21st May World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development

The 21st May is World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. The United Nations proclaimed it to promote diversity issues, when a policy practice is not inclusive of differences regarding where one comes from. In the workplace, they can arise as language barriers, social tensions, conflicting beliefs, integration difficulties, negative stereotypes, and misinterpretations. It’s an international day dedicated to understanding the depth, value and strength of cultural diversity. While celebrating the richness of the world’s diversity, it also highlights the need for intercultural dialogue.

We live in a global world, and it would be foolish not to recognise the value of cultural exchange. Diversity enhances creativity, communication, tolerance, adaptability, empathy, multiple perspectives, intercultural and language skills and given the multicultural nature of most schools it is easy to place value on diversity and what it offers. Last week at school we celebrated International Day and many members of the parent body ran workshop activities for rotating groups of children.

Any book from the Inclusive Books for Children  booklists is also something you could share on this day. The good thing about these lists is that they are annotated so that you can quickly ascertain whether the book does what you are hoping to draw attention to.

On the weekend I bought this book at the book shop I was visiting with a friend. I now know that it too is on the IBC lists. It is perfect for today. It tells the story of a young girl, Falasteen's school experience when  her classmates are tasked with finding their families' home countries on a map, but no matter how hard she looks, she cannot find Palestine. She turns to her family for answers and each of their stories helps her understand her people's history and her own place in the world. This book has a powerful message about inclusion and diversity, but it is only one of many picture books you could choose to share. I also just noticed that this is the first book listed on the 2025 Notable Books for a Global Society and it was the Honour Book for The 2025 Jane Addams Children's Book Award.

I haven't seen this book but reading the blurb, it feels that the premise is good so I need to search it out.

21st March Harmony Day

My school always makes a big effort for Harmony Week and Harmony Day, whereas I do think it should be every day. That aside, our school library has a very diverse collection of picture books suitable for 3 to 8 year olds and when I am purchasing books or planning wish lists I do have specific things I look for. I want the book to be representative of the school population and the population beyond the school. I ensure that things such as the main characters' gender, ethnicity and values are in line with what we want to espouse. I find the website for Inclusive Children's Books for Children  particularly helpful for this. They have put together age appropriate booklists and then for each book on the list they have listed the criteria that pertains to the book. They use great criteria such as, 'own voice'; 'challenges stereotypes'; 'disabled representation' and 'female lead'. 

Another source I use for decision making is the Empathy Lab booklists. The books they list for the year, together with lists from other years means that you will have a very inclusive  and diverse set of books to choose from on days like these.

I have just been putting a bundle of books together for my Preschool and Kindergarten classes. This is what I put in the pile. They all address diversity, empathy, inclusion and harmony.

• Wide Big World by Maxine Beneba Clarke

• I'm  Australian Too by Mem Fox

• Room on Our Rock by Jol and Kate Temple

• Everybody's Welcome and  Everybody's Equal by Patricia Hegarty

• This Love  by Isabel Otter

• Hello by Tony Flowers

• Same, but a Little Bit Diff'rent  by Kylie Dunstan

• Mixed  by Arree Chung

• Hello! A Counting Book of Kindness by Kurman Hollis

• We Are Together by Britta Teckentrup

• There's Room for Everyone  by Anahita Teymorian 

• All Are Welcome and We Are All Neighbours by Alexandra Penfold