Sharing Web Resources

Early education programs must respond to the needs of diverse families. This requires responsive caregivers and teachers, knowing that responsiveness, warmth and support from caregivers influence the development of important capabilities in children (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. 2004).

As a culturally competent communicator, a caregiver has to be able to value diversity, to conduct a self- assessment, to manage the dynamics of difference, to acquire and institutionalize cultural knowledge and to adapt to diversity and the cultural contexts of individuals and communities served (Goode, 2001, p.1).

The World Organization for Early Childhood Education made available a scale as a tool and a self- assessment tool for professionals. Where the scale is used by a single practitioner within their own setting, it can be applied to support curriculum development through identifying priorities, setting targets and managing change without difficulties. But wherever any form of comparison is involved between settings, there will be a need to ensure inter-rater reliability. It is important that users recognize the need for external or collective validation and that their ratings are to be collaboratively moderated. This should be achieved through:

• training to understanding the use and the role of the scale;

• training to ensure common understandings of the quality criteria (definitions and cultural variations) and in;

• in many cases a ‘critical friend’ should also be involved to provide support and validation (this may be a local authority adviser or an academic who has applied the instrument in other contexts.

References

National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. (2004). Young children develop in an environment of relationships (Working Paper No. 1). Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University. Retrieved fromhttp://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/resources/reports_and_working_papers/working_papers/wp1/

Goode, T. (2001). The role of self-assessment in achieving cultural competence. Retrieved fromhttp://nccc.georgetown.edu/documents/selfassessment.pdf

The World Organization for Early Childhood Education. http://www.worldomep.org/en/esd-scale-for-teachers/