Intercultural Approach in Early Childhood Education

Problem Statement: People have been doing researches about culture notion for many years. And, it has been getting very complicated to identify the culture notion in parallel with these studies. The term of multiculturalism is new but the notion is pretty old. Multicultural approach in education has emerged as a reflection of this situation and has become one of the subjects to be taken as a priority as a result of the globalized world. It is needed to secure an education concept to meet all education needs of all different cultures living in a society and to make these different groups learn to live together in harmony. This viewpoint should be secured starting from preschool period. This subject is one of the most important needs of today’s education world. Purpose of the Study: The aim of this study is to research the content, the methods and the motives of the intercultural approach in education and to try to recognize this subject, which is new in our country, with its practices around the world. Multiculturalism is a subject with many possible expansions which can be discussed among many different experts, but it’s been approached in terms of reflections to the early childhood education in this study. Method: The research is a work of collection which has been done as a literature review type. Primarily multiculturalism and multicultural education notions have been tried to be defined with the viewpoints of different researchers. Thereafter, the aims of multicultural education have been discussed and multicultural education approaches in preschool period have been analyzed. Conclusion and Recommendations: Our world is actually a multicultural environment and since the children live in this world, they need experiences to make them fit into this environment. If children live in small groups, they miss the features of bigger groups and have narrow viewpoints. Yet, knowing the lifestyles of different cultures gives children a humanistic sensibility and universal viewpoint. It is needed in our country to take note of studies on intercultural approach in early childhood education. The priority must be given to the education of teachers.