Practicing Awareness in Micro Aggressions

This week I became aware of micro aggressions that occur in my daily life and back from another time. The one example that I feel shows the micro aggression I experience is when I play softball in the men's high arc league in softball. I am the only girl that played this year and I heard many statements that made me feel insulted and/or targeted because I was a girl playing with men. These acts were non physical, but were inappropriate to making me feel uncomfortable at times and not even want to play. I feel these were micro insults to me even though I played better than most the men that come. I believe that being the target of a micro aggression actually made me play better and prove to them that girls can play with them. They stereotype that they are better, when in reality softball is typically a women's sport.

While observing this week on my experiences with micro aggressions I have perceived many changes of how I look and feel about the stereotypes that I have on people. I find myself judging people way to quickly, sometimes on their appearance and how they present themselves. After this week, I will research and find more out about their way of life and what they believe in rather than just assume. I believe that for the most part most of my stereotypes of people are unintentional. Especially after this week learning about these interactions I will reflect and accept that everyone is different and lives life differently.

 

 

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

As I talked to three different types of people in my life. I talked to my best friend Alisha, whom I feel her and I have many similar ways our culture relates. I also talked to one of my employees at work about how and what she believes for her culture. Then I chose to talk to one of my athletes that I coach. She is the one person who I believe is in some ways culturally different from how I have grown up. She is 14 years old. She defined culture as being at the simple things. Such as gender, race, religion, etc. At her age, I believe this is what they are taught to be culture. Culture in their years, I don't feel expands to what we feel is culture. Until this course, I never looked at deep culture or dominant culture. Her definition of diversity is people not being the same. I asked her to expand her thoughts, and she stated that she believed that everyone is different and they believe and celebrate different types culture. She believed that without diversity culture would be dull and the same.

I feel that without this course, I wouldn't have much knowledge on what is culture and diversity. I have expanded my thoughts on just appearances, such as gender, race, age and class. Everyone's definition is different  for culture and diversity. I feel that with diversity in the classroom especially this will open and influence the minds of young children and early childhood professionals.

My Family Culture

As my family and I are evacuated to another country, I decide to take my family album, my wedding ring, and my softball glove. Being told that we are going to a country that may be permanent, I chose these three items that are dear to my own and families heart.

My family photo album is the most dear to my culture and my life. All these photos explain who is important in my life and families. Pictures explain not only our culture and what we believe in but memories and moments. By just having these pictures, shows that my tradition carries on and is still alive. The moments these pictures describe show our emotions, love, and dedication we give to ourselves and our family.

My next item is my wedding ring. My wedding ring is where ever I am at. I never take it off to even work, coach or play sports. My ring shows devotion and love to my husband. This ring represents who we are a couple and the commitment we give to one another. This item is one item that I would not want to live without or give away.

 

My next item is my softball glove. Not knowing what country we would be living or how long we would be there for, I would choose to have my glove. This glove is not just an item, it represents the love that my family has for all sports. Most of the year whether its for softball, basketball, football, volleyball or even wrestling, my family devotes most our time in sporting events. This glove is an item that I would want to bring with me, to show how much sports play a role in my families culture.

 

After losing our home and moving to another country, I would be completely devastated  if upon arrival I was told I could only keep one personal item.  But thinking about it, as long as I have my family by my side, I would be ok. I would make the best of it, because their lives are more important to me than anything. If I could keep the one item I would choose my family photo album.

I can see after this exercise that items are just items. As long as you have the ones you love and trust by your side, you can face anything that is thrown at you.

When I think of research...

Throughout this course, I have gained many new insights from the resources provided and from you my colleagues. Taking research step by step is very crucial to ensure not only that your using scholarly resources, but to also understand the topic fully. I believe I have the ability now to understand and use research effectively. I have also learned that there are many methods such as qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods that give researchers different insights and ways to analyze what is good research.


There are many ways that my ideas about the nature of  research that have changed. I know realize that the way that I do research will reflect the way that I teach. Personally and professionally, I now apply my knowledge of the ways to analyze, gather and use the research. I also now realize that the main topic needs to be broken down into subtopics to be able to evaluate every aspect.


