One hope that I have when thinking about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that they feel appreciated and accepted. I know a major issue some families and children have is feeling accepted. These families will not want to participate in programs if they do not feel accepted or appreciated. For example, the agency I previously worked for is a Afrocentric early childhood program and we had families who were not of African decent to enroll and quickly leave because they did not feel accepted. The curriculum was based around African heritage and teaching the children terms and language in Swahili. The other families wanted to know why their heritage couldn't be celebrated as well. I agree because if we are going to enroll families from diverse backgrounds, then the curriculum needs to change and the program needs to change.
One goal that I have for early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is to make all programs diverse including the staff. I believe that it is important to have a diverse staff who are bilingual. I believe that this would make families feel a little less uncomfortable. If someone was there who could communicate with the family in their home language. It is difficult to enroll a family who only speaks Spanish and the person doing the enrolling does not know how to speak a tap of Spanish.
Erica,
ReplyDeleteI agree that our team members should be full of diversity to demonstrate that our school values diversity.accept all people. In addition, it is important to look at your demographics and ensure that you have readily available people that speak the languages within your demographics. As the United States begins to accept diversity as a norm we become more than a melting pot. I like how Jimmy Carter Put it! “We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.”
Hello Erica,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and Jocelyn, that the staff in any and all educational programs should be as diverse as we can get, and not just with color, with height, size, and abilities. If we want social change and to be anti-bias in our teachings to the children, we need to show that our program's staff is an example of the teachings set forth. We can learn so much from one another. Diversity and culture brings so many teachable moments, and educational programs need to embrace that, and that starts with the staff. I wish you the best of luck!
Good post Erica, I also agree that when working with diverse families and children it is important to make them feel welcomed, appreciated, and respected. You do not know that circumstances which they came from and it would be unnecessary to add more issues to their circumstance as it is,
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