Principles for Culturally Responsive Teaching in Early Childhood Education

There can be no recipe or script for culturally responsive teaching because every group of families and children has differing backgrounds and unique needs, capabilities, and interests. Early childhood educators need to know about this diversity in order to adapt their practice to suit the cultural practices, beliefs, and values of the child and their family, and to support all children to participate fully while maintaining their cultural identities. This guide offers some general, research-based principles and suggestions to empower ECEs, in concert with families, to discover different ways of dealing with issues of diversity.