Providing Culturally Competent Care in Early Childhood Services in New Zealand. Part 1: Considering Culture [and] Part 2: Developing Dialog [and] Part 3: Parents' Experiences of Different Early Childhood Pedagogies

Focusing on early childhood issues specific to New Zealand, this document is comprised of three papers exploring provision of culturally competent care in early childhood services. The first paper, "Considering Culture" (Lisa Terreni with Judi McCallum), addresses some current theories that attempt to understand "culture" and examines some of the concepts underlying theories of inter-cultural communication. Also examined is the implications of understanding ideas about culture and inter-cultural communication for early childhood practitioners from the dominant culture. The second paper, "Developing Dialogue" (Lisa Terreni), notes that dialogue enables practitioners to discover the beliefs and experiences that parents and children from different cultural backgrounds bring to early childhood programs, and examines ways in which teachers can engage and develop meaningful dialogue with these parents. The third paper, "Parents' Experiences of Different Early Childhood Pedagogies" (Lisa Terreni) recounts interviews with three parents from different cultural backgrounds whose children experienced early childhood services in their countries and also attended early childhood services in New Zealand. At the end of each interview, analysis is provided of points of difference that practitioners may want to consider as topics for discussion with parents. The countries of origin of the three parents were Jordan, India, and China. (HTH)