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.

Awareness of Microaggressions

Microaggressions occur when verbal behaviors create feelings of uncertainty, inferiority or marginalization even if there was no offense consciously intended (Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.).

One microaggression detected this week was at my work we have 4 centers and 8 classrooms and there are only 2 African American teachers. During a conversation among my co-workers about why one center is getting something that we had asked for but were not getting one of the teachers said, “It is because Ms. A works there and well you know she is black”. I was taken aback by this statement; I could not believe that she thought this was the reason. She continued to say they, Ms. A and Ms. B always get what they want because if they don’t they will say that the agency is discriminating against them. Wow….this had never even crossed my mind and to hear it coming from a co-worker really bothered me. This was a definite act of discrimination and prejudice against these ladies.

Before this class I have not ever heard of microaggressions but I realized that I have dealt with them all my life. Since I married my husband at the age of 17 after our son was born I have been told and talked about. People will say they will never stay together they are too young well we have been together since we were 15 and will be celebrating our 23^rd wedding anniversary in July. I feel sad that people never even gave us a chance they stereotyped us because we were young and had a baby by saying it would never last.

This assignment has cautioned me to be aware of things that others say as well as to be very careful before I speak and do the same to another.

Reference

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d.). Microaggressions in everyday Life. [Video
              Webcast]. In Perspective, Diversity, and Equality Retrieved from  https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fweb
apps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_1958978_1%26url
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Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

What is your definition of culture?

·     Culture is people’s ideas and ways of learning

·         Culture is learned behaviors that teach us about our heritage

·         Culture is the way we walk, talk and live. It is what we are made up of, our race, religion and ethnic
  backgrounds.

What is your definition of diversity?

·         Diversity is having different cultures in the same area

·         Diversity is having many different types of things in a group

·         Diversity is how we are all different

Which aspects of culture and diversity that I have studied in this course are included in the answers I received—and what are some examples?

·         Surface culture is mentioned in the form of race and ethnicity

·         Family culture in the form of heritage, religion, the way we talk and live

·         Social identity is the form of how we think, learn, walk, talk and live.

Which aspects have been omitted—and what are some examples of such omission?

I don’t think any aspects were omitted.

In what ways has thinking about other people’s definitions of culture and diversity influenced my own thinking about these topics?

I have learned that culture is the way we eat, sleep, talk, worship, celebrate holidays and live (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2012, p. 55). I have learned from asking the questions to my friends, colleagues and relatives that we all have the same general ideas about culture and diversity. In these past three weeks I have discovered that there is much more to culture and diversity than what we see on the surface. I know have a better understand of getting to know about how we are all different and I will be able to take this knowledge into my classroom and help my children understand that we are different and we can learn from each other.

Resource:

Derman-Sparks, L. and Edwards, J. (2012). Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and
            Ourselves. Washington, DC; National Association for the Education of Young Children

My Family Culture

I find it ironic that we are doing an assignment that has us placing ourselves in the middle of a major catastrophe, with so many people devastated my Hurricane Sandy. As I was thinking of the three material things I would bring with me, I have a heavy heart for those who are being relocated.

1.      I would want to bring my photos so that I would be able to reminisce about those who are no longer with us. I want to be able to keep my memories of my children when they were small and the last 23 years with my husband.

2.      I would take my birth certificate, for identification purposes.

3.      My children’s baby books, though they are grown men now I still look back at them and remember their childhoods.

Being told when I got there that I could only take one item with me would be just another devastation. I would want to keep them all, but if I was only allowed one it would have to be my photos. These I have from myself as a baby to the marriage of my oldest son. These would help me to keep memories alive.

This exercise made me really think about what is important to me. First and foremost it is my family, which is why I chose the pictures to keep everyone close to my heart. I was saddened very much to think about having to leave my current life behind and begin again.

When I Think of Research....

When I first began this course the thought of research terrified me and having 3 different professors really worried me. After it is all over I realize how important research is in working with young children and their families. I want to be able to provide them with the correct information and make them comfortable in every way possible.

This year in my classroom I have a child from India, this being rare in our area. This child and his family are also vegetarians, which put a bind on our cook, who has never dealt with this in her years of head start. It began as a challenge for our staff but through research and communication we have done our best to make this family as comfortable as anyone else in our classroom. Every time I speak with this family I hear from them, thank you and you are so kind. If it wasn't for research on his culture and beliefs I would not have known how to accommodation them and for this I am thankful.

I want to say thank you to all of my colleagues for all your support, ideas and sharing of your knowledge that helped me though this course.

I especially want to thank you Dr. Walker for taking over our class and being so kind to us and not making and major changes to the course. Again, Thank You!!!

Best wishes to you all and I hope to continue this journey with you.