ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the ways that family and public understandings of childhood and child development may be culturally bound, and these cultural differences underlie different conceptions of appropriate parenting and early education practices. Research findings presented in the chapter underscore the inherent tension between Western, individualist, notions of best practices in early care and education and competing understandings of child development held by refugee families who arrive from more collectivist societies. For those working with young children in families with refugee experiences, the chapter offers insights into how to navigate, interpret, and translate the understandings and expectations of new host societies to newly arrived families. To that end, educators working with young children in refugee families need to understand that understandings of childhood and appropriate early childhood development exist on a cultural continuum, and early educators may find themselves in the position of needing to balance conceptions of child development and appropriate care practices, as well as developing a macro-level understanding of cultural differences alongside a more granular understanding of the situation of individual children and the readiness of their families to engage with care staff from a position of trust.
