FACTSHEET 2D: CULTURAL COMPETENCE AND INTENTIONALITY
INTENTIONAL TEACHING STRATEGIES
This fact sheet aims to equip educators with the tools
to employ intentional teaching strategies in a culturally
competent manner. It makes the assumption that educators
have already explored their own status in relation to cultural
competence and cultural competence in action.
(see Factsheets 2a and 2b)
Intentional teaching does not refer to highly planned and
structured learning opportunities. Rather it focuses on the
ability of the educator to use situations that occur naturally
for the child and expand these to encourage information
seeking, critical thinking and problem solving.
Intentional teaching is one of the strategies that educators
can utilise to increase children’s cultural competence by
expanding their:
•
Awareness of their worldview
•
Planned observations during after school care
•
Attitude towards cultural differences
•
•
Knowledge of different cultural practices and worldviews
Have a look at materials they have produced such
as paintings, poetry, music pieces, handiworks, and
decorations
•
Ability to communicate and interact across cultures.
•
Document and reflect on children’s conversations and
activities.
Intentional teaching connects children with different ways of
being and knowing in a deliberate, purposeful and thoughtful
manner. This is one of the integral tasks that the ‘My Time, Our
Place’ learning framework sets for educators (p.14).
Spontaneous ways to seek information may include:
•
Listen to their conversations
Educators are asked to go on a journey with the children using
children’s social context, their interactions and conversations
as the launch pad for new and expanded experiences.
•
Observe their activities and play when you have some
free time
•
Strike up an unplanned conversation
HOW DOES THE EDUCATOR START ON
THE JOURNEY?
•
Partake in activities and conversation.
Gain knowledge of the child/children
The framework refers to educators making the most of
opportunities to follow up on children’s needs and interests.
There are a variety of ways through which you can get to
know children’s needs, interests and experiences – some
of these ways are methodical (planned) and others are
spontaneous (unplanned).
Methodical ways may include:
•
Conversations with the children and people in their lives
about their interests, hobbies, goals and experiences
•
Research into the child/children’s background including
their social, religious, ethnic, language and social
environment
The knowledge gained will not only inform which topics you
may want to expand on, but also how.
Prepare yourself
Preparation in this case is not having a variety of pre-set
activities and exercises set out on a table or planned on a
program. It means you have a range of information, ideas and
concepts at the ready to use when the timing is right. How
can you prepare for the event of ‘the timing is right now’?
Gather expertise
Once you have a good knowledge of the children, their
communities, interests, needs and experience identify topic
areas that relate to these. Research additional information
and identify ways in which the additional knowledge could be
presented.
Expand your range of concepts
Share and explore your concepts with a range of people such
as children, colleagues, families, and social friends. This will
provide you with a wider range of possible scenarios and
ideas. The more of an idea you have of what the children
might bring up the more effective you can be in the use of
intentional teaching strategies.
Challenge yourself
•
Identifying: Drawing children’s attention to new ideas
and topics. Pointing out things of interest may generate
areas for exploration and investigation.
•
Making connections: Assisting children to see
relationships and incongruities. Educators contribute
to children’s thinking by comparing and contrasting
experiences and ideas.
•
Modelling: Demonstrating a skill or how a task is done
with opportunities for children to attempt and practise
the skill.
•
Negotiating: Educators provide scaffolding to allow
children to see multiple sides to an argument or issue,
and encourage children to find reasonable solutions to
address their own and others’ perspectives.
•
Questioning: Educators encourage children to ask
questions of them and of their peers.
Try some concepts and activities out, do it differently than
you usually would:
•
Eat rice with chopsticks rather than with cutlery
•
Reflect on the topic from another person’s point of view
(e.g. bullying from the view of the bully)
•
Imagine different circumstances in which the topic could
be experienced (living in a big city in an apartment, on a
farm in outback Australia or in a village in Italy).
Choose your timing
Choosing the right time to ‘actively promote’ and ‘seize
opportunities’ for intentional teaching is very important.
The right time can be ‘in the moment’ when children are
living a topic or activity or afterwards, as a kind of ‘re-heating’
or ‘reflection’. There are times when an educator might raise
a topic based on information collected and not related to an
expressed interest or pursued activity.
Decisions on this approach may be based on:
•
It becoming apparent that a topic is pertinent to the
child/children’s current situation but is being avoided
•
Something that has previously been left open-ended or
not been fully explored
•
The educator is pre-empting that a topic may become
relevant to the child/children and/or their community.
