Challenges and Perspectives of Multicultural Education for Young Children in the Context of Greek Nurseries: Educators' Views

Abstract

In recent years, Greece has received very high numbers of migrants and refugees from the Middle East, North Africa and Ukraine, including children of all ages. This new and evolving socio-cultural environment has an impact on education, since the application of multicultural principles in education is considered necessary for the development of multicultural respect. To achieve that level of mutual respect, the role of educators is particularly important. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate the views of 196 educators working in Greek nurseries on the difficulties they face in implementing multicultural education in young children (children under the age of 3) and the perspectives of that method. Furthermore, the research investigates the goals set by educators, the practices they choose and how competent they consider themselves in implementing multicultural education. A questionnaire with closed-ended questions was used to collect the data. The results of the survey show that educators mainly choose fairy tales/books for managing and highlighting cultural diversity, while cooperation with parents is practiced to a very small extent. As for the difficulties that the educators face during that process, these are mainly attributed to the xenophobic attitudes of native parents. Finally, they feel that their knowledge on multicultural education is inadequate, and they express the need for appropriate training. In summary, the survey can provide useful information for educators on multicultural education in the nursery and can be used as a guide for their future training on that field.