AN APPLICATION OF THE “SEVEN STEPS” IN IMPLEMENTING MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PRESCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN

The purpose of this presentation is to familiarize teachers and other professionals with the results of our project entitled” Seven Steps for implementing multicultural education in the early childhood classrooms”. This project was based on an application of many activities, and the “All from Around the World” center. Culture shapes the behavior of children and influences learning by exposing children to different values, norms and demands. As explained by Sara Harness (1980): " To ignore the role of cultural context in describing the child can lead to a lack of differentiation between the structure of the child's own development and the structure of his or her environment.” Cole and Scribner (1974) also stress the importance of culture when they state:" Perception, memory and thinking all develop as part of the general socialization of a child and are inseparably bound up with the patterns of activity, communication and social relations into which she/he enters."(p.9).
Igoa (1998) stresses the loneliness and exhaustion expressed by the immigrant children who need cultural validation.
The pilot project included one teacher and three early childhood pre-service teachers. According to the teacher, the most significant aspect of this project was an increased awareness of the need for a multicultural environment. The pre-service teachers stressed that diversity is not enough addressed in our schools and the “Seven Steps” was an excellent method to help implement a developmentally and culturally appropriate activity into the classroom.