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International Journal of Machine Learning and Computing, Vol. 1, No. 5, December 2011

Preservation of Cultural Heritage and Natural History through Game Based Learning
Zainal A. Hasibuan, Yugo K.Isal, Baginda Anggun N.C., Mubarik Ahmad, and Nungki Selviandro phase to implementation phase. Next, experimental games to study the influence of game culture on students. Finally, the conclusions of the article and future research.

Abstract—Indonesia is a country consisting of thousands of islan. With many islands in Indonesia then there are many cultures of various ethnic groups scattered across Indonesia.
With the cultural diversity that exist in Indonesia, then the existing culture must be preserved because the culture is a very important element in representing the personality of a country.
There is a tendency that Indonesian young generation do not recognize their cultures. "Desa Maya Budaya Indonesia"
(DayaBaya) : Virtual Village with Indonesian Culture - is a game developed to introduce Indonesian culture to young generation. This game simulates a virtual village located in a region in Indonesia that can be developed according to the player’s desires and wishes. The simulation will help young generation to know various cultures of Indonesia at the early stage. This game has also been tested on 48 students from
Vocational High School,and a result from this experiment shows that the game improves user’s knowledge about cultures.

II. PREVIOUS STUDY
In the previous studies, the DayaBaya game has been developed. In this section, the game for education, game plan, game design and game development will be explained.
A. Game For Education
Currently, the increased power and flexibility of computer technology is contributing to renew interest in games and simulations. This development coincides with the current perspective of effective instruction in which meaningful learning depends on the construction of knowledge by the learner. Games and simulations can provide an environment for the learner’s construction of new knowledge [9].
The game could be used effectively to provoke interest, teach domain knowledge [7] and several studies which found that games strengthened students’ engagement, information processing, problem-solving, social development, and academic abilities [6].
Other educational strengths of using games and simulations include developing a variety of cognitive objectives, transferable process skills, student-centered learning, initiative, creative thinking, affective objectives, sense of completion, and knowledge integration [10].

Index Terms— culture, game, simulation.

I. INTRODUCTION
Cultural heritage and natural history of a nation has a very high value and unique. It is an identity that can be introduced to the world. In addition, cultural heritage and natural history is authorized to establish the identity of a nation and simultaneously build the nation's character.
Indonesia is one of the countries in the world who have diverse cultural heritage and natural history. Various efforts have been made to preserve it. One of the efforts to preserve cultural heritage and natural history is by utilizing information and communication technologies as enabler.
Utilization of information and communication technologies to preserve cultural heritage and natural history has been implemented by some developed countries. For example, Germany and France have been doing research for archiving and digitizing cultural artifacts.
In this paper, a game culture as a medium that can be used to preserve cultural heritage and natural history of Indonesia is proposed. The game is named DayaBaya. DayaBaya is a simulation game, where players can build a traditional village that has a cultural heritage and natural history that are represented as an object of the game.
This paper consists of seven parts. First, the introduction describes the background and objectives, along with a list of the contents of this paper. Second, previous studies explains the stages of game development, starting from the planning

B. Game Plan
Before developing the game, we determine the genre of games and tools that will be used in game development.
1) Genre of The Game
DayaBaya is a simulation game. We choose the genre , because simulation games can represent dynamic models of real situations (a reconstruction of a situation or reality that is itself a social construction). Simulation games help to mimic processes, networks, and structures of specific existing systems. In addition to mirroring real-life systems, simulation games incorporate players whom assume specific roles [8].
In simulation games, the scope of communications and actions between the actors is broadened by linking them to technical and material processes that mirror the social l system’s resources. The main goal of simulation games is to simulate the actors’ decision-making process and to demonstrate the consequences within social systems (e.g., within a company). Simulation games can be defined as the simulation of the effects of decisions made by actors assuming roles that are interrelated with a system of rules and with explicit references to resources that realistically symbolize the existing infrastructure and available resources
[8].

Menuscript received September 21, 2011, September 23, 2011revised
Authors are with Research Laboratory of Digital Library and Distance
Learning (DL2) Faculty of Computer Science, University of Indonesia
(phone:+62217863415; email: zhasibua@cs.ui.ac.id).

