Urie Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological-contextual model is founded on the idea that all the social worlds of children and their families are intimately connected in a number of ways. Learning is enhanced when there are connections and relationships between early childhood settings away from home and other places and spaces in children’s lives.
The developmental potential of a child rearing setting is increased as a function of the number of supportive links between that setting and other contexts involving the child or persons responsible for his or her care. Such interconnections may take the form of shared activities, two way communication, and information provided in each setting about the others.
page 847
Reminding us of cultural perspectives, Lisa Delpit (1995) warns:
We all interpret behaviors, information, and situations through our own cultural lenses; these lenses operate involuntarily, below the level of conscious awareness, making it seem that our own view is simply “the way it is”.
page 151
Lesieli I. Kupu MacIntyre (2001) highlights this point in a paper in which she offers a Pasifika perspective on assessment in early childhood education. She points out, for instance, that there is no one word in Tongan for the word “assessment”. Instead there are three words – “sivi”, “tesi”, and “fe‘auhi”. When translated into English, these words become “examination”, “test”, and “competition”.
Quality in Action: Te Mahi Whai Hua (page 57) points out that, for many Māori, the ways in which information is shared with whānau can be as important as the information itself.