EDU 146, Chapter 5, 2014sp, CCC, Child Guidance

1. Contextually Informed and
Culturally Appropriate Guidance
Chapter 5 from Guiding Children’s Social and Emotional Development: A
Reflective Approach; Katz, Janice Englander; 2014

2. Context and Culture
• Children have limited life experiences
• Expectations for behavior depend on a variety of factors including:
• Context – what are the circumstances surrounding the expectations for
behavior?
• Culture – what values influence and what teachings are shared by the child’s
family and the surrounding community?
• Inconsistent expectations are common for children
• Some children generalize rules from one situation to another more
easily than others

3. Expectations in Context
• Consider the context – time of day, location, people involved and/or
present
• Is the child on the playground with one set of rules or inside with
another set of rules?

4. DAP
• To support emerging skills
• Provide developmentally appropriate materials
• Provide healthy, respectful, supportive, and challenging learning
environments for young children (NAEYC Key Element 1c)
• Add new to the familiar for novelty
• Be consistent and predictable, provide a similar environment, yet be flexible
• Remember that the school environment will have different expectations than
the home environment

5. Parenting and Discipline
• Parenting Styles – read about different parenting styles
• You may even want to take a Parenting Style quiz
• How do parenting styles (yours and the parents’ styles)
impact the children in your care?
• Discipline practices – while this is from the Virginia Extension Agency,
the information is definitely relevant to North Carolina.

6. Bronfenbrenner and Ecological Systems
Theory
• Look at the Ecological Systems Theory graphic on p. 77 in your text
• Children live within each of those contexts.
• What are the values and beliefs of the community as a whole?
• Do we value children?
• Do we value high quality childcare? How do we know? Look for a Discussion
Board for this one!

7. Cultural Competence
• Culture – “a shared system of meaning, which includes values, beliefs,
and assumptions expressed in daily interactions of individuals within
a group through a definite pattern of language, behavior, customs,
attitudes, and practices ( Maschinot, 2008; Christiansen, Emde, &
Fleming, 2004; Emde, 2006)
• What is included? See the list on p. 79
• Beware of stereotypes!!!!
• Beware of your personal biases!!!!!
• Get to know people as individuals 

8. What Does It Mean to Us?

9. What Does Culture Mean to Us?
• Assimilation
• See cultural characteristics on p. 81 in your text
• Note vocabulary
• Cultural scripts
• Ethnicity
• What about people who think differently than we do?
• What are our beliefs about their thinking?
• Individualistic cultures
• Collectivist cultures

10. Individualist vs. Collectivistic Cultures
• Individualist – independence; autonomy
• Collectivistic – interdependence; community
• When should we encourage children to think and act independently?
• When should we promote the strength of the group?
• What about Praise? Read “Not in Praise of Praise” (pp. 11 – 14) and
“Spoiled Rotten” and “Five Reasons to Stop Saying Good Job”. Serious
food for thought!!!!

11. Stuff vs. Relationships
• Stimulate learning - how important is all that stuff?
• Human relationships
• Unscheduled time? What about David Elkind and “the hurried child”?
• Describe “learning through play” vs. providing worksheets for
academic advancement.
• Teacher centered vs. child centered
• Consider “Looking in the Mirror” questions on p. 88

12. Cultural Conflicts
• Reflection
• Respectful listening
• Non judgmental
• Observe what is not being said
• Agree to disagree?
• Open for further discussion?