Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have when I about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that my words and actions show respect, value, and acceptance for all children and families empowering them and in some way will play a role in bettering their lives.

A goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field is:  All children and families will demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, pride in family, and positive social identities enabling them to experience joy and comfort in human diversity and experience caring human relationships.

I would like to thank all of my colleagues for sharing insight regarding our studies on diversity and for engaging in discussions. This has deepened my learning and I am taking away a great deal of knowledge from various perspectives. It has been a wonderful learning experience and I wish all of you much success in you future. 

Welcoming Families From Around the World

I have received word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from Senegal and will be entering my preschool classroom soon.  All I know about Senegal is that it is located on the western tip of Africa I want to prepare myself to welcome the child and her family.  Luckily, I am enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated; I need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin. I have created a list of five ways I can prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family.

1)Engage in self-reflection to recognize my own cultural lens and biases. This is a helpful step for me allowing me to explore and reflect upon where any of my assumptions, attitudes and biases come from and in understanding that how I view the world can lead me to misinterpretation of behaviors and inequitable treatment of culturally diverse students and their families.

2)    Gain knowledge of the family’s cultural background can give me  a sense of views about behavior, rules of decorum and etiquette, communication and learning styles; however, I will need to be careful not to form stereotypes. This could be done through research, conducting a home visit,  consultation with parents, and community members to gain insight. Some areas I can explore include:  family background and structure, education, interpersonal relationship styles, discipline, time and space, religion, food, health and hygiene, history, traditions and holidays.Learn a few words or statements in the family’s home language. Translate important school to home information to the family’s home language.

3)    Develop an awareness of the broader, social, economic, and political context in order to address social issues such as racial inequities, poverty, etc.  because the educational system reflects and often perpetuates discriminatory practices of the larger society. For example, I can examine how current policies and practices in discipline might discriminate against the child. I can create a “critical/social justice classroom” grounded in the lives of all the children that involves dialogue, questioning/problem-posing, critiquing bias and attitudes and teaching activism for social justice. For example, I can engage students in a discussion of school or classroom rules. I can commit to being open and honest in answering children’s questions about differences.

4)    Review my curriculum for racial and cultural bias. Add multiple resources that reflect and support the cultural norms of the child and family, such as culturally relevant materials, literature, photos, games, and traditions to the classroom. Create a classroom environment that communicates respect for diversity through anti-bias education.

5)    Begin building trusting relationship with the child and her family keeping in mind to be culturally sensitive to communication styles. Assume that the child’s parents care about their child and have something to offer. Encourage them to provide insight that will help me teach her.

I hope these preparations will provide the child and family with a sense of feeling valued, respected, and safe as well as a sense of connectedness and community while avoiding feelings of marginalization and invisibility. As a result, I will benefit as I gain insight about the child and her family culture that will allow me to facilitate her learning as well as the learning of all students while extending my own learning and fostering acceptance of differences.

 References

Boutte, G. (2008). Beyond the illusion of diversity: How early childhood teachers can promote social justice. Social Studies, 99(4), 165--173.
Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Academic Search Complete database.

Metropolitan Center for Urban Education. (2008). Culturally Responsive Classroom Management Strategies.  Retrieved from http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/scmsAdmin/uploads/005/121/

Culturally%20Responsive%20Classroom%20Mgmt%20Strat2.pdf

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

Hi,

The most blatant and hurtful incident involving bias, prejudice, and oppression that I have witnessed involves a white teacher and some white students targeting an a young African American girl, named Brenda.  The incident took place in the 1960’s, the first year my school was integrated. Brenda was the only African American in my class that year. I remember that only two of us would even speak to her. The rest just stared and smirked at her. Our school culture and studies were very different from her old school as well as her home culture. She spoke English, but not in the same way we did and her grammar was lacking. It was evident that she was very uncomfortable and scared, but the teacher called on her anyway. When she gave a wrong answer, our teacher called her ignorant and lazy. Later in the day, she was called  the “N” word by several other students all because of how she spoke the English language and the color of her skin. After these two incidents, she slumped her shoulders, dropped her head, and tears fell down her cheeks.  I was appalled at what had happened, felt ashamed of my own race, and understood discrimination for the first time.  She was so hurt and I felt so sorry for her. The incident diminished equity in that the message was sent that the white race is superior to yours, you are beneath me, so I have power over you. This is in itself is disgraceful in my opinion. As time went on and years passed, I realized how the ideas behind white supremacy and the false stereotypical ideas they foster lead to the oppression of an entire group of people. Everyone would have to change to turn this type of incident into an opportunity for greater equity. It would require coming together, getting to know one another, acknowledging, understanding, and accepting differences as well as similarities. It would require reflection, ridding hate, and instilling love for all. It would be challenging but not impossible.

