Intercultural Education and Multilingualism in the Kita

Openness to the world as a lived culture

Intercultural education is not a collection of activities but a lived culture that is interculturally open and open to the world, values diversity and welcomes everyone – carried by the whole team. This final module brings together the basic stance of the course.

Building blocks of an interculturally open culture

The contribution of every practitioner

An interculturally open culture is carried by every practitioner – above all through their stance. The most important contribution is an open, appreciative, interculturally competent stance: valuing cultural and linguistic diversity as normal and enriching, meeting all children and families with openness, respect and appreciation, reflecting on your own cultural conditioning and prejudices, fostering multilingualism as a resource, making diversity visible and living it (without folklorisation), acting in a culturally sensitive way (without stereotyping), working with parents in an intercultural way, counteracting prejudice and discrimination, and strengthening all children for openness to the world and for dealing with diversity. None of this requires you to "know all cultures" – it requires an open, appreciative, culturally sensitive, reflective stance. When everyone in the team lives this stance, a culture emerges that is interculturally open and open to the world, in which diversity is valued and everyone is welcome.

Figure (Module 12): What an interculturally open culture needs from every practitioner. Source: own illustration (AI-assisted).

Going deeper: Intercultural opening as an ongoing process

The development of an interculturally open day-care centre (Kita) is an ongoing process of "intercultural opening" – not a one-off project or an end state that is reached, but a continuous development and reflection. Intercultural opening affects the whole setting and is a process that requires time, reflection, critical engagement and continuous further development. It covers several levels: the stance (developing and nurturing an interculturally open, appreciative, culturally sensitive, prejudice-aware stance in the whole team – an ongoing process of reflection and engagement, Modules 2 and 4); the practice (shaping an interculturally open practice – valuing diversity, multilingualism, making diversity visible, intercultural cooperation, reducing prejudice); the structures (shaping interculturally open structures – e.g. multilingual materials, accessibility, where appropriate an interculturally diverse staff team, cooperation with specialist services); and the culture (developing a culture of the setting that is interculturally open and open to the world). This process of intercultural opening is ongoing because: diversity and society change (and the Kita keeps adapting to this); stance and competence have to be reflected on and developed continuously (prejudice and conditioning are never completely overcome but require ongoing reflection); and practice and culture can be reviewed and improved again and again. Intercultural education and opening is therefore not a "finished" topic but an ongoing task and development that requires openness, reflection, critical engagement, continuing professional learning and continuous further development. For the Kita this means understanding and shaping intercultural opening as an ongoing process: continuously reflecting on and developing the stance in the team, reviewing and improving practice and culture again and again, continuing to learn and engage with the topic, and staying open and willing to learn. This process is demanding, but rewarding and valuable: it makes the Kita an interculturally open place, open to the world, that values diversity, welcomes all children and families, and prepares all children for a life in a diverse world. And it corresponds to the reality of a diverse, changing world and society, in which intercultural opening and competence are an ongoing, important task. When a Kita understands intercultural opening as an ongoing process and shapes it with commitment, it develops into an interculturally open, appreciative place that is open to the world – for the good of all children and families and as a contribution to an open, diverse, peaceful society. This is a valuable, forward-looking development that makes the Kita a place where the diversity of cultures and languages is valued and lived, and where every person is welcome and belongs with their origin, culture and language.

Figure (Module 12): Four levels of intercultural opening, an ongoing process. Source: own illustration (AI-assisted).

Figure (Module 12): From the aim to an interculturally open culture in the case study (fictional). Source: own illustration (AI-assisted).