I have learned in this course that there is always ways in which we can plan, design, and conduct in early childhood.  In our field, professionals need to have the knowledge of what is expected in their research. Each topic that is being researched needs to be explored, analyzed and applied to what the researcher is researching on. I have learned through our resources that every step is important to be conducted to find the best information possible.


Some challenges that I faced when doing research is validity. The validity is at times hard to determine. Is the study legit? Is the sub topics the main topics to be explored? Does the research reflect the validity of what the main topic is trying to find? I also had some trouble at first understanding all the methods of the research process. Before this class, I would look at a resource and use it. I wouldn't explore and make sure that it is the right source for my research question.

As a result to this course, I look at our field of early childhood education and see that research should play a major role to the professional and the program. Research is so important to use and discuss in our field. Without researching the issues and topics of early childhood there would be many questions of what is valid and what is not.



Thank you to my colleagues! I wish you the best on your future classes! I have learned so much from all of you in a short amount of time!

Research Around the World

Here is the link to the ECA- http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

 

This week we have a task of looking into an international research link for early childhood education. I chose to look at the ECA (Early Childhood Australia). This is an organization that is a voice for young children. They are now celebrating 75 years of service. There are many current international research topics that are demonstrated on their website.

Here is a list of the topics that I found:

Quality improvement in the classroom

How to make children feel secure, confident and included

National Quality Standards in the programs

Working together in the early childhood settings

Learning and teaching through play

Young children as active learners

Healthy children- Now and Later

Curriculum and standards in the classroom

Young gifted children

And many more are included in the index of the website.

 

I am surprised by how Australia has many of the same issues and trends that the United States has. The mission of ECA is to research and advocate to ensure quality and social justice in all the issues related to education and their care. I am surprised to see all the links one can go to all around the world to show how ECA is supporting the best practice possible. I see that there are many members and students to show how they understand the material and how it is used. The website also provides online services for researchers to explore and discover for the best practice in Australia. I feel that this organization is a major contribution to the excellence and equity in early childhood education. Without sites like these the knowledge of these topics will be very minimal. This type of resource should be used by researchers to gain the knowledge of what is expected in Australia and all over the world.

Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

What a great research website to use for our journey to excellence-


Click here to explore this website.. http://www.cfw.tufts.edu/?/category/research-news/7/ 







This research website is called Child and Family Web Guide. This research tool gives various of articles pertaining to the wealth of child development. There are many articles that cover social development, education, family and child care, health and nutrition, and other issues.  I find this website very informational, credible, and current. I am excited to share this with all of you and I hope it helps in your journey of researching.

The main topics of the website include every single topic you may think of about researching in our field of early childhood education. For example the category of parenting has topics for single moms, military families, child adoption, same sex parents, cyber bullying, step families, and much more. Another category is education. You can click on topics to enrich your knowledge for bullying, music, health care in school, language delay, literacy, mentoring and more. I hope everyone enjoys this positive example of research in our field.

My Personal Research Journey

~Equity and Excellence~

 

 

The topic that I have chosen to research more on this simulation process is equity and excellence in the field of early childhood education. I chose this topic because as a teacher I would like to make a difference in every single child's lives. While researching I personally would like to know more about ways to serve and understand equity and excellence in the community and in the classroom. I would like to understand more about how diversity plays a key role in developing a quality well run program. I believe with research of this issue, I will feel more comfortable with ensuring excellence to my students. I know that gaining knowledge and learning about our field is a life long process and with this course, it will be one step forward to giving the equity and excellence every child deserves.

 

The research chart was a very useful tool. Using the chart shows the quality the source may or may not have to a certain topic. I like the fact that it has specific questions to the article or website that we are using. I believe that through out this course it will help me to filter out the most important information that I will need to know.

 

Do you have any insight or knowledge to help me with this research topic?

 

I have used some great resources thus far in finding information on equity and excellence. They include:

 

http://www.naeyc.org/research/using

 

http://e3ed.org/

 

http://www.ed.gov/
Hope to see some sources from you as well! Thank you for reading!