 Shelia

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

Wow! Much learning and self-reflection has taken place this week.

Awhile back, I heard a male coworker compare a soda machine to a woman in the break room.  His soda got stuck in the machine so he hit the machine and the soda fell down. He got his soda, laughed, and stated, “its just like a woman, you have to hit it a time or two for it work right.”  I was furious along with a few other women and men. I can’t speak for anyone else, but the remark was quite hurtful for me. I felt disrespected as a woman, devalued, and as though women should be subservient, and were below men.  This was clearly a sexist remark and he may have been joking and did not intend any harm, however, it was hurtful to me and had no place in the work environment. I had just ended a marriage in which I was hearing such remarks from my husband and being physically abused so I was already questioning my value and place in the world and this incident did not help at the time.  I overcome with the help of supportive family and friends, but it took some time.

A microaggression that I observed relates to having different expectations for a black male child’s behavior than for a white male child’s behavior. One little incident involving the black child and he was disciplined by being sent home by a white teacher. White male children engage in many of the same behaviors and they are redirected.  I really think this is the result of stereotypical ideas. It has been pointed out to administration and they are investigating. I am sure the child feels devalued and marginalized. He is disciplined so much for what seems like everything he does, he is probably wondering what is wrong with him and has low self-esteem.

The effects of micro-aggression  can be emotionally and psychologically harmful, deter learning, and hinder one from reaching his or her full potential. It can lead to self-fulfilling prophecy as the targeted assumes the stereotype.  That is a big concern in racial and gender microaggression such as my examples above. I think I will be engaging in even more self-reflection to identify and be mindful of hidden biases. I do not want to cause anyone harm jst because they are different than me.

Perspectives on Culture and Diversity

I contacted several friends and colleagues  asking them for their definitions of culture and diversity. The first defines culture as family background or their heritage, ethnicity, race, and gender and diversity as the differences among culture.  The second defines culture as the beliefs and customs of an individual, or a group of people, or of a society and diversity as the differences among individuals, groups of people, and societies. She adds that diversity also involves incorporating the different cultures into a group of people or society.  The third defines culture as the heritage, traditions, and beliefs of a particular group of people and diversity as recognizing unique qualities or characteristics of people or groups.   If I were to combine these definitions,  I would come to the definition of culture as family background, heritage, ethnicity, race, customs, traditions, and beliefs of an individual, group of people, or society.  Diversity’s definition would be recognizing the differences, unique qualities, or characteristics among the various cultures of people, groups, or society and perhaps incorporating the differences into a group of people or society.

Our readings includes aspects of family background, heritage, ethnicity, race, gender, customs, traditions, and beliefs in defining culture (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). These aspects are closely intertwined with culture playing important roles in who people are. However, they do not give a complete picture of a person’s culture. My friends and colleagues omitted aspects of culture that our readings do discuss including language, economic status, class, gender and sexual orientation, abilities/disabilities, religion, values, relationships, migration, work, and ideas about education, health care, roles, expressing emotion, to name a few (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). 

To see who families and children truly are and understand them, we must move beyond surface culture such as artifacts, dress, foods, holidays and aspects that are easily identifiable (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). We  must realize that their culture influences everything about them including their lifestyle, how they think, attitudes, and behaviors, how/where they live, their work, organizational affiliations, family and community relationships, ideas about education, health care, gender roles, roles of children, parenting practices, recreation, religious practices, expressing emotion, ways of communicating and interacting with others, and more (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). 

The cultural group that we belong to begins shaping the way we live at birth through a process called cultural socialization.  As we grow, we learn how to name, describe, and feel about our cultural membership. As we mature, enter adulthood, and establish an adult life and family, we  choose aspects of our cultural socialization that we wish to continue, modify, or reject (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). Therefore, time, place, and historical context are also aspects of culture.

