Discussion: Including Every Child

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“Cultural Responsiveness” Program Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Dr. Rosa Milagros Santos shares her insights as well as research- based thinking in this conversation about cultural responsive practice.

JANE SCHALL: Dr. Santos, a key element of quality in early childhood programs is cultural responsiveness and individually appropriate practice. How do you define this term?

ROSA MILAGROS SANTOS: Let me provide you with a term that we developed in the CLAS Institute, which is the Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services Research Institute that I was a part of years ago. Basically, we define cultural responsiveness as the ability to relate and to communicate with others, especially when you don't share the same backgrounds, cultures, languages, ethnicity, and other salient variables. That's more of the technical definition that I would provide.

What I do want to emphasize, though, is when we think about culture in itself, that it's really beyond just, say, the skin color. Culture encompasses a lot of variables, including perhaps where you live, where you work, the culture of gender-- so culture of men versus culture of woman-- culture of people who live in urban communities versus those who live in rural communities, the culture of people who work in school settings, in public schools versus private schools, or a culture of people who work in hospital settings versus in corporate settings. And so, you'll see that culture really has to do with beliefs in many ways. Shared beliefs, shared conditions, shared practices that are common within a group of people.

JANE SCHALL: Bringing it into the early childhood world, where do families fit into your definition of culture?

ROSA MILAGROS SANTOS: They fit perfectly, right smack in the middle of it. And I think when we think about families-- when you think about the child. Let's start with the child, in early childhood. The child lives within his or her family, and that's essentially the first culture, really that child lives in. That family lives within a community, and it's the community that provides the culture for that family.

And so, every individual, every child, every family, lives within, as part of, a cultural group, if you will, or cultural groups. It's part of who we are. It's part of what we do. Everything that we do is impacted, is influenced, by our culture, in whatever form that would be. So the way I look at the world-- and I always imagine John Lennon for this, those rose tinted glasses that he wore-- we look at the world through the lens of culture, and so children look at the world through

the lens of their culture that they grew up in, which is their home. Families look at the world through the culture of their community, part of what they live in, and so on and so forth.

JANE SCHALL: So each child brings his or her own culture into the early childhood setting.

ROSA MILAGROS SANTOS: Absolutely. As we do as professionals, also. So the children bring their own individual cultures. We as professionals bring our own cultures, as well as the parents, the families, and others, in their lives, the people that work around us.

JANE SCHALL: And families may even look like they have the same culture, but really, no two families are exactly the same, so no two children's cultures are exactly the same.

ROSA MILAGROS SANTOS: I think it's really important to remember that there's as much difference interculturally as there is intraculturally, and that's really important to remember. Because say for example, you and I, interculturally we look different, and there are many things that we probably have lots of differences about, but within even your own culture, and within my own family, and within my own culture, there are some great differences within the people that would be considered similar to me in many ways. But yet, you and I share, say, a culture of people who work in early childhood, who hold certain beliefs around children, around families, and that's a culture that you and I share, aside from being also women.

JANE SCHALL: So what does research indicate about the effects of cultural responsiveness within early childhood programs?

ROSA MILAGROS SANTOS: Well, cultural responsiveness in early childhood programs, we know what research says is that it provides access and utilization and supports for the families and for the children. And so, culturally responsive services provides the ability for us to provide the kinds of services and supports that children need to succeed in the programs. And we know there's very strong research that says that.

JANE SCHALL: And then if you look at cultural responsiveness, I think about all the implications it could have, because you have so much going on. You've got an environment. You've got professionals interacting with children. You've got professionals interacting with families, teachers interacting with teachers. Then there's the community. So talk a little bit, if you wouldn't mind, about all those implications.

ROSA MILAGROS SANTOS: Culture just doesn't stop with the food that we eat or the holidays that we celebrate. It really is culture permeates into everything

that we do. How we dress, how we talk, how we look at other people, how we move our arms. In early childhood settings, it will show up in the environment.

You as a teacher, your culture will be reflected on how you arrange the classroom. If in your culture, you believe that children need to have space, for example, you may design your classroom in such a way that it provides larger spaces between children. But if you're from a culture where space, having personal space, is not as important, or where the personal space for people are closer than what others may think, you may design your classroom in such a way where children might sit closer to each other. And so, that's an example of environment.

Another way would be how you interact with children, so the interaction between the teacher and the child. Culture defines how we might talk to children. When children recognize and realize that what they say is important, or what they do is important, or that they're a valued member of that classroom, then they're more apt to become a part of that classroom. And again, it paves the way for them to be able to learn and be more successful in the classroom.

JANE SCHALL: And it brings out the idea that not only is culture complex, it's subtle.

ROSA MILAGROS SANTOS: Yes, very subtle.

JANE SCHALL: And so, we need to be aware of the subtle implications that our interactions can have on children, and just because of our cultural attitudes, perspectives, values, and actions. So if we're thinking about cultural responsiveness, then, we're thinking again on many levels. And let's look at infant-toddlers. What kind of cultural awareness and responsiveness do we need to bring, as early childhood professionals, to that particular age group?