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International Journal of Machine Learning and Computing, Vol. 1, No. 5, December 2011

2) Tools
In development of the game, several tools are used, namely :
Push Button Engine (PBE)
We use PBE as DayaBaya game development tools. PBE was chosen because it is easy to use and more powerful to develop flash-based game. PBE is an open source flash game engine intended for the quick design, creation and deployment of games to a worldwide audience. PBE is the back-end behind many popular online games, like Zoo
World, FishVille, Grunts, and Social City [1].
Inkscape
Inkscape is a Open Source vector graphics editor that uses the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format [4]. Inkscape supports many advanced SVG features
(markers, clones, alpha blending, etc.). Great care is taken in designing a streamlined interface, and very easy to edit nodes, perform complex path operations [4].
C. Game Design
This section present the game design that consists of: game scenario, game architecture, game objects, and game features. 1) Game Scenario
DayaBaya consists of three states, as follows [5] :
Initial State
• To start playing DayaBaya, the player have to register and log in to the game.
• Game will display playing field and objects of the villages that have been selected in the lobby.
• Players will be given an initial capital of one house and one item of business objects that will be used in developing the village.
• Players are at the first level.
• The game have two awards for players, namely: coins and wisdom point.
Development State
• Players can earn coins of the object which has been owned livelihoods.
• The object of livelihood will produce a coin in a certain time period.

Every purchase of new objects requires a coin, except for objects of cultural heritage.
• When building a new object, the game will feature a quiz that will give the player a few questions relating to the local village.
• Each correct answer from the quiz will increase the level of knowledge.
Final state of the game
• Games will consist of 3 levels of the game, namely level 1, level 2 and level 3.
• Any change of level will unlock new objects that were previously locked.
• In the last level, there is no object to be locked
• At the end of the game, players can see the final score and log out to exit the game
An illustration of the game is shown in Fig. 1.
2) Game Architecture
An architectural game can be seen in Fig. 2. This architecture consists of five major parts [5] :
Game Control
It is the manager of a game in the form of interface that can be used by players in playing the games.
Game View
Game View is part of the game architecture, which describes the elements and processes involved in showing the outer layer of a game. Game view consists of: Option Menu,
Audio Display.
Game Logic
Game Logic is part of the DayaBaya game architecture that handles the logic in the game. It consists of several elements, namely: Game State, Data Structure, Physics Process
Manager, Events, Command Interpreter, Score Scheme.
Game Assets.
Existing assets in this game include object info, database list of questions, music, Isometric Objects, Object icon and
SFX.
Player Stats Repository
This repository will store user data. The data stored is the username and the final score which will be displayed on the user history.


Fig. 1. Screenshot of Game Scenario [5]

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International Journal of Machine Learning and Computing, Vol. 1, No. 5, December 2011

Fig. 2. DayaBaya Game Architecture [2]

cultural preservation.

3) Game Object
The objects of the game DayaBaya are grouped into five categories, including landscape, livelihoods, housing, traditional songs, and cultural reserves. The grouping can be seen in Fig. 3 [5].

Playing Field
Registration
Login and Logout

D. Game Features
Features of the game can be seen in Table 1.
Feature
Play & Stop

Zoom out & Zoom in

Object Menu

Object menu is used to display game object

Quiz

Quiz is used to test knowledge of local culture and to get a score

Object Information

Object information contains the name, history, and information that are related to object of the game

Sound Configuration

This feature is used to set backsound of the game Game Rule

Rules of the game contains instructions, and tips on the game

Area Information

This feature is used to indicate the location of players

Wisdom Point

Wisdom point is a reward which value increases when players answered the quiz questions correctly, and it can be used to construct objects of cultural preservation.
The initial value is 10

Level

Level of knowledge is a reward which value increases when players answered the quiz correctly, and as an indicator for the turnover level. The initial value is 1
Coin is the reward which value increases if the object is ready to harvest livelihood. It can be used to build all objects except for