Choose your strategy
Choosing a strategy should include some reflection on
the topic and who the children involved are. Using your
knowledge of the child/children, select the strategy that will
most encourage the child to open up and take leadership.
If the child/children are used to challenging each other and
adults you may use challenging as a strategy, however if the
child/children involved come from a cultural background
that discourages them to challenge others (especially
adults) you may choose a strategy such as modeling to
expand on the topic.
Intentional teaching strategies include:
•
Challenging: Educators can extend children’s thinking
through provocation and reflection.
•
Encouraging: Motivating and supporting children to
persist with a task, particularly one that requires effort.
•
Expanding: The educator may provide additional
information on how a task or topic is being seen,
handled, and understood in a variety of settings.
Practice by doing
Try the strategies out! You will find that with time it becomes
more natural and that more and more often you will find
that your strategies will encourage the children to lead the
journey of discovery!
IN PRACTICE
Children develop knowledgeable and confident self identities
(Outcome 1)
The new school year has started and the group of children
participating in after school care has changed. Several
children who have newly settled into the local community
are accessing out of school care for the first time.
One girl in particular seems very shy and isolates herself from
the rest of the children. The educator takes time to chat with
her, discovering that the girl has only just arrived in Australia
with her family. She also learns that English is the girl’s third
language and that the girl loves music and plays guitar very
well. The educator invites the girl to bring a guitar along the
next day and to sing her some songs that she likes.
As the educator and the girl sit in a corner of the
centre, quietly playing music and singing
songs. Some of the other children come
close to listen and several decide to sit
down.
When the girl finishes playing the
other children ask lots of questions
about what songs she played, where
they were from and what languages
she spoke. The educator initially
facilitates this unplanned question and
answer session but realises
that this was not necessary
for long. At the end of
the afternoon the girl
was still sitting in the
corner, but now with several other children to whom she was
teaching a song from her home country in her first language.
From then onward the girl was confident and no longer shy
about her limited knowledge of the English language. She had
found out that few of the other children could speak three
languages or even two to the degree that she had mastered
three languages. She had also discovered that a lot of the
other children were very interested in the countries she had
lived in and the songs she knew.
Children use a range of skills and processes such as problem
solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching
and investigation (Outcome 4)
It is three weeks to the long December holidays and a group
of children is talking about where they like to go on holidays.
Out of the five children three agree that Bali is where they
like to go, two others name local holiday destinations.
The educator identifies this discussion as an ideal starting
point to explore a variety of topics. Some of the topics that
came to mind:
•
What activities do the various children pursue while on
holiday?
•
What do children do that do not go on holidays away
from home?
•
What would it look like to go to other holiday
destinations (Swiss Alps, the Amazon or Ireland) during
December?
The educator decides to share childhood experiences with
the children and commences to talk about growing up in
Germany. The first difference being that school holidays in
December are not very long – only two weeks. Then there
is the different weather; it is usually cold and sometimes it
snows.
From this sharing the children decide to investigate different
holiday activities in some countries that interest them. The educator encourages the children to come back to the group and tell ‘their’ holiday story as if they lived in the country they are
going to research.
Two of the children decide to
pretend to live in the country
that one of their
grandparents
came from
before
migrating to
Australia,
one girl decides to explore the country and town she was
born in and the two others decide to explore places they had
heard of but knew little about.
The children commenced planning their research activities,
which included a trip to the school library to find books,
booking the computer in the school aged service for research.
Some wanted to go back home and talk to their families
about the places they had chosen, others had friends who
came from the country they wanted to investigate.
A time was agreed on when they all would come together
again to share their stories. When they got back together to
talk about their holiday in their foreign home the educator
was pleased to see that some of the children had brought
props to support their stories. One girl was dressed in the
school uniform of her chosen school, another had brought a
snack along that would be a typical snack for children in the
chosen country. Several others brought photos and books to
share.
Other children saw all this and asked if they could sit down
and listen. As the stories unfolded it became clear that all
children heard something new about different countries, their
schooling and holiday activities and that some children had
additional information.
It turned out to be a fun afternoon enjoyed by a big group of
children.
REFERENCES
Framework for School Aged Care in Australia: My Time,
Our Place http://tinyurl.com/cgk8jyb
Educators Guide for School Aged Care in Australia: My
Time, Our Place http://tinyurl.com/cgk8jyb
Making Multicultural Australia
www.multiculturalaustralia.edu.au
Commonwealth of Australia 2009, Interpreting the Early
Years Learning Framework: A guide for educators, Draft for
trial, April, pp. 35–36.
http://deewr.gov.au/early-years-learning-framework
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