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Multicultural pictures


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As we live in a very rural area we really do not see people of a different ethnic background or with different skin colour. I have been advised to get some pictures on the wall (I do have multicultural resources but apparently I need pictures up) Can anyone recommend some for me? I would like to link these onto my world map to make them at least have a reason for being plonked on the wall!! Can you tell that I had Ofsted yesterday!!! ;)

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try here

http://issuu.com/mantralingua/docs/mantra_lingua_catalogue?e=0/7063945

some loveley eal resources which will provide you with pictures for a purpose rather than just tokenism ;) (shall i quote that to ofsted!!) i liked the height chart and the pets one.....but lots of other stuff in there. Risc (reading) is also helpful but i can't seem to get on their book shop site.

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I have to say (coming from Cornwall maybe I can get away with this!) that I do believe very strongly that children in quite mono-cultural areas do need to have even more access to understanding what the wider world is like. They will travel and go to other places where communities are more mixed and need to understand how other people live their lives. I argued this 30 years ago when I left Cornwall to start teacher training and I argue it still!!

Cx

Edited by catma
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we have pictures of families in role-play area from google images which i have printed and laminate. i just ensure all kinds of family are represented, e.g. 2 dads, different ethnicities, differently-abled mum etc. and when we have small world, each set has a few pics of children using the swings etc. also areas have pics on units/wall by them e.g. construction area has pics of builders - women/diff ethnicities etc. then it's part of the environment, not just tokenism. mainly white british area here too

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Guest lillybeth

we had photos but also a lovely bear that went on holiday with children then the parents came into the setting to talk about the holiday destination and to show photographs of the holiday. We were very lucky we learnt about Africa, India , Spain etc and it was wonderful.

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And she is back....found it here

" Children love learning from other children! This resource helps pupils to explore their own lives - and the world around them - by looking at the lives of four children from around the world.

The stories of children from Ethiopia, Brazil, Russia, and India, allow discussion of themes such as 'myself', 'helping out', and 'caring and sharing'.

We put stuff on the wall with map and string to the children's pics
We tried to get some foods that they might share which was easier in some cases than others

By the time we finished they felt like real friends of the nursery xD :lol:

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It's really interesting how oxfam chooses to portray people in other countries (thanks sue i do like the pictures though) none of my Indian, russian or brazilian children would recognise themselves as being of this identity from the photos (my Russian children live in a VERY posh house!!)... i would be wary of portraying all children from Africa for instance living in mud huts with a lion next to their heads! xD

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Yes I do agree Catma. I had not really thought of it like that, you have to remember that even I as an adult living here am probably quite ignorant and sheltered from this. (Might teach me a thing or two)

I doubt that!!

However it does occur to me that you could just get a load of pictures of people from Devon?? That would make it really multicultural.

Keskerdh Kernow and all that!!!

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T his is an area I struggle with , I grew up in a multicultural area , many of my friends were of Asian, Indian , Carribean families , my best friend was of mixed race , admittedly back then there were very few one parent families or same sex partnerships . We live semi rural but have books and stories of different cultures , countries , parents living apart etc etc , we have baby dolls and small world with representation of different race and multicultural clothing . We celebrate our culture of our children first and foremost and bring in other festivals depending on how they are celebrated when and if they are of any relevance . We have foods from around the world but we do not go out of our way to do this .

We have had only a couple of children with EAL and a newbie whose family is of Ghanian heritage . We have children of traveller heritage and we embrace everyone as do our children , I really expected some of our children to make a comment or similar when our newbie arrived but they have not so what does this tell us ? We have children with send and yet no one treats them any differently so maybe we are already educating enough by not making a deal of it or am I sounding really ignorant !

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lashes personally i think you are spot on! we have to be careful that inclusion is inclusion for all not just for ethnicity but for eal/send/family/gender etc etc etc!!! always difficult to cover all angles ...i find the most difficult to deal with are same sex relationships....seems to open a whole other can of worms!

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Yup, I used to use my travel photos a lot. I think the Juniors were sick to death of my "see how lucky you are to have all these resources, Just look at this child in a reed hut on Lake Titicaca, they would love to have what you have yadda yadda yadda "speech!!

When I was very new to teaching I was somewhat thrown by the teachers in a school I moved to giving the children presents at the end of the school year. I couldn't make up my mind how I felt about it and asked my family what they thought. My brother-in-law (Nepali) launched into a shocked rant about how the children here were privileged to be able to come to school, learn, experience etc. and no I shouldn't give them presents. Was really funny to hear him - he walked for 2 hours to get to school to be in a class of 60. Also when my nephew was grumbling about the 10 minute walk to school one time Daddy told him about his walk - which so fascinated my nephew he told everyone else. Yes, it was two hours but I think it was the walk along tiger cliff (so called because a tiger had fallen off it into the river below) and crossing the river on a bamboo bridge which sometimes got washed away if the river was high! Made a walk along a roadside path seem somewhat boring!

Sorry, I know that didn't help with the original question - although I have used their holiday and wedding photos with my class. One thing I was recommended once was to do things like - if the children were expressing an interest in weddings to put an Asian bridal magazine in the role play area too.

