Cultivating the responsiveness in Culture - embracing the Cultural responsiveness journey.

What is Cultural Responsiveness?
Cultural responsiveness goes beyond Cultural Competence. The Early Years Learning Framework describes Cultural Responsiveness as “much more than an awareness of cultural differences. It is the ability to understand, communicate with and effectively interact with people across cultures. It is the ability to respect multiple cultural ways of knowing, seeing and living, celebrating and honouring the benefits of diversity”.

Culturally responsive Educators respect all backgrounds, beliefs, values, customs, lifestyles, languages and social behaviours. They are committed to responding to discrimination, bias & unfairness and embedding culture in their practices and curriculums, particularly the cultures represented by children, families and Educators in their settings.
 
The team at Diversity Kids believe that Cultural Responsiveness is also about recognising that all children are born belonging to a culture. These children often come to our education and care settings with strong cultural identities that may involve traditional practices, values that they are raised with, celebrations and knowledge.
Cultural Responsiveness embodies Educators taking the time and making an effort to understand the unique sense of culture & belonging that each child experiences within their cultural community and as Educators, working towards creating a care environment that offers a similar sense of belonging (like an extension of the child’s home environment).
 
Cultural Responsiveness has both a visible, tangible layer (including things like purchasing multicultural & Aboriginal resources and embedding these in every day practices, celebrating cultural festivals, inviting Aboriginal people to come and tell stories, translating information for families and so on).
There is also another layer to Cultural Responsiveness that has more to do with our attitudes, knowledge, the relationships we make, the connections we build with our children & families, the way we extend on our knowledge base and our attitudes towards cultural diversity. It includes the way we effectively communicate and interact with children, families & people across cultures. 
It also includes how we enable children to become culturally competent learners, how we encourage & nurture them to express their cultural being, learn about and respect other cultures.

One of the keys to cultivating Cultural Responsiveness is our ability to view it as an ongoing, integral part of a continuous learning process, a life long journey, rather than a destination.
Cultural Responsiveness and the experience of it varies from person to person and from situation to situation. It requires a growth mindset, a quest for knowledge around cultures & diversity, ongoing reflection that leads to identifying, learning from and implementing new opportunities and putting cross cultural practices into action. In essence, Cultural Responsiveness is an opportunity for limitless learning, an exchange of information, connection and collaboration.

Developing and cultivating your Cultural Responsiveness invites you to begin by looking into your own cultural background – the experiences, values and knowledge of your own culture, family and community history - and recognising that people from other cultures may not share them.
Sometimes our Culturally Responsiveness journey forces us to reflect on and challenge any cultural stereotypes and prejudices that we have acquired over time.
Cultural Responsiveness is also looking at everything through a cultural lens and building that into your everyday practices, policies, programs and philosophies.
 
What are some tips, tools & skills to help Educators become culturally responsive?
Diversity Kids has developed a Checklist that describes some of the characteristic attitudes, skills & knowledge required to be a Culturally Responsive Educator. Below is an excerpt from that Checklist:
 
Culturally Responsive Educators:

Self Reflection:

• Are aware of their own world view.
• Reflect on how their own cultural background influences their belief systems, biases and how they view the world (as a key part of self & critical reflection).
• Have an awareness of their own cultural values and views and how this may impact on their ability to work across cultural boundaries.
• Engage in ongoing reflection relating to their Cultural Responsiveness and how they build children’s Cultural Competence in the process.

 
Attitudes:

• Respect & embrace diversity and develop positive attitudes towards cultural differences.
• Understand, honour and have a positive attitude to different cultures, languages, traditions, child rearing practices.
• Have an authentic respect for diversity, equity, fairness, inclusion, social justice and the richness it brings to our society.

 
Knowledge:

• Gain and extend on knowledge of different cultural practices and perspectives (through professional development, cultural resources, conversations with families and ethnic communities).

 
Practices:

• Ensure that everyone is on a cultural competence and responsiveness journey including children, fellow Educators & families.
• Help children to become culturally confident, respectful of diversity, Ambassadors of inclusion, social justice and responsive to racism and injustice.
• Develop strong cross cultural communication skills to communicate and interact across cultures.
• Build strong cross cultural relationships with fellow Educators, children & families.
• Encourage bilingualism & maintenance of children’s culture / home language, including Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander culture and languages.
• Challenge discriminatory viewpoints.
• Are able to participate in intercultural settings on both a personal and professional level. Use resources that are culturally meaningful & relevant.
• Adapt curriculums to children’s ideas, interests and culture.
• Embed multicultural perspectives in curriculum, programs, resources & everyday practices to 

What does Cultural Responsiveness mean? How do we do it? How do we become it?
Cultural Responsiveness is different for all of us. Everyone’s Cultural Responsiveness journey is unique. We are all at different stages of our journey but the most important thing is that we start this journey and take the small steps, even if at times we feel that our approach wavers on the tokenistic.
Over time, with ongoing reflection, opportunities, practice, perseverance and a commitment to continue the journey, one is able to cultivate their competence and responsiveness around culture. This eventually leads to an enriched journey of cultural confidence with tools & knowledge to better communicate, include and interact cross culturally with children, families and Educators that we work with and in our everyday personal interactions.
 
References:
https://wehearyou.acecqa.gov.au/2014/07/10/what-does-it-mean-to-be-culturally-competent/