Beyond the tokenistic

This article is the first in a series about how early years settings can help children feel seen and represented among their peers.

The early years foundation stage framework has three prime areas of learning that are then further delineated into four specific parts, with each of these helping to strengthen the prime areas of learning. One of the four parts is ‘understanding the world’ – an integral element of building children’s knowledge and curiosity of the world around them, in addition to cultural understanding:

“Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community. The frequency and range of children’s personal experiences increases their knowledge and sense of the world around them – from visiting parks, libraries and museums to meeting important members of society such as police officers, nurses and firefighters. In addition, listening to a broad selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes, and poems will foster their understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically, and ecologically diverse world.”

While the emphasis is primarily on making sense of children’s immediate physical world and community, there’s also a need to “foster their understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world”, which means going beyond their current knowledge, understanding and experiences.

This area includes the following early learning goals, which, though not a focus for early years (as these are the goals being aimed for at the end of reception), are useful for guiding the learning in early years settings:

Know some similarities and differences between different religious and cultural communities in this country, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class.

Explain some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries, drawing on knowledge from stories, non-fiction texts and – when appropriate – maps.

Achieving these means finding and striking a balance between ensuring that learning is relevant and plays to children’s interests, while also increasing their knowledge of, and curiosity for, lives and cultures outside of their direct experience.

But, in such a jam-packed framework – and with a plethora of skills and knowledge already expected of little ones – it can be hard to integrate other cultures into their education in a meaningful way.

Celebrations and festivals play an important role in fostering young children’s understanding of the values shared by all cultures and religions, while also promoting understanding of the cultures and beliefs of others in a diverse, vibrant world.

Done well, though, celebrations and festivals can help to prepare children for life in communities that are diverse, while also encouraging curiosity and enthusiasm about the world beyond their doorstep.

Most of the festivals focused on in the early years are those that are celebrated or advertised on a national level, such as Christmas, Easter, Hannukah, Diwali and Lunar New Year. But if you’re in a culturally diverse locality, you have a unique opportunity to build links with people in your community possessing first-hand knowledge and experience of other festivals and celebrations. So, make the most of this expertise and invite them in to share with the children!

At The Montessori Children’s House in Sutton, for example, after some children discussed details of their at-home celebration of Pongal – the Tamil Harvest Festival that takes place in January – it was decided to celebrate this festival as a setting! The celebration included activities focused on cultural immersion and the first-hand experiences of the children.

Through making and tasting rice pudding with traditional Indian ingredients (including jaggery, lentils, and rice) and local expertise, the children immersed themselves in authentic Indian culture, learning about and appreciating the traditions of their peers.

Weave learning about other cultures and religions into every single day as part of a bigger picture, not just ‘special’ days and celebrations, to give children and families a sense of belonging.

Follow a process of engage, explore and extend: ‘engage’ the children in the topic with a hook; allow them to independently ‘explore’ the topic in different ways; and ‘extend’ their knowledge, understanding and curiosity by encouraging children to ask questions and choose where to take their learning next.

Find a ‘hook’ for the ‘engage’ element – books, resources, songs, foods and drinks (NB: it’s essential that you are fully aware of and account for any allergies); national and local festivals/celebrations; and show-and-tell type activities, led by input from children and families with direct experience of cultural celebrations and festivals.

Bring children’s families in so they feel part of the community and can share their own experiences.

Include some elements in children’s home corner/role play areas but don’t overwhelm – it should complement what’s there without being the main focus.

Make links to their existing knowledge and interests where possible.

Make it fully authentic by inviting local experts to share and teach.

Celebrate cultural events and festivals as ‘one-offs’ that are never again referred to; having a day or week-long ‘theme’ in isolation is tokenistic. 

Celebrating diversity and cultures should be embedded throughout all learning across the year.

Make arbitrary links across learning and force connections where there are none – learning about cultural celebrations and festivals should not be shoehorned into every area of learning, as this takes away from the ‘meaningful’ aspect.

Plan overly-structured activities that lack a hook and have a fixed outcome – this may mean avoiding arts and crafts ideas where children are given pre-cut, decorated parts to put together to create a base design that’s the same for all children. They should be in control of what they create from this learning, based on what has sparked their interest.

Build elaborate displays that are alien to the children and exist without their input – they may look pretty, but they don’t benefit the children’s learning.

In the early years world, there are differing perspectives on celebrations and festivals in children’s learning.

On the one hand, it’s thought that learning via celebrations and festivals helps to immerse children in cultures that they would otherwise have little exposure to, developing their appreciation for, knowledge of and empathy towards others.

On the other, there are concerns that celebrating festivals in isolation runs the risk of learning about diversity becoming a one-off, tick-box exercise that, once done, never has to be looked at, referred to or thought about again.

At the Alliance, we want to acknowledge the benefits that learning about other cultures through festivals and celebration events can have while also recognising that it needs to form part of a bigger picture – one where other cultures and the diversity of this world are part of everyday learning throughout the year and not just tagged on in certain months.

Our role as educators is to not only stimulate curiosity and a desire to learn among little ones, but to continue expanding their horizons in ways that are meaningful for them and benefit society as a whole. Without this, we run the risk of creating limited foundations for children to build on throughout life, closing them off to the full range of knowledge that helps generate empathy and understanding for those who don’t look like them.

And, in the current climate, with rising intolerance towards different cultures, it’s never been more important to ensure we help to grow well-rounded, empathetic little humans who recognise the beauty in our differences.