ROSA MILAGROS SANTOS: One of the biggest issues in early childhood, especially with young children, is co-sleeping. So do you let your child cry themselves to sleep, or do you carry them until they fall asleep? Do you let them sleep next to you? And again, those are all very culturally based. And so, it's important for us professionals to find out from families what it is that they do and what their beliefs are around that. And the next step is really to recognize that there's no right or wrong, especially around these cultural practices, but develop an understanding of, then, OK, based on that, what can we do to support what the families do, as well as support what we do in the classrooms?

JANE SCHALL: What happens when there's some kind of dissonance when the teacher has one style, perspective, actions, and the child, whether it be an infant or a second or third grader, comes to a program or a school and has some cultural practices he or she is used to, and then they aren't the same with the teacher's?

ROSA MILAGROS SANTOS: We know from research that if the child's behaviors or what the child brings with them, the skills that they bring with them, does not match what the teachers expect children to do, that those children don't succeed as well, and that the teachers tend to have more problems with them. And it's not so much as the child showing problem behaviors, but that the teacher sees that as a problematic thing, which then impacts how they work with that child. And that's the research.

There's several studies that have shown that teachers have actually very clear expectations of what children should be doing by the time they enter school. Which is kind of interesting, because when you look at it, and you base it of specific cultures, a lot of them are not going to be a good match. For those kids, oftentimes what happens is they get shut out. So they would just stop talking, perhaps. They would not participate. And so, think about all the learning opportunities that they could lose out on because they stop interacting.

Some of the kids will engage in behaviors that the teacher might find challenging. So if a child who's, say, in a circle activity wants to participate in storytelling, but the teacher is the only one that wants to talk during that time, and the child wants to participate in it because that's how they do it at home, and the teacher keeps shushing him, shushing him, shushing him, that child may choose to find something more fun to do. And so, you may have that child start pestering or trying to interact with his peers that would give him more attention. And that could lead to some of the children engaging in challenging behaviors, and so that could become an issue also for professionals.

JANE SCHALL: It seems to me that not only are the children possibly losing out on learning opportunities, but it could be very damaging to a child's self-esteem and self-worth to be confronted with being told, the messages would be, there's something wrong with who you are. That in turn, then, would affect their feelings of competency.

ROSA MILAGROS SANTOS: And their identity development. It's really important for children to recognize that who they are, and what they are, and what they come with is important, and so that's why it's really important. When you think about culturally responsive classrooms or programs are ones that reflect not just the culture of the teacher, which is oftentimes pretty much reflected in what the teacher does around the room, but also the culture of the families and the children that are in that classroom. Because it really is important for them, for their identity development, for their self-esteem, for their social development, for the emotional development, and everything else, pretty much overall development.

JANE SCHALL: If we have a shared understanding of what cultural responsiveness is, and it includes individually appropriate practice, we know the research says that it can foster healthy development and learning. We know that

culture has implications throughout a child's life all the time, whether they're in the program or not. Interactions with families, and even you said, I think, interactions with colleagues. And it's complex. What does a teacher, or any early child professional, do with all this information?

ROSA MILAGROS SANTOS: It's like a journey, and it's a journey that people engage in, embark on, and you keep growing and keep growing as you go on with your career and your life. It's a lifelong journey. And for the most part, it starts with learning, recognizing who you are, and learning who you are, and recognizing that you look at the world through a cultural lens, through your own cultural lens. And so, the journey always starts with you in terms of understanding your own culture and understanding how your behaviors, your beliefs impact your actions, and what you do, and how you interact with others.

It's important that you learn from the families about their culture. The children can also probably tell you a little bit about things that they do at home, and that's important, too. But then in some situations, it's probably important for you to go and find experts within the community who could tell you a little bit more, and that's where a culture broker can help you. You could also go to community leaders or organizers within the community who can also help you understand some of the practices within that particular community or culture.

JANE SCHALL: It's an interesting term, cultural broker. Could you given us some examples of who would be a cultural broker?

ROSA MILAGROS SANTOS: Well, it's typically a person who understands the culture and maybe be a part of that culture, but then also understands it from the perspective of an outsider and can explain to you what's going on. So it's almost like an interpreter or a translator. So I could be here telling you, oh, look at this family, see what they're doing. Oh, this is what they're doing because this is how families in our culture do this, and this is why they're doing that. So it's somebody who could really explain to you and translate for you some of the practices and some of the behaviors.

JANE SCHALL: It occurs to me that there's also a fine line between what the cultural broker may be saying, what the family may be saying, what the religious leader might be saying, and assumption. And I think that for me, anyways, it's important to remember as an early child professional that I want to learn about each person as an individual, and I don't want to assume that just because this person celebrates this holiday, or just because this person's from this country, or this person is second generation, that I'm assuming anything about that person.

ROSA MILAGROS SANTOS: Clearly not. Learning about a larger culture gives you some broad information, and I think it's still important for you to go into the individual level to really learn about and from the family. To be culturally responsive is to be open to those differences, to be open to those complexities,

and realizing that not everybody thinks the way you do, that not everybody sees the world the same way you do. And you recognize that, and then you move from there.