Celebrate Culture: Articles

Celebrate Culture: Resources

Roots & Wings Stacey York: York's book has a wonderful store of activities to use with young children, an authoritative discussion of how prejudice develops, and a sensible approach to the process of creating personal and social change. It also presents an excellent rationale for multicultural education… Inspiring and hard working, Roots and Wings will be appreciated by teacher educators, curriculum planners, teachers, and parents." —Young Children

Celebrate! An Anti-Bias Guide to Enjoying Holidays Julie Bisson: Can we celebrate holidays respectfully? Can we celebrate holidays at all? Can we have fun any more? Yes, yes, and yes! Celebrate! is filled with strategies for implementing holiday activities that are exciting, not biased, and developmentally appropriate. Chapters include Developing a Holiday Policy, Addressing Stereotypes and Commercialism, and Evaluating Holiday Activities. Also tells you how to involve families.

Anti-Bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children A.B.C. Task Force, Louise Derman-Sparks: An influential best-seller full of suggestions for helping staff and children respect each other as individuals and confronting, transcending, and eliminating barriers based on race, culture, gender, or ability. Chapters include: why an anti-bias curriculum; creating an antibias environment; learning about racial differences and similarities; learning about disabilities; learning about gender identity; learning about cultural differences and similarities; learning to resist stereotyping and discriminatory behavior; and working with parents.

Tomorrow’s Children Francis Wardle: “In this important contribution to the understanding of biracial and multiethnic identity, Dr. Francis Wardle, one of the foremost authorities on these issues, offers new insights and knowledge for parents, educators, and social work professionals. His impressive range of expertise and the lived experiences of two decades with his own biracial family provide the sources for his special knowledge.” – Edith W. King, Professor of Ed. Sociology and Crosscultural Education, University of Denver.

Meeting the Needs of Multiethnic and Multiracial Children in Schools Francis Wardle, Maria I. Cruz-Janzen: This book educates teachers through the experiences of children culturally, ethnically, and racially mixed heritage. The authors challenge even longtime multicultural experts to broaden how we think and approach multicultural education. Wardle and Cruz-Janzen … are the harbingers of questions and information in a changing climate of race and culture ripe for redress and new ways of thinking, talking, and educating.

Lessons from Turtle Island: Native Curriculum in Early Childhood Classrooms Guy W. Jones, Sally Moomaw, MEd: The first complete guide to exploring Native American issues with children. The authors—one Native, one white, both educators—offer unique perspectives on including authentic learning experiences about Native Americans in your overall curriculum. Includes five cross-cultural themes—Children, Home, Families, Community, and the Environment. Related activities based on recommended children's books develop skills in reading and writing, science, math, make-believe, art, and more.

Connections and Commitments: Reflecting Latino Values in Early Childhood Programs Costanza Eggers-Piérola: As a teacher, making a strong connection with young children and their families sows the seeds of joyful living, lifelong learning. So how best do you invite Latinos—whose culture you may know little about—to be full and equal partners in your classroom’s learning community? Including an array of sample activities, strategies, and useful classroom tools to reinforce the values of family (familia), belonging (pertenencia), education (educación), and commitment (compromiso), this book will help you to create a classroom that is responsive to Latino culture.

Valuing Diversity in the Multicultural Classroom Elizabeth Quintero: Great ERIC Digest article by Elizabeth Quintero. She describes several examples of situations where a teacher may have benefited from more multicultural awareness, as told in the words of children. (Chinese and Hopi)

Activities that Promote Racial and Cultural Awareness Barbara Biles, M.Ed.: “After age 9, racial attitudes tend to stay the same unless the child has a life-changing experience (Aboud, 1988). Before that, however, we have a good chance to help children develop positive feelings about their racial and cultural identity.”

Talking with Children about Diversity Issues Tammi S. Paul Bryant: Children are …funny, creative, inquisitive, energetic, expressive and bold. This combination can sometimes present uncomfortable moments for the adults in their lives. Sometimes this combination leads to children asking or making gestures in ways that adults think are inappropriate. So what can a parent, teacher or adult caregiver do if they are presented with such a challenge?

Asian-American Children: What Teachers Should Know Jianhua Feng: “Asian-Americans constitute a significant minority in the U.S. and are one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in this country, yet little is known about their particular educational needs …This digest provides information to help teachers gain a better understanding of Asian-American children, particularly those from East and Southeast Asian cultures, and identify culturally appropriate educational practices to use with those children.”

Improving Access & Opportunity for Latinos in Early Childhood: What are the elements of a quality education for young Latino children and their teachers that is culturally and linguistically responsive to their needs? The Center for Children & Families conducted a project to address this critical issue, and as a result developed a set of publications to support trainers, practitioners, and families.

Multicultural Pavilion: Here’s a collage in its own right. Links to Awareness Activities, Trainings and Workshops, Social Justice News, Poetry, Songs and Quotes.

Center for the Study of Biracial Children: The Center for the Study of Biracial Children produces and disseminates materials for and about interracial families and biracial children. The Center provides advocacy, training and consulting. Its primary mission is to advocate for the rights of interracial families, biracial children, and multiracial people. We believe this population has unique needs and challenges not addressed by society's institutions.

Precious Children: Six excellent articles for teachers: “In our increasingly pluralistic society, it is important to raise children with a greater awareness of others around them, especially those who are different. These articles provide suggestions on promoting racial and cultural awareness at school and at home.”

Putumayo Kids: OK, I recommended these folks in our Music & Movement issue. They deserve even more recommendations. Putumayo goes out of its way to record the most beautiful and unique cultural collections from around the world. Every CD in their Playground series is created for children only. The liner notes read like a storybook. Children are fascinated with the lives of the singers, the history of the song, and the anecdotes about each country and region. – Collage Editor