I have recently been promoted to the Dean of Elementary education
at my school. Two days into my new
title, I have received word that the child of a family from Guatemala has
recently immigrated to our country. I am
not familiar with Guatemala. So, to prepare myself for welcome the child and
her family, I have thought of five things to do to give me a jump start to
prepare myself for this task/
Thus, five ways in which I will prepare myself to be culturally
responsive towards this family from Guatemala is: 1) obtain information
relating to school life for children so that I will be knowledgeable of the
possible educational strengths and weaknesses that the children and their
families may encounter. 2) I will try to learn about the food. 3) I will focus
on their possible religious believes so that I may not disrespect any holidays
or religious beliefs as it relates the educational structure/school calendar
and events. 4) I will focus on some of the interests that my family might have
to assist with making them comfortable in their new city and country. 5)
Lastly, I would purchase a Spanish/English dictionary to assist me with
communicating with the children and family as Spanish is the prominent language
in Guatemala.
I hope that these preparations will allow me to understand the generally
culture, language, and food preferences of my family from Guatemala thus making
it a little easier to communicate with the family and understand any barriers I
might have while trying to educate the children.
Neketha,
ReplyDeleteI think this is a very good start to welcoming this child into your school. Another way would be to meet privately with them in the school to fill out paper work and go over the day to day routine and show them the actual school. Getting to know the family first before school starts and possibly putting them in touch with families who have children of similar age ranges may help them feel more at ease. Nice job
JIll