AGENDA

9.00 SESSION INTRODUCTION – GETTING TO

ONE KNOW YOU ACTIVITY – Find
someone who….
Individual introduction of who you are,
where you are from, and how long you
have worked in childcare.
ABORIGINAL HISTORY/CULTURE
PROGRAMMING FOR DIVERSITY

10.30 MORNING TEA

10.45 SESSION CREATING AN ANTI BIAS

TWO CLASSROOM
GROUP SESSION ACTIVITY
SELF ASSESS

12.00 LUNCH

12.30 ABORIGINAL CRAFT

2.00 AFTERNOON TEA

2.15 SESSION TRADITIONAL GAMES

THREE CONCLUSION ROUNDUP
EVALUATION
4PM
FINISH

Aboriginality I chose this subject because we have got some Aboriginal families in
our care and I was interested in learning how we can program effectively to
include these families in the best possible way.

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 LEARNING OUTCOMES AND AIMS
AIM:

1. Identify pedagogies within early childhood settings.

2. Identify the Aboriginal Culture in our society and include this culture as part
of a diverse multicultural program in early childhood settings.
3. To promote an inclusive atmosphere in early childhood settings.

GETTING TO KNOW YOU ACTIVITY:

Learning Outcomes:
1.1 Exploring similarities and differences
1.2 Exploring why differences occur and what impact it has in our society

INDIVIDUAL INTRODUCTION:
Learning Outcomes:
1.3 Exploring differences in individual situations
1.4 Being different is acceptable and why diversity is important in Australian Society

Rational:
Both these activities, getting to know you and individual introduction reflects the
differences among the community we live in, as a small group and large group, it
emphasises the need to program for diverse communities to create a positive
welcoming atmosphere among early childhood settings.

ABORIGINAL HISTORY/CULTURE:
Learning Outcomes:
1.5 Recognising Cultural Diversity in Australian Society
1.6 Understanding Aboriginal Culture and reflecting upon this
1.7 To reflect Aboriginal Culture in our Society

Rational:
Understanding Aboriginal history/culture assists early childhood professional teachers
to program and enhance their overall knowledge of culture. It provides knowledge of
what resources we can bring to the service to reflect Aboriginal Culture in
conjunction with the diverse atmosphere we want to promote through our teaching.

PROGRAMMING FOR DIVERSITY:

Learning Outcomes:
1.8 Positive programming to reflect diverse backgrounds
1.9 To recognise the importance of celebrating diversity in early childhood
1.10 Identify resources and materials to incorporate into everyday practices in early
childhood.

Rational:
This provides an overall view of Cultural Diversity and how we can promote and
enhance our everyday teaching practices.

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 DEVELOPING AN ANTI-BIAS ENVIRONMENT

Learning Outcomes:
1.11 To recognise bias and create an inclusive atmosphere

Rational:
It is important when catering for families in the community to develop an anti-bias
inclusive environment.

EARLY CHILDHOOD PEDAGOGIES

Learning Outcomes:
Through positive teaching styles maintaining inclusive practices

Rational:
By using positive teaching styles our teaching practices should show inclusiveness
when teaching Aboriginal children as well as other cultures. Positive role modelling
by staff will help teach young children to be acceptive of difference and value cultural
diversity.

TRADITIONAL GAMES

Learning Outcomes:
1.13 To share and enjoy in the culture of Aboriginal people through games

Rational:
Traditional games provide opportunity to learn, appreciate and experience Aboriginal
culture. These games also provide opportunity for social interaction and inclusion in
our early childhood practices.

ABORIGINAL ART AND CRAFT

Learning Outcomes:
1.14 Promote cross cultural understanding in children through art and craft

Rational:
This Aboriginal craft session encourages cross-cultural understanding in our children
through art and craft.

ORGANISATIONS TO ACCESS

Learning Outcomes:
1.15 Education on various cultures
1.16 Identify and find resources available to include diversity positively in early
childcare.

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9.00 – 9.10 Introduction
Housekeeping
OHS
Thank you to the traditional holders of the
land we are training on today – the Wodi
Wodi Tribal People of the Illawarra.

9.10 – 9.30 Getting to Know you activity – Individual

introduction of who you are, where you are
from, and how long you have worked in
childcare.

9.30 – 10.00 Aboriginal History/Culture

10.00 – 10.30 Programming for Diversity

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 GETTING TO KNOW YOU

INSTRUCTIONS:

Divide learners into small groups. Provide each group a large sheet of butchers
paper and markers.

Have them draw a large flower with a centre and an equal number of petals - the
number of learners in their group.

Through discussion with the group members, have them find their similarities
and differences. They should fill in the centre of the flower with something they
all have in common.

