Professional Hopes and Goals

As I look back over the past eight weeks and begin to think about working with children and families who come from very different and diverse backgrounds I hope that I can offer an environment that has trusting relationships, love, compassion, patience, respect, and consideration for all children and families that I come in contact with. This course has really touched my heart in so many ways.  One hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that each child and family is provided with the services they need in order for their children to be successful in school and within the community.  I also hope that each child will receive a fair and equal education regardless of their social identities.

A goal of mines when it comes to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is to see anti-bias education for children, parents and all education people who deal directly with children and families. I think that if better understanding of culture and diversity was to happen, better communication will transpire between everyone.

I would like to thank all my colleagues because I have learned something from everyone. I enjoyed reading the discussions, blogs and learning about how others have dealt with situations similar to me, it made this experience somewhat easier. 

Welcoming Families From Around the World

Working as an early childhood teacher in head start, I chose to India as the country of origin from where the family is coming from. I chose India because this year in my classroom I have a new student who has come to us from India.

In order to prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family I will and have:

1.      I will try to learn some simple welcoming words in their language, and knowing how and when to use them.

2.      I would make them feel comfortable fixing food that is similar to what the family eat or are used to. We have worked closely with the family to make sure that this child gets the foods he is used to as well as informing the about getting him to try new things. In addition this family is vegetarian so we have been challenged to get him to eat.

3.      I will learn what the family values and structure, culture and traditions are in order to know how to support and incorporated these into the curriculum.

4.      Add items to the classroom setting such as dress up clothes, food in the play kitchen and toys and/or puzzles, etc. that correspond with India’s culture.

5.      Sitting down with the family before the child beings and discuss topics such as likes/dislikes, beliefs, traditions, and their expectations of their child and work together to meet these goals.

I hope that these preparations will benefit both the family and myself because I will be able to include the cultural norms in the class curriculum and involve the other students in the understanding of the new culture.  I hope this will make the family and child feel welcome and as eager to learn about our culture as we are theirs.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

An incident where I witnessed someone as the target of bias and prejudice happened when I was working in public school. During the holidays of Christmas and Easter I observed children of the Jehovah’s Witness beliefs being unable to participate in the celebrations.  During the celebrations these students were sent to another classroom of students who were not celebrating at the time.  This sent the message to students, "if you don’t believe like us you are wrong."

For me, I remember feeling this was sad and unfair for the excluded students because they received a message "you are different and we don't completely accept you for your beliefs/traditions."  I felt as though the teacher could have turned these celebratory traditions into educational opportunities for the students to exchange/share cultures. By creating an environment where students learn and share cultural beliefs and traditions all cultures become accepted and welcomed; therefore, all students are equal with no dominant culture influence.

A book/movie that I feel shows the power of bias and prejudice would be that of “The Green Mile”. The main character John Coffey has a healing touch and when he was trying to save two little girls, which he is found holding bloody and dead. He is found guilty because he is a large black man in 1932. He was only trying to help the girls but because of his skin color he is sent to the electric chair. Of course, this is a fictional story but what do you think the outcome would have been if something like this had happened in 1932. Even though they found out who the real killer was they still executed him.