Diversity in the classroom: how teacher perceptions and teacher-child interactions matter

In early years settings and schools, the population of children from diverse ethnic backgrounds has been increasing all over the world. Along with this increase, there is growing interest and concern in meeting the needs of these children and their families throughout their early years and school experience. Within any mainstream culture it is assumed that an ethnically diverse population should be able to be successfully integrated, however, it is not always clear how this could be achieved. Adaptation and integration to a new culture or school environment may be best achieved via effective communication between students, parents, and professionals. In this paper, teacher’s beliefs, and attitudes and how these affect communication will be discussed. The power of teacher-child relationships will be highlighted, and suggestions made about effective practices to promote communication and build relationships