Each member should then fill in his or her petal with something about them that
is unique – unlike any other member in their group.

Groups are instructed that they cannot use physical attributes like hair colour,
weight, etc.

This encourages them to have more meaningful discussions with their group
members.

Encourage participants to be creative in their ideas and drawings.

After the small group activity, have them share with the large group, about
similarities and differences.

http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/diverse2.html

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INDIVIDUAL INTRODUCTION:

Each participant to do a short introduction include:

 Name
 What centre you are from
 How long you have worked in childcare

Indigenous Australians

“The term Indigenous is a term that has evolved through law to acknowledge the
particular relationship of the original inhabitants of a country or geographical region
to their lands. In Australia, the term Indigenous refers to people who are of
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin. In Australia the Indigenous
community is diverse and comprised of a wide range of cultural groups speaking
many different languages”. (Department of Education and Training).

Another term widely used is Aboriginalism this refers to the production of spoken and
written texts about Indigenous Australians. McConaghy discusses three concepts of
Aboriginalism, one being ownership and representation, the second being the
configurations of speech like ‘them’ and ‘those’ as to ‘us’ and ‘we’, and the third
concept refers to the underlying differences of cultural contrasts between Aboriginal
and non Aboriginal culture (McConaghy, 2000).

Population distribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians

2001

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Aboriginal children have extremely high rates of middle ear disease. This middle ear
disease can lead to conductive hearing loss. As hearing loss is present so early in life
and for long periods, development of listening, speech and language is affected. This
in term can lead to behavioural and academic problems, especially when there are
differences in culture between family life and child care services or school
environments. The home language in Australian Aboriginal families is not always
English although it is the language spoken by 80% of Aboriginal people (ICRU
Newsletter, 2003).

Some families may need extra assistance in communication practices, we as early

childhood professionals should give assistance when needed so that families are
aware of procedures the centre follows, for example assistance may be needed for
filling out forms and understanding policies.

Discussion on discourses in the Aboriginal Culture with group.

ATTACHMENT – Myths about Aboriginal People sheet included in Appendix.

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 TEACHING IMPLICATIONS
To cater for our Aboriginal Culture in our teaching we need to be empathetic when
dealing with families, we can add resources and materials to our already inclusive
atmosphere including equipment like Aboriginal dolls, puzzles, Aboriginal toys, craft,
games, musical instruments and Aboriginal story books for all the children to use.
Having this equipment around the room will cater for the Aboriginal children in an
inviting familiar atmosphere and the other children will value from the presence of
such items.

 We need to look closely into culture and learn as early childhood

professionals and gain as much knowledge as we can to represent this in
our teaching. We need to know what we are teaching in order to teach to
the best of our knowledge and ignorance into culture will only show our
families that we are not inclusive therefore turning them away.
 Having lots of resources available to us and continuously investigating
new resources will enhance our teaching practices into Cultural Diversity
and will aid in creating aesthetically pleasing atmospheres.
 Bringing culture into our teaching practices will enhance the children’s
knowledge and acceptance of culture, teaching them to be inclusive and to
value difference and to accept every individual regardless of race, colour
or ethnicity.
 We need to able to assist families when needed to allow positive
communication, this involves recognising a family may need assistance
and having the knowledge of who to ask or where to get information
necessary to assist.
 We as early childhood professionals need to access cultures in many
forms, for example Aboriginal traditional culture can be incorporated into
our programs in many forms, art and craft, traditional games, reading,
traditional dolls, and resources and materials.
 We need to access local community groups and families to invite speakers,
performers, anyone who can bring cultural experiences into our services.
 It is important that we develop and evaluate our centre policies and
procedures in our early childhood teaching, to ensure changes are made to
improve our inclusion and cultural practices.

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Cultural diversity includes the cultural differences that exist between people, this may
include dress and traditions, language, religion, and the way they interact within a
community (Cultural Diversity Wikipedia).

“When programming for diversity special one off programming can emphasise the
differences as ‘interesting’ but fail to encourage acceptance of diversity as part of
every day life” (Network of Community Activities).

We should include diversity as part of our everyday environment. Our environments

should always include a variety of experiences, resources and materials to reflect our
diverse community backgrounds.

Every individual child and staff has the right to see themselves reflected in the
resources around them. For example, if a Joe is a child with Aboriginal Culture he
should be able to see around him something to that shows him that Aboriginal Culture
is valued in the centre for example, an Aboriginal story book or Aboriginal posters
around the room.

If we use this approach it allows our children to enjoy a variety of cultural diverse
experiences as part of their everyday lives in the centre.

Some examples:
 Multicultural dolls in home corner
 A range of multicultural cooking utensils
 Cultural dress up clothes in your dress up boxes
 A range of multicultural musical instruments in music box
 Cultural art experiences
 Celebrations of cultural holidays, festivals.