‘Build’ button is used to construct a village and ‘Destroy’ button is used to remove a object in the village

Plant & harvest

‘Save’ button is used to record history of the game in database, and ‘Load’ button is used to retrieve history of the game

‘zoom in’ button is used to enlarge the playing field, ‘zoom out’ button is used to decrease the playing field

Build, Move, and
Destroy

TABLE I: FEATURES OF THE GAME
Function
‘Play’ button is used to start of the game, and ‘Stop’ button is used to end of the game Save & Load

Coin

This is a grid-shaped place to build objects of the village
Features provided to make the player account ‘Login’ is used to get into the game and
‘logout’ is used to exit the game

‘plant’ is a feature that is used for placing objects livelihood, while the ‘harvest’ is a feature that is used to obtain coins

E. Game Development
This phase consists of three stages, including: gathering data, making object of the game, and the manufacture of components. 1) Data Collection
For the game, we use data collection of cultural heritage and natural history of Bali. According to the UNESCO, cultural heritage is divided into several groups, namely tangible and intangible [3], while the natural history is divided into several groups, namely : landscape, fauna, flora, mineral/mining, natural habitat and artificial ecosystem [3].
The data are collected by means of literature studies, interviews with historians and culture, and making observations to several agencies, such as: museums, and tourism services [5].
2) Making Objects
In making game’s object such as cultural heritage, habitation, livelihood, and landscape. We used Inkscape [4] as a graphics creator. In order to create good objects, there are preliminary sketches. The size of objects are designed to fit in game screen proportionally. The outputs of this process are objects with file types in image (.png and .jpg) and animation
(.swf).

steps,

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International Journal of Machine Learning and Computing, Vol. 1, No. 5, December 2011

Fig. 3. Object Rich Picture [5]

Before playing the game, participants were asked to answer 10 questions in pre-test. The questions are about information and knowledge in cultural heritage. After that, participants were allowed to play the game in 2 hours. At the end of the experiment, they answered post-test and questionnaire. Post-test contains of the same questions as in pre-test, and questionnaire is about user’s experiences in playing game, learning process, and user interface in game.
The stages of experiment can be seen in Fig. 4.

3) Components
This game uses components that have been provided by
PBE and components independently developed by the author.
The components developed by the authors are stored into several directories according to the function of each component [5]. The directories are comprised:
TABLE II: DIRECTORY OF COMPONENTS [5]
Directory
Function
Config
The directory containing the class whose function is to regulate game configurations, including sound configuration
Constructor
The directory containing the class whose function is to construct game framework.
Field
The directory containing the class whose function is to manage playing field
Object
The directory containing the class whose function is to manage game object, including : object picker, object information, etc.
Quiz
The directory containing the class whose function is to manage game quiz, including : quiz scoring,
Menu
The directory containing the class whose function is to manage game menu, including : object menu, play and stop button, etc.
Utils
The directory containing the class whose function is to help in creating simple user interface in game. Net
The directory containing the class whose function is to manage connection to game database

Fig. 4. The Stages of Experiment

The purpose of this experiment’s design is to measure the effect of game in user’s culture knowledge. From pre-test and post test, we calculated the grade of participants before and after playing game. The questionnaire is useful for us to measure satisfaction’s level and learning process of user.
IV. RESULT
10
9
8

4) Setup
DayaBaya is an Internet-based game. For easy access, this
1
game will be installed on the e-Indonesiana server[5].

7
6
5

III. EXPERIMENT

4

An experiment to measure the game’s influence to users has been conducted. The participants consist of 48 students from Vocational High School with age range between 15-18 years old, where 58% are male and 42% are female. In this experiment, we treated the participants in two conditions i.e. before and after playing game. In each condition, the participants answered pre-test (before), questionnaire and post-test (after).

