Creating cultural safety through toileting routines

This vignette shares how Early Childhood Educators support diversity through toileting routines with the young children they work with. In this clip Jessica, Kelly and Jasmine share their learnings from the Leading Learning Circles for Educators Engaged in Study training facilitated by Griffith University.
Transcript:
Creating cultural safety through toileting routines
QCOSS EMBRACE 2015
Jasmine Williams:
This little kid, right. You know how we have our bathrooms, our toilets, that are opened and he wasn’t going to the toilet no matter how much water I gave him. And I was like feeding him water and I’m thinking this kid needs to go toilet but he wouldn’t go. And I asked his parents, and his parents. Really really hard English so I had to slow my talking down pointing at things and.
So, when I did speak to mum about what had happened she had told me. In her way, and I got what she was getting at in the end. That he needs privacy, like we all do when we go to the bathroom. So when we’re all after lunch, we all go onto our beds for rest and I would go to him and tap him on the shoulder and say ‘Do you need to go to the toilet?’ and he’s like....(nodding head) ... Like this and I’m like go quickly.
And it allows his time while everyone’s on their bed. For him to go toilet. Man now I know when he needs to go to the toilet and he’s knows when.
And it was a big high five for both of us. And it was just that moment of “I understand! I understand now if you had just said it to me somehow.”
Kelly Dykes:
And that’s it. It’s constantly learning isn’t it because you have different families all the time.
Jasmine Williams:
There’s a little girl, a Muslim little girl and she only goes to the toilet when the girls go to the toilet. So we’ve had now at kindergarten all our girls go to the toilet first, come out, and then all the boys go into the toilet next. So that’s how we’ve had it. And that was a cultural thing too.
Acknowledgements:
This vignette shows participants learning and reflections from “Circle of Change Revisited”.
Camera Operator and Sound Recordist:
Ranu James
Production Assistant
Cherie Lamb
Director/Editor
Ranu James
EMBRACE Culture in Kindy and Program with the Queensland Council of Social Service
Interviews by:
Lari Stojcevska
Kingston East Neighbourhood Group Inc.
Thanks to:
Kerry Smith
Associate Lecturer
Marilyn Casley
Associate Lecturer
School of Human Services and Social Work
Griffith University
Jessica Connors
Lead Educator
Good Start Early Learning Centre, Daisy Hill
Kelly Dykes
Director
Occasional Care Child Care Centre
Kingston East Neighbourhood group
Jasmine Williams
Pre-kindy Lead Educator
Active Kids Early Learning Child Care Centre
Logan Central
Leading Learning Circles for Educators Engaged in Study training facilitated by Griffith University
Supported by:
Kingston East Neighbourhood Group Inc.
EMBRACE Culture in Kindy
Queensland Council of Social Service
We would like to acknowledge that this film was developed and filmed on the land of the Yugambeh, Jagera and Turrbal nations.
Leading Learning Circles for Educators Engaged in Study can be found at:
www98.griffith....