It is late August as I write this, and although I am no longer a classroom teacher, I remember how busy back-to-school season can be. After almost two decades as a Kindergarten teacher, I know that September can be both exciting and overwhelming. Now, as a researcher and early childhood education scholar, I also see September as an opportunity to think about how we create learning spaces where every child and family can see themselves reflected.
My doctoral research focuses on newcomer families in early learning spaces. As a teacher, I know firsthand that our classrooms are increasingly diverse. As a researcher, I think a lot about how we can bridge the gap between research and practice to support educators working with newcomer children and families. For me, this means thinking beyond what we do in our classrooms and considering how the experiences children and families bring with them shape how they experience school.
Children Do Not Leave Their Lives at the Classroom Door
Families and children engage with schools in relation to their social, economic, linguistic, and cultural contexts. They have unique experiences and lives outside of school, and they bring these experiences with them to school.
I was reminded of this during the COVID-19 pandemic when, like many educators across the province, I taught virtually. Through my computer camera, I was invited into the homes of my students in a way I had never experienced before. Teaching virtually showed me just how differently the children and families in our classrooms can experience life outside of school. Not all families have access to the same financial resources, housing stability, food security, social networks, or steady employment. While these factors exist outside of school, they can influence children’s and families’ experiences within school.
For newcomer families, these experiences may also include migration, settlement, navigating an unfamiliar education system, language transitions, and experiences of belonging and exclusion. Newcomer families may not always be familiar with the parent engagement expectations of schools (Wong, 2015), and some newcomer families may have preferred ways of participating, including homework, parenting, and collaboration (Wong, 2015). Adding another layer of complexity is the rise of anti-immigration sentiments within wider society (Eloulabi et al., 2024; Fakhari et al., 2023). Newcomer children, including refugee children, have also reported experiencing discrimination at school (Li, 2021).
These realities matter when we think about identity-affirming practice. If we are committed to truly getting to know each child as an individual, we need to consider the experiences that have shaped their lives both before entering our classrooms and within wider society. Creating identity-affirming spaces requires more than simply ensuring that diverse books, images, and materials are present. It requires us to listen to families, learn about their experiences, and create opportunities for their identities, languages, and stories to be visible in meaningful ways.
So, what might this look like in practice?
1. Learn About Families’ Migration Journeys
One way to begin is by creating space to learn about families’ migration histories. How did they settle in Canada? What has their migration journey looked like?
We know that migration pathways are not all the same. Some families have migrated involuntarily, while others may have travelled through several countries before settling in Canada. Some families may have one parent who remains in their country of origin, while others may have migrated to Canada as international students. There are also families whose migration experiences are shaped by many different circumstances and transitions.
Learning about these experiences can help educators build more meaningful, safe, and authentic relationships with children and families. As our classrooms become increasingly diverse culturally, ethnically, and linguistically, it is important to recognize that truly getting to know each child also means understanding some of the experiences that have shaped their lives (Chan, 2020).
This does not mean that families should be expected to disclose personal information they are not comfortable sharing. Rather, educators can create an invitation for families to share what they would like us to know about their journey and experiences.
2. Make Children’s Languages Visible
A second practice is to include multilingual print in the classroom created by families for the classroom. In September, this can look like inviting families to contribute their child’s name in their home language for use throughout the classroom.
There are many opportunities to incorporate children’s names in their home languages, including displaying them in the cubby area, using them as name tags during games or play, and supporting children as they learn to write their names in both English and their home language.
In my own practice, we asked families to write their child’s name in their home language on several cue cards so that we could use them in the classroom in a variety of contexts. This simple practice created opportunities for children’s languages to become visible and valued as part of our everyday classroom environment. It also reflects research by Wong (2015), which highlights that some newcomer families may prefer opportunities for engagement that involve collaboration with educators.
Making multilingual print visible does not need to be complicated. Sometimes identity affirmation begins with something as meaningful and personal as ensuring that a child’s name can be seen and recognized in the languages that are part of their life.
3. Invite Families to Share What Matters to Them
A third practice is to invite families to share a photo of a meaningful experience, cultural celebration, tradition, or special occasion. This invitation moves beyond the traditional idea of a Family Tree by intentionally creating space to learn more about the cultural, linguistic, and ethnic traditions that are meaningful to each family.
Engaging with newcomer families through visual approaches such as PhotoVoice gives families choice in what they would like to share and can foster a sense of belonging by making their unique experiences visible (Fakhari et al., 2023). Rather than educators deciding what aspects of a family’s identity should be represented in the classroom, families are given an opportunity to tell us what matters to them.
This also brings visual representations of the diverse children and families in our classrooms into the learning environment, allowing our classroom spaces to more authentically reflect the community we are building together.
Bringing It Into Practice
I hope these three practices are ones that you consider this September as you think about how your classroom space can reflect the unique cultural, linguistic, and ethnic identities of the children and families in your early learning setting.
Creating identity-affirming spaces does not necessarily mean adding more to an already busy September. It can begin with taking the time to learn who the children and families entering our classrooms are, what experiences have shaped them, and what they would like us to know. As educators, it is important that we consider how children and families can be reflected and made visible in our classroom spaces in ways that are meaningful to them.
I also know that September is an incredibly busy time of year. To make these conversations easier, I have created a two-page resource that you can send home to families or use as a starting point for conversation. The resource provides prompts to learn more about families’ migration histories, invite children to share their names in their home languages, and engage families through PhotoVoice by inviting them to share a meaningful family photo or celebration.
You can find the resource here.
Wishing you all the best for a wonderful start to September!
Kamini
References
Chan, A. (2020). Superdiversity and critical multicultural pedagogies: Working with migrant families. Policy Futures in Education, 18(5), 560–573. https://doi.org/10.1177/1478210319873773
Eloulabi, R., Rama Eloulabi, Sadika, B., Bidushy Sadika, Victoria M. Esses, & Esses, V. M. (2025). “Go Back to Your Country”: Anti-Immigrant Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination. In T. D. Nelson (Ed.), Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination (3rd ed., pp. 394–420). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003399162-16
Fakhari, N., McIsaac, J.-L. D., Feicht, R., Reddington, S., Brigham, S., Mandrona, A., McLean, C., Harkins, M. J., & Stirling Cameron, E. (2023). Looking through the lens: a photovoice study examining access to services for newcomer children. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being, 18(1), 2255176. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482631.2023.2255176
Li, G. (Ed.). (2021). Superdiversity and teacher education : supporting teachers in working with culturally, linguistically, and racially diverse students, families, and communities (1st ed.). Routledge.
Wong, K. K.-Y. (2015). Implementing Parent Engagement Policy in an Increasingly Culturally Diverse Community of New Immigrants: How New is “New”? Canadian Journal of Education, 38(3), 1–30.