Discussion: Can you think of anything else we could use to enhance diversity
into our rooms?

Have a discussion with the person beside you about what you may have in your
room that reflects Diversity, and answer the following questions, in regards to
the cultural materials you use your service:

1. Do they reflect the interaction of cultural groups throughout Australian

history?
2. Do they show equality of all Australians in our society?
3. Do they represent positive images of people from diverse cultural
backgrounds?
4. Do they provide children the opportunity to identify with a variety of
characters and situations?

ATTACHMENT – CULTURAL ACTIVITIES

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EXAMPLES OF ACTIVITIES THAT ENHANCE CULTURAL DIVERSITY

 Invite families to contribute to the program – in various areas like art,

craft, cooking, music and dress
 Resources including, books, stories, toys, games, musical instruments,
dress ups, cooking and foods
 Craft activities
 Display greetings in cultural language
 Display posters, maps of different cultures

Discussion on more examples of activities.

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10.45 – 11.15 CREATING AN ANTI BIAS CLASSROOM

11.15 – 11.35 GROUP SESSION ACTIVITY

SELF ASSESSMENT

11.35 – 12.00 EARLY CHILDHOOD PEDOGOGIES

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 DEVELOPING AN ANTI-BIAS ENVIRONMENT

When developing an anti-bias classroom we need to value our own experiences and
background, we need to become aware of our own biases, those others hold and how
biases affect our society. We need to understand what effects bias has on our
children, families and staff members. We need to evaluate the physical environment
in our services looking closely at what resources we are providing making sure the
room is inclusive to all.

Is bias and anti-bias an adult issue, is it adults that have power to create, and teach
bias? Time to self assess think about this question to yourself for a moment then talk
to the person beside you and discuss your thoughts.

Small Group Activity: Draw up a sample of how an inclusive inside environment

would look like. Join as a whole group and discuss rooms.

Attachment: Anti Bias Checklist (Network of Community Activities).

EARLY CHILDHOOD PEDAGOGIES

McConaghy (2003) suggests that teaching and learning depends on the types of
external supports, structures, leadership and school cultures. There are many factors
that we need to implement when teaching young children, our teaching methods can
depend on many factors including:
 Ratios
 Families
 Community
 Cultural Diversity
 Staff teaching qualifications
Each of these factors ‘impact significantly on the conditions of quality teaching and
student learning’ (McConaghy, 2003).

As an early childhood professional it is very important we provide a supportive,

inclusive environment for our children, families and the community we live in. We
can show productive pedagogy by making the environment inclusive in all our
settings, including resources, policies and procedures that include cultural
representation. Our policies need to be updated and be based on how realistically
they reflect on family diversity. We need to make sure our enrolment procedure is
inclusive, therefore caters for single parents, married couples, and parent’s living at
different addresses. (Robinson and Diaz, 2006, p.103).

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 ANTI-BIAS CHECKLIST

Interactions:
 Do staff pay as much attention to the boys as to the girls?
 Do staff encourage physical activity in boys and girls equally?
 Do staff equally encourage boys and girls to show feelings?
 Are the same challenges and activities offered to all children – including
those with disabilities and cultural differences?
 Are staff positive in their communications with children’s comments about
skin colour, hair, eye shape, inviting children to explore and reflect on
them?
 When children make comments about disabilities, do staff respond simply
and with accurate information?
 Do staff allow for children’s cultural learning and offer a choice of ways
of learning and playing?

Do the resources, materials or experiences:

 Help reinforce and support children’s own cultural identity and
background.
 Enhance the children’s awareness of Australia’s cultural diversity.
 Represent different types of culture – people, families and lifestyles within
the community around them.
 Include both boys and girls equally?
 Present positive images of cultures including Aboringinal/Torris Strait
Islander culture.
 Allow children to participate.
 Avoid stereotypes.
 Include people with disabilities.
 Encourage children to use positive thinking about difference and diversity.
 Encourage children’s empathy and awareness of others and their feelings.
 Allow children to compare and discover similarities and differences in a
variety of ways.
 Reflect the children’s and communities own background.
 Enhance children’s sense of individual value and worth.

Reference: Adapted from: Network of Community Activities, Cultural Diversity.

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12.30 – 2PM HANDS ON ABORIGINAL CRAFT

ATTACHMENT – ABORIGINAL CRAFT IDEAS

This Aboriginal craft session encourages cross-cultural understanding in our children

through art and craft (Kids Craft Weekly).

