

Our staff members will be prepared to teach your kids the things they need learn. Teachers will

role model behaviors for little ones and for older ones they will be well informed on how to
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handle situations and they will also express their love for their job Teachers should model the

love of learning, and they should show enthusiasm about their jobs. Build suspense, smile, tell a

true emotional story, show off a new CD, read a book, or bring an animal to class. Get involved

in community work, whether its for a holiday, disaster relief, or ongoing service. Let student

know what excites you. Weve all heard of infections enthusiasm; it works! (The brain in mind

by Eric Jensen pg. 79) this book will be one of our resources for our curriculum. This book will

give us ideas on how to model behaviors. Our program will also be open to celebrations so that

children can interact and socialize with others within the community.

Club activities

Sports

Dramatic performances

Acknowledgments

Parties, high fives, food, music, and fun

We will be providing physical activities for children and not only for children but for adults as

well. We know that our body releases dopamine and norepinephrine during movement and fun

activities as we learn. These chemicals enhance long term memory when administered either

before or after learning. We will have a set of schedules in which parents will be allowing to

view what their kids will be learning and in which activities he or she will be participating on.

Lastly, Community beliefs will assure you environmental considerations knowing that is very

important in general when working with children who may also have challenging behaviors or

perhaps a disability. As educators we know that what might work for one child may not work for

the rest. For those children who might need one on one attention we will also take into

consideration in finding a perfect fit for that specific child. Also, every child is different, and we
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will also take into consideration the childs safety as well. We will make sure our staff is well

trained to ensure that they are properly trained to recognize red flags.

For our staff, we will have initial meetings as well and monthly meetings to discuss any

considerations or questions they may have throughout the semester. We dont want our staff to

feel like they are alone in this field. We work as a team and we want to let them know that they

are as important as the children we provide services for.

For our parents who are considering in enrolling their child in Community Beliefs we

want to let them know that their kids will be in great hands. We will also be providing initial

meetings for parents to meet families and also monthly meetings to discuss their childs progress

in our program. Also, we want to let parents know that they are more than welcome to volunteer

in our program! If a parent has a special talent they would like to share and teach our little ones,

for example a parent who is also a musician and would like to volunteer in holidays

performances they are more than welcome! We appreciate everything to help our kids learn and

expand their imaginations. Thanks!


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Reference page

1) Janet Gonzales- Mena (2008) Diversity in Early Care and Education Honoring

Differences. Washington DC. McGraw-Hill.

2) Cristina Igoa (1995) The Inner World of the Immigrant Child. Mahwah, New Jersey.

3) Liza Delpit (2006). Other Peoples Children cultural conflict in the classroom. New

York, NY.

4) Eric Jensen (2005). Teaching with the brain in mind. United States.

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