3
2
1
0
Pre-Test
Post-Test
Fig. 5. Pre-test and post-test results

1

http://e-indonesiana.cs.ui.ac.id

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International Journal of Machine Learning and Computing, Vol. 1, No. 5, December 2011

Fig. 6. Questionnaire results

From figure above, results from pre-test and post-test show that in average, the participants answered more correct answers after playing the game. It indicates that there is improvement in their culture knowledge through game.
From questionnaire, almost all participants (98%) agree that DayaBaya game improve their knowledge. There is a lot of information about objects of Indonesia in game. Rules of the game are one factor that will be put into consideration for improvement in next development. From questionnaire there are 4 participants (8.3%) who didn’t understand the rule.



In the past years, mobile devices are not only used for communication, but also for playing games. The advantage of the mobile learning games is that the players can play whenever and wherever they wish.
Therefore, we will adding new feature, in order to the game can be played anywhere and anytime.
Personalization
Personalization on the game helps players to know the culture of each area. Hence, we will develop a feature to know current location of the player.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

V. CONCLUSION

This paper was fully supported by DRPM UI Research
Grant under contract Number 1198/SK/R/UI/2010 (research project on Indonesian e-Cultural Heritage and Natural
History Framework).

In this paper we propose DayaBaya game as a medium for preserving cultural heritage and natural history of Indonesia.
Through this game, we expect the player to recognize the culture of Indonesia. To measure the effect of the game for knowledge of player related Indonesian culture, we conducted experiments on some vocational students. The results of the experiments show that there is improvement in their knowledge about the culture through the game. It indicates that the level of one’s knowledge about a culture may improve if he or she can get a chance to experience about that culture. This is can be a promising way of preserving a culture. REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
[3]

VI. FUTURE WORK

[4]

For further improvements, several new features to the
DayaBaya will be added, including :
• Question-Answering System for Quiz
Currently, question of the quiz is created manually by developers. In the future, a question-answering system that can be made question and answer of quiz automatically will be developed.
• Mobile based Game

[5]

[6]
[7]

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Push Button Engine. Components and Serialization. Retrieved
November 13, 2010, from Push Button Engine Website : http://pushbuttonengine.com/2009/02/components-and-serialization/. Zainal A. Hasibuan, Aan Kurniawan, Rahmat Budiarto,” Multi-Format
Concept-Based Information Retrieval using Data Grid”, Journal Of
Advanced Computing And Applications, 2010.
Pedersen, Arthur. Managing Tourism at World Heritage Sites : a
Practical Manual for World Heritage Site Managers. UNESCO World
Heritage Centre. pp. 16-17, 2002.
Inkscape. Retrieved November 13, 2010, from inkscape: http://inkscape.org. Isal, Y.K., Cenka, B.A.N., Ahmad, M., Selviandro, N., & Budiharto, R.
“Pushbutton Engine Based : Interactive Game on Cultural Heritage”,
IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Information
Technology (ICCSIT), 2011.
Funk, J. B. (2002). Electronic Games. In V. C. Strasburger and B. J.
Wilson. Children, adolescents, & the media. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage Publications. 117-144.
Randel, J. M., Morris, B. A., Wetzel, C. D., & Whitehill, B. V. (1992).
The effectiveness of games for educational purposes: A review of recent research. Simulation & Gaming, 23(3), 261-276..

International Journal of Machine Learning and Computing, Vol. 1, No. 5, December 2011
[8]

Willy C. Kriz. Creating Effective Learning Environments and Learning
Organizations through Gaming Simulation Design. Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com. [9] Gredler, M.E. Educational Games and Simulations : a Technology in
Search of a Research Paradigm. University of South Carolina.
[10] Ellington, H., Gordon, M., & Fowlie, J. (1998). Using games & simulations in the classroom. London: Kogan Page.

