ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on some of the theories around cultural diversity. It discusses how children start to form ideas relating to who they are and where they come from, and the importance of cultural diversity to a child's burgeoning identity. Bruner places emphasis on the fact that the cultural element of a family is an important part of the way that children are brought up and forms the foundation stone of their lives. B. Rogoff believes that children are active participants in their culture and that in many circumstances adults, older siblings or elders in the community act as 'guided participants' to young children who are sometimes viewed by them as apprentices. J. Piaget is well known for developing the notion of the 'spiral curriculum'. S. Smidt identifies cultural tools as being 'artefacts, symbols and systems developed in communities that are used to make, share and transform meanings'.