Culturally responsive practice as quality early childhood care and education provision.

Abstract

Over the last two decades New Zealand has become one of a small number of culturally and linguistically superdiverse countries.

Superdiversity indicates a level of cultural complexity surpassing anything previously experienced.

Aotearoa NZ is now home to 160 languages, forecasted to deepen even further.

“Learning to interpret across cultures demands reflecting on our own experiences, analyzing our own culture, examining and comparing varying perspectives. We must consciously and voluntarily make our cultural lenses apparent. Engaging in the hard work of seeing the world as others see it must be a fundamental goal for any move to reform the education of teachers and their assessment”--Lisa Delpit

Culturally responsive practice - Management and practitioners to demonstrate their awareness of historical, social, cultural and political contexts, and the impacts of past and current social, educational and economic policies in relation to contemporary inequities.