Mubarik Ahmad was born in Pangkalpinang,
Indonesia in 1988. He received degree in Computer
Science from University of Indonesia, 2010. Currently, he is a Master student and research assistant in Digital
Libary and Distance Learning Lab at Faculty of
Computer Science, University of Indonesia.
His research interests include e-Learning,
Multimedia and Information System. His email is mubarik.ahmad11@ui.ac.id Nungki Selviandro was born in Curup, Indonesia in
1988. He received degree in Computer Science from
University of Indonesia, 2011. Currently, he is a research assistant in Digital Libary and Distance
Learning Lab at Faculty of Computer Science,
University of Indonesia.
His research interests include e-Learning,
Information System, and Software Engineering. His email is nungki.selviandro@ui.ac.id

Yugo K. Isal was born in Bogor, Indonesia in 1962.
He received BSc. degree in Mathematics from
University of Indonesia, 1985, and MSc. in
Computing and Information Science from Queen’s
University at Kingston, Ontario, 1990. Currently, he is a lecturer at Faculty of Computer Science, University of Indonesia. His research interests include parallel algorithms, graph algorithms, text compression. His email is yugo@cs.ui.ac.id

Zainal A. Hasibuan was born in Pekan Baru,
Indonesia in 1959. He received BSc. degree in
Statistic from Bogor Institute of Agriculture,
Indonesia, 1986, MSc. and PhD. in Information
Science, Indiana University, in 1989 and 1995 respectively. Currently, he is a lecturer and PhD. supervisor at Faculty of Computer Science, University of Indonesia. He is also the Head of Digital Library and Distance Learning.
His research interests include e-Learning, Digital Library, Information
Retrieval, Information System, and Software Engineering. His email is zhasibua@cs.ui.ac.id Baginda Anggun Nan Cenka was born in Tanjung,
Indonesia in 1989. He received degree in Computer
Science from University of Indonesia, 2010. Currently, he is a Master student and research assistant in Digital
Libary and Distance Learning Lab at Faculty of
Computer Science, University of Indonesia. His research interests include e-Learning, Digital Library, and Information
System.
His email is baginda.anggun@ui.ac.id 465

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...Culture Culture is the common denominator that makes the actions of the individuals understandable to a particular group. That is, the system of shared values, beliefs, behaviours, and artefacts making up a society’s way of life. Culture can either be represented fin form of material or non material culture. The definitions and specific traits of each of them are discussed below. Material culture is a term representative of the physical creations made, used, or shared by the members of a certain society; it is the society’s buffer against the environment. The components of material culture are all the creations (objects) of the human kind and mind, for example, cars, faucets, computers, trees, minerals just to mention but a few. The transformation of raw material into useable forms through the employment of knowledge is paramount in the achievement of material culture. For example, we make living abodes to shelter ourselves from the adversities of weather and for our own privacy at the basic level, beyond this we make, use, and share sophisticated, interesting and essential items relaying our cultural orientation. For instance, the types of clothes one wears reflect so much into the culture we subscribe to like school, religion, or where the last vacation was spent. Non-material culture on the other hand is the abstract or un-seen human creations by the society fashioned towards the behavioural influence of the said society. The components for the non-material culture...

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Culture

...been argued that barriers between different cultures have diminished (Nordström, 199 1, p. 28ff). Cultural integration has thus been in focus and several researchers have argued that the world, especially within the business community, has become more and more homogeneous (see e.g. Vernon, 1979, Porter, 1980, 1986; Levin, 1983, Ohmae, 1985). A recent trend, however, is to stress heterogeneity rather than homogene@. Not least the animated discussions during the last few years about the future of the European Union shows that cultural differentes still exist. Such differentes are of special interest in MNCs, whose most characteristic feature is that they tonsist of units located in many countries. A number of researchers (see e.g. Bartlett, 1986, Ghoshal and Bartlett, 1990, Hedlund, 1986, Ghoshal and Nohria, 1989, Gupta and Govindarajan, 199 1, Nohria and Ghoshal, 1994, Prahalad and Doz, 1987, Rosenzweig and Nohria, 1994) have pointed to the fatt that units within multinational firms are not identical. According to Ghoshal and Nohria (1989, p. 323) the MNC is the quintessential case of the dispersed firm with different national subsidiaries often embedded in very heterogeneous environmental conditions (Robock, Simmons and Zwick, 1977). Thus, MNC urrits are located in different cultural milieus (Hofstede, 1980) and people with different nationalities, belonging to the same tirm. have to cape with each other. When people from different cultures work together, misunderstandings are likely...

