Welcoming Families From Around the World

Imagine the following scenario

You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.

The home country of this family is Germany.

At least five ways in which you will prepare yourself to be culturally responsive towards this family

1. I would research on what is the culture in Germany, such as the acceptable form of greeting, time adherence, teacher-parent interaction and also teacher-student interaction etc.

2. Even though a large number of Germans speak English, I would look for a colleague or someone close to me that speaks German, so that there would not be any awkwardness on the first meeting in case they do not speak English fluently.

3. I would research on how parenting works in Germany. Do I address all my concerns to the mother only or both parents are equally involved? This is to avoid any feeling of disregard from either parent.

4. I would make efforts to learn some common words such as pleasantries, as this may show them that I am happy to welcome them.

5. Ask them about their child’s past experience at school and what are their expectations are for the school year.

A brief statement describing in what ways you hope that these preparations will benefit both you and the family

I hope that these preparations will show them that they are welcomed and are in a safe environment where we can both collaborate to ensure that their child integrates into the program easily. This preparation would also help me get informed about the culture in Germany, which is different from the dominant culture and also how I can incorporate it to help in their assimilation.