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It's really interesting how oxfam chooses to portray people in other countries (thanks sue i do like the pictures though) none of my Indian, russian or brazilian children would recognise themselves as being of this identity from the photos (my Russian children live in a VERY posh house!!)... i would be wary of portraying all children from Africa for instance living in mud huts with a lion next to their heads! xD

Well in your case the resources aren't suitable then xD :lol: xD

Our setting was I think like zigzag with the only cultural differences being we had a child from a Jewish family and a couple of bi-lingual children where mums were Chinese and French so the Oxfam resources were ok for us.

However, even though those children now living in the UK would find imagery difficult to recognise surely there are still families living in these countries following a more traditional lifestyle by choice or poverty that are living in simple dwellings etc

So hard to decide what is the best way to portray these ideas :(

 

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this topic really gets up my grill!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! a photo, pictures, festivals DO NOT ADDRESS MULTICULTURALISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FAR FROM IT!!! Respect, regard and actions to create a fair and just society............... Starting with the basic things - we are all individual, from our genetic makeup right up to our skin tone..... its not about an awareness of different people of colour or culture but about the respect regarded to the person sat next to you, the people in the community then taking this level of respect to our immediate community and the role you play in creating a fair and just society in terms of accessibility and feeling settled?.... fair and just in the setting, fair and just in the community, fair and just in wider society and fair and just on a global scale....can you evidence this?? is there a thread that runs through from your setting to the wider community in addressing local issues?? PLEASE I am not having a go at anyone at all........as a person from a minority ethnic group...I see right through tokenistic gestures in settings and how great it would be if we could get past this practice and move beyond this tick box mentality of pics, festivals blah, blah blah...we are far more aware and more skilled than this.....practitioners intentionally mean no harm by it BUT its perpetuating something that is so dangerously deep seated in attitudes towards the 'OTHERS' .

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I take your point wholeheartedly, Nuby. But bear in mind that some of our children live in a mono cultural society, and simply do not see people of other ethnicities in their day-to-day lives. I know they see people with different (from them) coloured skin on TV, but they need to make the link between this and that there are 'others' out there who DO have different beliefs and lives. Of course this isn't just about people of other colours and faiths, but about individualism generally, and tolerance for differences. For very young children there may be a need to start this with big differences before we can start to look at small differences and similarities. For example, they learn that blue and green are different colours by using good, clear representations of those colours, only when they have 'got' that can we introduce different tones and shades of those colours so that they can understand the full spectrum.

 

I do firmly believe though, that our pointing out these differences in skin colours etc can only serve to highlight differences, and that children are not born with intolerances to others, and it is probably down to the adults around them that they begin to learn that.

 

I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that as long as it exists in the EYFS there will continue to be 'cultural tourism'

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I know guys, like i've said in my post we as practitioners are so much more aware and skilled and we know that it goes far beyond what Ofsted expect....their expectations are meaningless..... Looking back at original post I guess my frustrations are directed to Ofsted rather than this thread.

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I particularly like the series of books by Gwenyth Swain as they show a variety of scenarios with pictures of children from around the world. They make for really good starting points to open up discussions about similarities and differences. Used but good condition copies can be picked up for pennies on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Gwenyth+Swain

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Hi Nuby. I did not mean any offence at all in posting this thread. I am a firm believer that all these expectations for us to have "special resources" just highlights differences even more. We all know how accepting children are and it is usually the adults that are the ignorant ones. In my setting I have stopped celebrating festivals from other cultures because they do not mean anything to our children. Of course if we were ever lucky enough to have a diverse range of cultures and faiths we would celebrate them all. We live in an extremely remote rural community where probably 99% of the population is white. So we really are very isolated from the rich diversity that most of you may experience. We concentrate on all our local community and celebrations. As I mentioned in my post, this thread was a direct result of something my Ofsted inspector said and I did say I want to include resources for a really good reason and not for a tick in a box. I am sorry if I have caused any offence to anyone.

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No, Zigzag, you haven't caused any offence! You sparked healthy debate. I do often feel that inspectors have very bizarre ideas about what we should be doing and I've been on the receiving end of some of these over the years. ('What would you do if a child refused to use the toilet?')

 

Questioning why we do what we do is healthy, but sometimes we can overthink things. Coming on here to ask is the best way of finding out a balanced opinion - through debate!

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I do often feel that inspectors have very bizarre ideas about what we should be doing and I've been on the receiving end of some of these over the years. ('What would you do if a child refused to use the toilet?')

In the absence of much else to pick us up on one year we were asked to generate a policy for children with English as a second language!

Like several others my setting is in an area which is predominately white British - HOWEVER - over the past couple of years the ethnic diversity of children attending my setting has changed significantly - currently we have children with Japanese, Latvian, Polish, Spanish, and Bengali heritage and have also had and will have next year children with Turkish, Thai, Vietnamese, Danish and Russian heritage - we have "home language" posters for regular phrases which are dotted around the setting and one of our Mums asked for Welsh versions as they speak Welsh at home. It certainly helps broaden our horizons :1b

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