Multicultural Children in the Early Years

Book excerpt: How do multicultural children and their parents experience the very beginning of their school careers? How do teachers mediate the demands of the educational system, and how do the children adapt? What kind of access to the National Curriculum is offered to multicultural children? In answering these questions the authors draw on two years' intensive research in three multi-ethnic institutions. They explore teachers' values and beliefs and how they attempt to put them into practice. They describe how, at times, teachers were constrained to get things done because of pressures operating on them, but at other times, taught creatively in a way particularly relevant to the children's concerns and cultures.