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Preschool Education

• A Diversity Grab Bag
  Suggests 15 strategies for introducing the concept of diversity to children including: (1) promoting conversation; (2) making the familiar different; (3) exploring music; (4) learning about celebrations; (5) showing objects; (6) taking field trips; (7) introducing foods; (8) encouraging empathy; (9) collaborating with different people; and (10) communicating with parents. (SD).
• Books Can Spark Multicultural Awareness
  Asserts that children are naturally curious about differences around them, and it is important to introduce children early to multicultural awareness. Provides a book list and some tips for using literature as a tool to teach children about differences, similarities, acceptance, and the benefits of living in a varied society.
• Celebrating Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Head Start
  Noting that the dramatic demographic changes in the United States in the last 30 years require that Head Start programs learn how to access new populations, encourage their participation, and tailor programs to meet their unique needs, this study was commissioned to better understand the diversity in language and culture of the Head Start population.
• Creating Culturally Relevant Holiday Curriculum: A Negotiation
  Describes the holiday celebration of Dia de los Muertos at Pacific Oaks Children's School in Los Angeles. Considers the decision to celebrate the holiday, preparation for the celebration, its place in the curriculum, its relationship to Halloween, adult conflicts related to personal religious values, children's misunderstanding of the rituals, and conflict maintenance.
• Creating Montessori Bilingual Programs. Spotlight: Montessori--Multilingual, Multicultural
  Discusses presentation given by Rigoberta Menchu, 1992 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, at a meeting with Hispanic child caregivers in California. Discusses family life and childrearing among Guatemala's Mayan people, traditional ceremonies and symbols, becoming a leader, and the Mayan experience of resisting oppression.
• Critical Perspectives on Project Head Start: Revisioning the Hope and Challenge. SUNY Series, Youth Social Services, Schooling, and Public Policy
  This book offers critical perspective on the complex dynamics of politics, class, gender, power, race, and ethnicity in Project Head Start. Moving beyond the literature on Head Start's effects on children's achievement, the volume considers how the program has operated with families, in communities, and with other institutions.
• Cultivating the Natural Linguist. Spotlight: Montessori--Multilingual, Multicultural
  Describes Montessori's vision of young children as natural linguists and how home and school can support children's natural abilities in one or more languages. Presents five basic principles of second-language acquisition--related to educational environment, the acquisition process, components of proficiency, and cultural context and time--and describes how they can be successfully met in a Montessori environment.
• Developing Health Education for Hispanic Migrant Preschool Youth
  Children of Hispanic migrant farmworkers are more susceptible to health problems than children in the general population. This paper discusses the common health problems seen in these children, highlighting special health needs of preschoolers pertinent to this multicultural population.
• Early Childhood Education Program Expectations: Standards of Quality.
  In 1999, a task force was appointed to develop early childhood education (ECE) program expectations or standards for New Jersey's ECE programs. The standards were based on the task force's review of research, curricula, standards, and guidelines developed by local boards of education, other states, and professional organizations; feedback on draft standards from various professionals; and three regional focus groups.
• Educating Latino Students: A Guide to Successful Practice
  This book attempts to assist readers in expanding their knowledge base in the area of quality practices for Latino students. The chapters contain many practices that can be implemented in educational settings from preschool to secondary school.
• From "Stranger" to "Arrived": The Citizens' Library in England
  Discusses studies of public library multicultural services in England. Describes multicultural programs in Birmingham and Brent that involve the citizens in planning and implementing these services.
• Head start children finishing first grade: Preliminary data on school identification of children at risk for special education
  A study investigated identification rates of children at risk for special education among U.S. Project Head Start children completing first grade.
• Hispanic Preschool Education: An Important Opportunity. ERIC/CUE Digest, Number 113
  Hispanic parents have been slow to overcome their historical reluctance to turn their young children over to nonfamily members for care, but the educational boost preschool provides is particularly important for the one-quarter of Hispanic American families who are poor by Federal guidelines.
• Home Literacy Experiences and Their Relationship to Bilingual Preschoolers' Developing English Literacy Abilities: An Initial Investigation
  Forty-three Puerto Rican mother-child dyads in Head Start programs, grouped according to whether the children had learned Spanish and English from birth (n=28) or Spanish from birth and English in Head Start (n=15) participated in a study of home literacy experiences and emerging English literacy abilities. Results found that literacy development would benefit from increased exposure to literacy materials and events.
