Towards linguistic and cultural awareness in education. Educators as facilitators of children’s social participation in early childhood education
Keywords:
professional competence, linguistic and cultural awareness, learning environment, early childhood education, children with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, inclusionAbstract
The need to develop linguistic and cultural awareness of professional educators is evident in Finland at different school levels from early childhood education to higher education. Learning environments are becoming more and more linguistically and culturally diverse. The purpose of this study is to explore how educators can enable early childhood learning environments that support the inclusion of children with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
The research material is based on the assessments and observations of professional educators collected during the University of Helsinki’s Orientation Project, an early education research and development project. The research material consists of evaluations of 309 children with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, observations (N = 7428) and educators’ evaluations of learning environment (N =180). There are 1670 children in the reference population and 37 054 observations.
Based on the findings of the study, the key factors in supporting children with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds seem to be the practices created to support children’s participation, considering family, support of free play, reading sessions and pedagogical leadership. Reflecting the linguistic and cultural awareness of educators is vital to the development of professional skills. The results of the research can be used to develop learning environments that are linguistically and culturally aware and to look more broadly at the potential skills needed in the educators’ work.
