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WITH THE DIVERSITY OF THE US POPUlation rapidly growing, teachers are educating increasingly diverse groups of children. Incorporating multicultural education into teacher education programs attempts to address the issues associated with this growth in diversity. The National Association for Multicultural Education promotes six goals:
* To respect and appreciate cultural diversity
* To promote the understanding of unique cultural and ethnic heritage
* To promote the development of culturally responsible and responsive curricula
* To facilitate acquisition of the attitudes, skills, and knowledge to function in various cultures
* To eliminate racism and discrimination in society
* To achieve social, political, economic, and educational equity (NAME 2013)
Early childhood teachers can enhance children's positive attitudes by promoting the cultures of all the children they teach and encouraging awareness and appreciation of other cultures (Quintero 2004; Copple & Bredekamp 2009). Copple and Bredekamp recommend that teachers create a caring community of learners by doing the following:
Teachers respect the diversity of the classroom community, providing activities and initiating discussions that explore the cultures and languages represented in both the class and the larger society. The class explores similarities and differences among people in ways that engender respect and appreciation without singling out individual children. The environment promotes all children's positive selfidentity, including cultural identity. (220)
Through education, children learn to be curious about others as well as value the needs, hopes, and dreams of other people. School and home can positively affect the way that children think and feel about the diversity of people in the United States (Roberts & Cecil 1993). Teachers help children appreciate diversity by giving them opportunities to interact with people from different backgrounds, even vicariously, by reading about the characters' problems, conflicts, and challenges and experiencing the same emotions and feelings. They create classroom communities in which children engage in conversation about living in a multicultural society (McGowan, McGowan, & Wheeler 1994).
Book bonding
One method of promoting awareness and appreciation in early childhood classrooms is through the use of multicultural children's literature. This type of literature "helps children to identify with their own culture, exposes children to other cultures, and opens the dialogue on issues regarding diversity" (Colby & Lyon 2004,24). Connecting to multicultural texts helps children realize that while...