Professional Hopes and Goals

 

 

While taking this course, I have established support and trust through my colleagues and professor. Without my classmates, I would not further my knowledge as deep as I did. I have learned so much about them and what they have learned about diversity. There are so many perspectives on what diversity is. I feel this course has broadened my understanding of how complex every individual social identities are. One hope that I have when I think about working with children and their families who come from diverse backgrounds is taking it as a journey and be optimistic to growth and change. I feel that every child and family needs to have a voice to make things more easier in and out of the classroom. One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field to issues of diversity, equity and social justice is experience them together. I hope that myself and others can be honest with one another and need to show knowledge to help each other understand and accept each other. I would like to thank all my colleagues! You all have helped me in someway for this course! Good luck in your future studies and in the field of early childhood education! Study on!!

Welcoming Families From Around the World

This week for our blog we were asked to think about these 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.

Then we are asked to think about this 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 early childhood setting that I would choose is a child care center. In hopes one day that I will be running my own day care or center. The name of the families country of origin that I would choose is Asia. I do not know much at all about this country. If I had a child in my center that is emigrating from a country I would first do research online to find more about their culture and the origin of Asia. I would then look at opportunities to experience how to show a fair chance with this family to ensure they are receiving equity. I would look to more into their social identities and what their family believes in and incorporate into the classroom. I would also prepare myself into seeing the inclusion of  their culture and how they deal with diversity.  I would also need to look more into how children learn in Asia. How is the achievement gap? Are they reading and learning about mathematics at the same level we are in the States. The last way that I would find ways to be culturally responsive to this family is finding distinctive and defining characteristics about families in Asia. Do they have the same systems and issues that we encounter in our child care center? I feel that these ideas would help myself, children and their families. Being educated and prepared to address diversity in the child care center provides everyone to be at ease and comfortable. I feel that even with diversity in our center everyone will know each other's background and what they believe in. This will allow everyone to accept each other's differences. Therefore everyone will be benefited.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

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.

 

 

A memory I had that I have experienced prejudice and/or oppression was with the only African American boy in my class. Even though most of us did not treat him differently, I can see now the microaggressions that this boy faced. He was the only African American until middle school. We all knew that he was different because of his color. I feel that he faced oppression because he had to deal with being different from the other children. He was inferior to all of us just by the way he looked. Every day in class, he was faced with biases from other people and this made it hard for him to feel accepted. 

 

 

 

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

 

I feel that due to this incident and being the minority that this had diminished equity. The equity is lessened not only in the classroom, but in the community as well. If children keep picking and not showing growth into diversity of individuals, how is he going to adjust to the classroom setting. He will feel harmed due to the fact that he is a minority. Especially since the other children view him as being different.

What feelings did this incident bring up for you?

Looking back to this incident, as a child I feel that my classmates and I were too young to see the oppression that he faced. I feel now that no single child should be treated differently just by the way he/she looks like or believes in.

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

The teacher is the person that needs to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity. The teacher is the one who runs the classroom and needs to make sure that each child is getting treated the same. As long as he or she is open to discussing diversity and equity with all, young children and their families will open up to treating one another the same.

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!