This article is concerned with how and to what extent cultural diversity and difference are promoted in early childhood education and the curriculum. With reference to the "Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage in England" (2000), I argue that dominant discourses of cultural homogeneity continue to powerfully inform the curriculum, and work to sustain pedagogical practices of monoculturalism and monolingualism. This article adopts a qualitative approach, using discourse analysis as its main methodology. The discussion draws on a poststructuralist theoretical stance in arguing that language is "not transparent", and offers a close reading of how assumptions of culture and diversity are constructed in the discourse of the curriculum. It argues that the language of the document is inherently ambiguous and open to interpretation, and offers a critique of the "Curriculum Guidance" in the construction of its rhetoric. (Contains 1 note.)