Professional Hopes and Goals

This course, Perspectives on Diversity and Equity, has allowed me to explore who I am and my own beliefs and values. I have learned so much about diversity, equity, and social justice. This class has affirmed, changed, and modified my own thinking in various ways.

For my last blog post for this class, I am assigned to list a hope and goal related to aspects of diversity.

My hope for the children and families that I serve, who come from diverse backgrounds, is that each individual feel welcomed, valued, respected, and wanted.  I want to ensure that all children and families feel that they are a part of the learning communities. I want to make sure that families’ values and beliefs are accepted and they feel comfortable enough to share their experiences and expertise. 

My goal for the early childhood field is to continue to learn about anti-bias education and how to apply it in my works to create an environment of acceptance and equity for all children and their families. 

I would like to thank my colleagues for allowing me to learn through their interactions and post on the blogs and discussion boards. Through those conversations, I have learned so much about the topics of diversity and equity. Thank you for helping me to further reflect on my personal views, beliefs, and values.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

The scenario for this week’s blog post is as following:

You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.

Post :

·        The name of “your” family’s country of origin

·        At least five ways in which you will prepare yourself to be culturally responsive towards this family

·        A brief statement describing in what ways you hope that these preparations will benefit both you and the family

This particular situation has happen to me in my teaching career. In my second or third year of teaching, the school counselor entered my room with a new student. She introduced the little girl and her family to me and the class. I had no notice of getting a new student. Therefore, I had no way to prepare for her arrive. The family was from China and had only been in Georgia for two weeks. The father could speak English but the mother or child could not. The father spoke with me about the basics, i.e. contact information, dismissal methods, and medical information.  The five year old girl only could speak three words of English: her name, teacher, and pee-pee.

That night, I researched about China and families. I tried to incorporate some familiar Chinese words into our class to help the student adjust.  I contacted the school’s ESOL teacher and she gave me strategies to use in the classroom. The father helped so much. He would come in and we would work together labeling the classroom with key words. This really helped the girl learn the language.  The mother would come in and volunteer to help. Even though we had a language barrier, the mother was able to art project prep for the class.  Also, she would bring in foods for the class to taste. By the end of the school year, the little girl began to speak and read in English.  The parents were very appreciative of the support I gave their child.  I still receive notes and small gifts from them from time to time.

Looking back on this experience and the assignment at hand, I believe that I did an okay job being culturally responsive to the family and child.

Country of Origin: China

Five Ways to Be Culturally Responsive Towards Family:

1. Respect the Father as Head of Family. Address all educational concerns to father (Main, 2014).

2. Communicate with family about child and apply what I learn in classroom.

3. Make sure pictures, books, and other images in classroom represent the child.

4. Embrace the uniqueness of child and family in classroom. Make family and child feel welcome in learning environment.

5. Ask questions, research, and plan activities that are aligned to child’s learning styles.

I believe that preparation is essential to making families feel welcome in the learning environment. For the family, this environment makes them feel welcomed, wanted, cared for, and respected in the classroom. For me, as the teacher, it helps me to know the families I serve and meet the individual needs of the child.

Reference:

Main, K. (2014). Chinese Family Values.  Retrieved June 21, 2014, from http://family.lovetoknow.com/chinese-family-values

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

As an African-American woman, I have experiences bias, prejudice, and oppression throughout my life. It happens so often that I try to ignore it and those that do it. Through this course, I have a better understanding of who I am and why some people think the way they do. 

In thinking about an incident, I thought about one that has truly shaped who I am. One’s name is the first identity of one’s self. This particular incident has shaped my opinion of names forever.

 In third grade, I had an older African-American woman as my teacher. The first day of school, she asked me my name. I stated, “Trinecia”. She asked for me to say it again. I did but slower. She looked at me and said, “No, I can’t say that. I will have to call you by your last name. I can’t understand why y’all can’t have simple old-fashion names”. This experience made me feel hurt and ashamed of my name. It made me believe that not only was my name wrong but my parents were wrong in naming me. I remember after this experience wanted others to call me by my middle name, Michelle. I thought that I would be accepted easier that way. Looking back, it did not change how people perceived or accepted me. In high school, I learned to embrace my name, the uniqueness of it, and who I am because of it. 

Until this course, I did not think that this incident impacted me as such. It influenced my choice in my children’s names and my perception of others that chose ‘unique’ names for their children. This is a bias that I am still trying to overcome. 

As I move forward, I think that this teacher should have respected me enough to learn my name. This is my identity. As a professional, I realize the importance of a name and try to value each child’s differences by first learning their name. This is a defining character of one’s identity, as an individual. 

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

This week, I have learned about microaggression and its impact on others. Dr. Sue defines microaggression as brief everyday indignities that may be verbal, behavioral, or environmental (Laureate Education, 2011). These messages can be communicated intentionally or unintentionally. Microaggressions happen outside the level of awareness of well-intentioned individuals and reflect views of superiority or exclusion (Laureate Education, 2011). 

In observing and thinking about microaggression, I realize that they occur more often than I thought. Throughout the week, I was able to detect several examples of microaggression in conversations, in the news, and on television. 

The one I am that impacted me the most was on one of my favorite reality television shows, L.A. Hair. I wasn’t looking for any unintended insults but noticed it towards the end of the show. One of the hair stylists was opening up her own salon. She invited all her friends to visit and see the new place. As everyone was having drinks, one of the ladies, who is a nail artist asked did she plan to have a nail artist at her salon. She said “yes, I will definitely have to hire some Asians because they do the best work”. When I heard this, I immediately thought about this week’s course work. The stylist did not mean to insult. The hidden message was that she believed that all Asians did great nail work. The stylist wanted quality workers throughout her new salon and because of her past experiences she assumed the best nail artist would be Asian. She did not intend to cause any harm or stress. 

This week’s observations made me realize that microaggressions are very powerful. They can impact people more than ‘old fashion racism’ (Laureate Education, 2011). In order to grow as a society, we must work to prevent these microaggressions by speaking up, speaking out, and learning to interact in diverse circles. We must learn to connect with one another of all cultures as human and respect and embrace differences as uniqueness.

Reference

Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Microaggressions in everyday life [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

 For this assignment, I talked to my husband, mother, and fellow colleague of a different race. I believe that they represented three very different viewpoints. They are all outspoken people that love to share what they know. I believed that their responses would allow me to get enough information to reflect on others views of culture and diversity. 

In asking about culture and diversity, everyone spoke of race and ethnicity as a foundation of their definition. My husband and mother both included family as part of their definition. My friend spoke of her surroundings and environment in which one lives as part of one’s culture. All three people spoke of diversity as differences of people in various cultures. These are all examples of what I learned about culture and diversity through this course.

Reflecting about what I have learned in this course, some aspects of culture and diversity was omitted in their definition. In their definition of culture, no one mention gender, foods, clothing, or social classes. Some included family as part of their definition but did not include values, morals, and traditions you learn from one’s family. These are all important aspects of culture and diversity that was missing from their definition. 

Thinking about and reflecting on others' views of culture and diversity, made me have a better understanding of others' views. It helps me to have a deeper understanding of my learning thus far in this course. It also allowed me to share my learning with others. This assignment allowed me to acknowledge and respect others' views and perspective and reflect on how their view’s help me to redefine my own views of these terms.