Professional Hopes and Goals

Professional Hopes and Goals

• One hope that you have when you think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds

I hope that the children and their families I serve will collaborate with the child care program. I hope they will feel respected, understood, and trust the teachers. I also hope my bias will be resolved and not get in the way of being a better teacher.

• One goal you would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice

One goal I would like to set is to make it mandatory for all teachers and staff working in the early childhood field to take a class about personal bias and multicultural education.  Teachers must know and understand their bias and all types of isms.

• A brief note of thanks to your colleagues

Thanks to all my colleagues for sharing their personal experiences and bias with the class. Talking about this helps us understand how diverse we are as teachers. Dialoguing also encourages support. So thank you!

Welcoming Families From Around the World

Think for a moment about the following two statistics:

• About 195 different countries exist in the world today.
• According to the U.S. census bureau, the United States’ population includes individuals and families from 150 different countries.

It is certain that as an early childhood professional you will encounter children from diverse backgrounds whose families may have come from many different countries. In what ways can you prepare yourself for working in early childhood settings which represent such diversity?

 Imagine the following scenario:

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.

• The name of “your” family’s country of origin
• Brazil 
• At least five ways in which you will prepare yourself to be culturally responsive towards this family
• Have family fill out information report; it will share native language, hometown and family dynamics
• Learn key words in Portuguese (native language)
• Suggest and then schedule a home visit before child starts school or Schedule a classroom visit day before school starts or during school hours with the family
• Make the classroom environment have a Brazil cultural influence.
• Ask parents way to make child feel at home and comfortable; Have parents share books, food, language and other things pertaining to culture
• A brief statement describing in what ways you hope that these preparations will benefit both you and the family
• When a family knows that you are caring and trustworthy then they will become more involved if possible. If you know more about their culture it shows you put forth effort to understand and respect who they are and their culture. Also the children will feel comfortable if aspects of their culture are shown around the classroom.  It is about respect, trust, and a high quality of child.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

Blog: The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

To complete this assignment, ask yourself these questions:

• What memory do you have of an incident when you experienced bias, prejudice, and/or oppression, or witnessed someone else as the target of bias, prejudice, and/or oppression? Keep in mind that one can encounter such incidents in real contexts, including online environments, as well as in fictional ones, such as movies, books, television shows, and the like.

 I have experienced bias, prejudice, and oppression and I witnessed others going through the same thing. One memory I have happen in an early childhood environment. When I was an assistant many years ago, the lead teacher was a man. This was our first year working at that school. Many parents were very concerned about a male teacher working with preschoolers. We had a parent meeting at the beginning of the school year so parents can get to know us and ask questions. The lead teacher was a white male and also from Holland and in his late thirties. He was accused of being a pervert and a possible molester at the meeting because he was a male who started a career teaching young children. The parents had many inappropriate bias and concerns.

• In what way(s) did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity?

These parents did not give the male teachers a chance to show how good of a teacher he was. The parents were making him inferior to female teachers because of his sex, age and even nationality.  All of these things came up as a concern.

• What feelings did this incident bring up for you?

I could not believe that professional people would say such mean things and believe it was okay. They argued that they were trying to protect the children. We really needed to protect the children from these discriminating thought. I kept thinking about the children and theses parents are raising them with these bias.

• What and/or who would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity?

Teachers are not the only group who needs multicultural and diversity training. Many parents did not see how hurtful and rude they were. They kept saying how they were protecting the children from a possible threat.  He did teacher the preschoolers that year with me as an assistant and he did very well. He was an excellent teacher. The six parents that complained the most still had their doubts about him. 

Early Childhood and Microagression

Microagression

When it comes to managing an early childhood classroom especially when the class is diverse, the teacher must be aware of their bias towards others. These biases could have developed during childhood or through the media. Most teachers are not outwardly racist or discriminatory to others. Most teachers would not consider themselves a racist but when personal bias towards other are not address then microaggression can occur.

According to Dr. Derald Wing Sue, “microagressions are brief everyday indignities that are verbal, behavioral or environmental, that they may be intentional or unintentionally communicated to women, to people of color, to gay/lesbians that have an insulting message behind them that often time causes severe psychological distress and harm” 

My example:

Since I was in high school I have always been told by my white friends that they are “colorblind” and that there is no race but the human race. I just had this talk with one of my co workers this week. This statement always bothered me but I never knew why until I got older. It is hard to confront someone who says this statement because they really believe they are saying something positive and non racial. Most people did not understand and said I was overreacting. This is a type of microagression that does not invalidate. This statement dismisses my experience as a Black person. The hidden message is “your race and/ or culture are not important enough to acknowledge.”  The human race is made up of a diverse group of people so we must be seen.

Getting to know and understand the cultural beliefs and traditions of your students’ families is a must when working in early childhood. This prepared awareness with help teachers to not use microagression.  It will also close the teacher/ parent (family) gap that we as educators often see when working in a diverse school setting.   

Diversity and Culture

I asked three of my friends and family members to tell me their definition of Culture and DIVERSITY.

Their definition of culture

May (Black female, family member, 30, housewife and student) --Where you live, your lifestyle and families’ way of life.

Ford (Black male, childhood friend, 32, unemployed, single, college educated) Culture is inherited behavior based on a person’s upbringing and current surroundings. Their heritage, background, and lifestyle choices make up their culture. For example there is Black culture and within Black culture there is Hip Hop Culture. 

Samson (Mixed male, Best Friend, 35, teacher, college student, divorced twice)—Culture is like an unorganized group affiliation that loosely governs how people are. Black culture in America is defined by being descendant of Africans; speaking a certain way and acting a certain way. Culture is usually none exclusive so one person can belong to several cultures. I relate to African American culture, urban culture, hip hop, Muslim culture and so on.

Their definition of diversity

May--Differences within culture.

Ford— Diversity is more than just racial. Diversity in itself can have many forms.

Samson—Diversity is a variety of cultures. For examples on a college campus jocks, geeks, gamers, religious, student sub grouped by class or major, this makes a college campus culturally diverse.

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? Which aspects have been omitted—and what are some examples of such omission?  In what ways has thinking about other people’s definitions of culture and diversity influenced my own thinking about these topics?

They discussed many things that I learned about diversity. They showed a good understanding about culture and diversity. The only this I would omit is Samson saying “Black culture in America is defined by being descendant of Africans” Culture is not defined my descendant. That is ethnicity. A white person can be a part of Black culture.  Hearing the views of my family and friends just confirmed my own beliefs about culture and diversity.  I am curious to know what they believe race and ethnicity are also.