• Home Support for Bilingual Development of Turkish 4-6-Year-Old Immigrant Children in the Netherlands: Efficacy of a Home-Based Educational Programme
  Reports the results of an intensive 2-year home-based educational program for 4-6 year old Turkish minority children in the Netherlands. Mothers who worked with their children at home carried out the structured program in Turkish.
• I'm Okay, You're Okay
  Asserts that a culturally relevant curriculum that discards stereotypes, celebrates diversity, and is inclusive of all children is both necessary and appropriate in the Head Start classroom. Advises that helping children to appreciate the similarities and differences within their own group and community is the place to begin.
• Meeting the Needs of All Children
  Encourages Head Start programs to use parental involvement and communication to support multiracial and multiethnic children by listening to parents, providing information, and welcoming the family. Lists specific areas to address in supporting diversity and dealing with common problems.
• Meeting the Needs of Multiracial and Multiethnic Children in Early Childhood Settings
  Addresses the needs of preschool children whose biological parents come from two or more traditional racial/ethnic groups. Advocates the extension of multiracial curriculum in early childhood programs to support and embrace these multiracial and multiethnic children.
• Multicultural Is Who We Are: Literature as a Reflection of Ourselves
  This article discusses multicultural children's literature, the need for teachers to include multicultural children's literature in their teaching, how teachers can encourage pluralism, and evaluating and selecting multicultural literature titles. A selection of 17 multicultural books for use in the classroom is provided.
• Our Education, Our Future: Look to the Lower Grades
  In order for local Native American cultures to be included in the curricula of the lower grades of public schools, Indian parents and community members must represent their community to the school board and establish a presence in the wider school community. Presents assertive, persistent, and well-informed strategies to build positive relationships with teachers and schools.
• Preschool Children's Classification Skills and a Multicultural Education Intervention To Promote Acceptance of Ethnic Diversity
  Examined the impact of an 8-week intervention program designed to reduce racial/ethnic stereotyping among preschoolers varying in classification skill. Found that children in the experimental group had increased in classification skills at posttest and were less likely to sort photo cards by race/ethnicity and more likely to sort them by gender and age than were control group children.
• Staff Training for Alexandria Head Start in ESL Methodology
  The project described here evaluated the extent to which the Alexandria (Virginia) Head Start program addresses the needs of preschool English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and provided teachers with training to enhance their students' language development.
• The Limits of Educational Policy and Practice? The Case of Ethnic Minorities in The Netherlands
  Describes four types of immigrants to The Netherlands since World War II and three phases of educational policies aimed at compensating for their educational disadvantages. Discusses the disappointing outcomes of compensatory education, bilingual education, intercultural education, and preschool and early school programs, and describes the government's radical new approach involving decentralization, deregulation, and local autonomy.
• Tostada Preparation Provides Educational Feast: Preschoolers Learn Language, Explore Culture
  Describes a multicultural inclusive preschool program in which children with and without disabilities communicate by using English, Spanish, and sign language. How students were taught a cross-cultural language lesson by making tostadas during International Foods Week is reviewed.
• Validity of an Observation Screening Instrument in a Multicultural Population
  This study found that the Davis Observation Checklist for Texas, an observational teacher checklist for screening preschool children for communication disorders, demonstrated adequate sensitivity and specificity. The concurrent validity of the checklist was assessed with 59 multicultural children (ages 4 through 5), including Mexican Americans, African Americans, and Anglos.
• Why Cooking in the Curriculum?
  Discusses how food preparation activities in the early childhood classroom can facilitate parent participation. Explains how cooking activities can involve reading, math, science, reading, writing, multicultural components, and creativity.
• Young Children Learn about Immigrants to the United States
  Describes a program at an inner-city day care and after-school program (Brooklyn, New York) designed to help children express, share, and take pride in their family cultures, and to respond to increasing hostility toward new immigrant groups. Includes an annotated bibliography of resources for teaching about immigrants to the United States.
• Your Children: Our Schools. A Guide for Korean Parents in New Zealand: Early Childhood Education Services and Primary Schools
  This booklet presents information on New Zealand early childhood education services and primary schools specifically for Korean immigrants. The booklet is based on interviews with 30 Korean families who recently decided to settle in New Zealand.