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Culture

...When Culture (Latin: cultura, lit. "cultivation") first began to take its current usage by Europeans in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century (having had earlier antecedents elsewhere), it connoted a process of cultivation or improvement, as in agriculture or horticulture. In the nineteenth century, it came to refer first to the betterment or refinement of the individual, especially through education, and then to the fulfillment of national aspirations or ideals. In the mid-nineteenth century, some scientists used the term "culture" to refer to a universal human capacity. For the German nonpositivist sociologist Georg Simmel, culture referred to "the cultivation of individuals through the agency of external forms which have been objectified in the course of history". In the twentieth century, "culture" emerged as a concept central to anthropology, encompassing all human phenomena that are not purely results of human genetics. Specifically, the term "culture" in American anthropology had two meanings: (1) the evolved human capacity to classify and represent experiences with symbols, and to act imaginatively and creatively; and (2) the distinct ways that people living in different parts of the world classified and represented their experiences, and acted creatively. A distinction is current between the physical artifacts created by a society, its so-called material culture and everything else, the intangibles such as language, customs, etc. that are the main referent of the...

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...Be aware of the ways your own culture influences your expectations of children. Consider the cultural backgrounds of the children in your setting and their community. Learn about the cultures from which the children in your program or school may come. Use your basic knowledge of the culture to talk with each family about its values and practices. Build on what you have learned from each family. Infuse the curriculum and classroom environment with a rich variety of materials from the cultures of your children as well as other cultures. Culture is illustrated daily when the doors of the school are opened. The youth enter into the environment with all the happenings going on at home to a safe environment of school excepted to detach and focus on school. The culture of the school varies from year to year depending on the population. For example, a teacher could have a classroom of 25 students. 15 of them can be females and 10 can be males. 5 could be White, 6 Hispanic, 3 Black, and 11 White. But the next year her entire cultured could be altered because her population has changed. As a teacher I have to be flexible and get to know my students. By doing this I will be able to become aware of the students needs and be able to service them better through the curriculum. Learning the culture of the school and the neighborhood in which I work helps the school to develop better programs and issue better support to their students. When you know the culture your students feel the buy...

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Culture

...which is a Swedish based company, gave me an opportunity to humble myself to many of their different cultures. IKEA prides their self on focusing on nine points of business that shapes our culture as coworkers. The nine points are as follows: 1. The product range: our identity "We shall offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them." 2. The IKEA spirit – a strong and living reality "... the art of managing on small means, of making the best of what we had; cost-consciousness to the point of being stingy; humbleness, undying enthusiasm and the wonderful sense of community through thick and thin." 3. Profit gives us resources "…The aim of our effort to build up financial resources is to reach a good result in the long term (IKEA Culture, 2011).” 4. Reaching good results with small means “Before you choose a solution, set it in relation to the cost. Only then can you fully determine its worth (IKEA Culture, 2011).” 5. Simplicity is a virtue "Simplicity and humbleness characterize us in our relations with each other, with our suppliers and with our customers (IKEA Culture, 2011).” 6. Doing it a different way ...

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Culture

...An Investigation of How Culture Shapes Curriculum in Early Care and Education Programs on a Native American Indian Reservation ‘‘The drum is considered the heartbeat of the community’’ Jennifer L. Gilliard1,3 and Rita A. Moore2 This article investigates how culture shapes instruction in three early care and education programs on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Interviews with eight early childhood teachers as well as classroom observations were conducted. The investigation is framed by the following research question: How does the culture of the family and community shape curriculum? Data analysis suggested that ongoing communication with parents and community about teaching within a culturally relevant context, building a sense of belongingness and community through ritual, and respecting children, families, and community were essential to defining the Native American Indian culture within these early learning programs. KEY WORDS: culture; in; tribal; early; education; programs. INTRODUCTION Instruction informed by children’s home and community culture is critical to supporting a sense of belongingness that ultimately impacts academic achievement (Banks, 2002; Osterman, 2000). American school populations are increasingly diversified with immigrants and English language learners; but American teachers are over 90% European American (Nieto, 2000). Educators who are from different cultural perspectives than those present in the families and communities of the children they...

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