Yashika Wilson’s who is a colleague shared her ideas with me on culture a few months ago. I feel that it sums up our discussion on defining culture quite well and is in line with our text regarding the dimensions of culture discussed in the preceding paragraph.  Ms. Yashika states (2016),

            “…Culture is similar to the sticky side of masking tape. In life there are traits that we are born with, traditions we become accustomed to ,things instilled in us, and things we've learned.      Additionally as we grow and adapt to our environment, there are other things that we accurate and we add those things to the sticky side of the masking tape and it too becomes a part of who we are; thus accumulatively becoming the total make up of our culture" (Yashika Wilson, personal communication).  

Now for a word about diversity.  The combined definition of diversity from  my friends and colleagues would be the differences, unique qualities, or characteristics among the various cultures of people, groups, or society. They all acknowledge the importance of  recognizing and incorporating the differences  - for example in early childhood education.

It is worth noting that everyone has culture that influences their way of life, thinking, attitudes, and behaviors.  Children come to our classrooms from all walks of life and are becoming more and more diverse. While there are similarities, many differences exist due to the complexities of culture and the many differences that lie within the culture of our children and families. When we begin to recognize the differences in deep culture that exist, this is when issues related to diversity will raise its ugly neck. Even then we must realize that it is the differences that create unique abilities, qualities, and characteristics in each individual, group, or society. Diversity is rich, a benefit, and a necessity (Laureate Education, 2011). A deep understanding of culture and its relation to diversity is the first step in creating environments that will lead to helping all children and families feel visible, valued, accepted, and empowered.

References

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

 Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Culture and diversity [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Wilson, Y. (2016). Personal Conversation. Yashika Wilson, MA in Early Childhood/Educational Psychology

My Family Culture

In the event that My family was evacuated to a new country or refugee camp, the three things that I would take that represents our family culture are our family Bible, family photo album, and recipe box.  I choose these items because they reflect   my family values, beliefs, traditions, practices, and culture. The Bible reflects our religious practices, beliefs, and guidelines for living a Christian life that are important to our family culture.  My family finds much comfort,  peace, and hope from reading many of the passages especially in times of adversity. Within my Bible are pages for recording information such as outlining a family tree, births, deaths, marriages, baptisms, that I have completed that gives some history about our family. My family photo album includes pictures of family that has passed on,  pictures of my children and grandchildren as they grow, graduations, marriages, births, baptisms, holiday celebrations,  family vacations, special events, accomplishments, and more. It represents the importance of family, values, traditions, and more as well as a good deal about what my family sees as important. Much of my family culture revolves around southern tradition, coming together cooking, and enjoying southern food especially during holidays and special events, which is why I would take my recipe box that includes recipes for my family’s favorite foods.

It would be very hard to choose just one artifact and I really pray that this exercise never becomes reality.  Being the elder in my family, I would probably choose the family photo album as my family and our values are important to my life.  It could be used to teach my grandchildren about our family culture and to help them understand their family history.  I believe I could keep our religious practices, and beliefs alive giving them comfort in the event my Bible was taken because its teachings are engrained into my life, heart and mind.  As far as southern cooking, I have been doing this my entire life and can do from memory and so can my older children. The pictures offer a visual for discussion about our family to its youngest members and can play a huge role in keeping our culture alive throughout generations.

I have learned from this exercise just how important passing my family’s history  and its values down to the younger generation in my family really is to me. I think I have taken this for granted.  I’m sure the family photo album along with discussion will become a new tradition in future family gatherings. I also learned how important these artifacts are to who I am as well as how blessed I am to have easy access to these things and that it would be devastating to lose anyone of these representations of my culture. 

When I Think of Research...

I have learned the importance of research to the field of early childhood education. Through investigation we can answer important questions related to who, how, why, and what. Probably the most beneficial insights gained are how to read research articles, the various research terminology definitions, and the differences in research designs. I am convinced this will prove very useful in future courses and in my career.
I still find that a great deal of work goes into designing research. As I progressed through the course and learning the various aspects of the process using the charts, I don't feel as overwhelmed completing the final project. . Designing and conducting research requires a great deal of careful planning; is time consuming, and can be overwhelming at times, however much knowledge is gained. Managing my time and choosing the design for the final project proved to be the most challenging. The most helpful part of this course that helped me deal with these challenges was insight and feedback from Dr. Dartt as well as support from colleagues and the charts. I have a new found respect for those in the field committed to the arena of early childhood research. I have come to realize that everything we know about children, how they grow and learn, and what we do in the classroom to encourage their healthy development and learning is based on research. Our work and the field depends on it.
We are coming to the end of our journey through this research course. Much learning has taken place and we did it together. Best wishes!