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2.15 – 2.30 DISCUSSION ON ABORIGINAL ARTISTS

2.30 – 3.30 TRADITIONAL GAMES WITH GANGARI

The team from Gangari will deliver a short games session that promotes team-
work, skill development, fitness and the opportunity to connect with the
Aboriginal Culture (Gangari). Activities include:
 Boomerang demonstration and throwing
 Target and defence games

ATTACHMENT – GANGARI / ABORIGINAL ARTISTS

3.30 – 4PM CONCLUSION – REFLECTION ON

LEARNING

EVALUATION

A great multicultural finger play activity for young children, from Kenyetta C., a
teacher from Watson Avenue Day Care, “I wrote this for multicultural month to teach

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diversity and acceptance of different ethnic backgrounds” (Preschool Activities for a
Multicultural Theme).

Materials:
Just fingers, Kenyetta took all of the children’s photographs with a digital camera and
decorated a bulletin board with this poem. It was loved by children and parents also
showing great inclusive practice in her teaching.

Description:
This is a finger play to do with children during circle time:

I am different from my head to my toes

(point to self then to head and toes)
I am different from my eyes to my nose
(point to self then eyes and nose)
I come from a place that is far and wide
(point to self then spread arms wide open)
A place where we all smile instead of cry
(act like you are tracing your lips into a smile and bring
hands down eyes as if you are crying)
I am very different as you can see
(point to self then at a friend)
But I still have a lot of love in me!
(point to self place hand over the heart then hug yourself).

CONCLUSION – REFLECTION ON LEARNING

Reflect on what we have discussed today and write three new things you have
learn’t today that you can put into your teaching practices.

1.
2.
3.

Throughout the session there has been lots of discussion and activities that has been
focused on Aboriginality, including teaching implications and how they can be more
inclusive in their own practices and their centre practices. At the end of the day I
would hope that participants have extended their knowledge of Aboriginal culture
through the intended learning outcomes developed, and are able to return to their
services and put their knowledge into their teaching practices.

ORGANISATIONS TO ACCESS

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  Aboriginal Art and Culture centre, http://aboriginalart.com.au/

This organization website has useful information on Aboriginal Culture it sells

educational posters, books, resources for art and craft. It also has valid information
on Aboriginal Art and Culture.

 Early Childhood Australia,

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/index.php

This organization advocates to ensure quality, social justice and equity in all issues
relating to the care of children aged from birth to eight years. This website has
valuable articles on diversity in early childcare.

 National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect

(NAPCAN), www.napcan.org.au

This organization is a non profit organization that’s main goal is to prevent children
from abuse and neglect. The website has resources for Aboriginal Teaching including
posters, stories, and phamplets.

 Aboriginal Australia, http://www.aboriginalaustralia.com/

This organization also has resources for Aboriginal teaching in early childhood,
resources can be brought or downloaded.

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Evaluation of Training Session

Thank you for attending the training session today on Aboriginality and Diversity,
Please assist in the evaluation of the effectiveness of the session. Please be honest in
your answering so evaluation can be constructive.

1. Overall did you find the session useful to your teaching practices?
2. List three things that you found useful:



3. If the information was not useful please list why you considered it not useful?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

4. Was there anything not included in today’s session that you would like to be
added next time?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

5. Do you have any other comments?

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

Thank you for taking the time to complete this evaluation.

Reference:

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Clark Donald, 2007, Diversity Activities, retrieved on 7th May, 2008 from
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/diverse2.html.

Cultural Diversity and Early Education, Cultural Diversity at Home, retrieved on 14th
May, 2006 from
http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/earlyed/chapter2.html

Illawarra Children’s Resource Unit Newsletter, December 2003, Summer Issue 4,

Communicating issues affecting Aboriginal children, Some facts about
Aboriginal English.

Jacobs Gale, Preschool Activities for a Multucultural Theme, retrieved on 14th May,
2008 from http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/multicultural.htm.

Kids Craft Weekly, Aboriginal Arts and Culture, retrieved on 14th May, 2008 from
http://www.kidscraftweekly.com/aboriginal_culture_issue.html.

Leich Glen Management, young Australia Workshop, Aboriginal artists, 2008,

retrieved on 8th May 2008, from
http://www.youngaus.com.au/aboriginal_education/doyle.html.

McConaghy, C, (2000). Constructing Aboriginality, determining significant

difference, Amidale, NSW: Kardoorair Press.

Network of Community Activities, 2006, Cultural Diversity in OOSH.

Racism No Way, Australia’s cultural diversity, retrieved on 14th May, 2008 from
http://www.racismnoway.com.au/library/cultural/index-Diversit.html.

Robinson, K., & Diaz, C. (2006). Diversity and Difference in Early Childhood
Education. London, UK: Open University Press.

Wikipedia, Cultural Diversity, retrieved 8th May, 2008, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_diversity.

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