Professional Hopes and Goals

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.

I wanted to thank all of my colleagues for responding to my blog post and discussion post. I really appreciate all of the feedback and the feedback was always positive. I enjoyed being in this class with each and every one of you and I wish you well in your endeavors. Good luck!

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Welcoming Families from Around the World

For this assignment, 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.

I am a teacher for a early childhood program and the family is coming from the country Australia. 

Ways in which I would prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family:

1. Recognize any bias or stereotypes. 
2. Do my best to sensitive to terminology 
3. Become more informed about the history and culture of Australia.
4. Treat the family and student as an individual
5. I would prepare my classroom with pictures of Australia to welcome the family and acknowledge their country.

I would hope that the family would appreciate the efforts I took to learn about their country and to highlight their country in my classroom. It is important for families of foreign countries to know that their culture would be accepted and appreciated when they come to the United States. The family should not feel that they have to loose their culture or beliefs just because they no longer live there. I believe that by celebrating cultures in a diverse classroom is very important and make the families feel appreciated. All families from foreign countries that come to the United States just want to feel respected and as an educator I feel it is my responsibility to do so within my classroom. 

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The personal side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

An incident of bias and prejudice that I experienced was when I was in high school. The other children did not want to interact with me because they thought I was poor and they made fun of my clothing. They would walk pass me and laugh or knock my books out of my hands. When it was time to split up into partners in class I was always the last one picked. It hurt deep down inside because I did not know why they were treating me like this. One day a friend that I grew up with came and told me what they were saying. They said that my clothes look like they came from target or Walmart and my shoes came from payless. They did not want to hang out with me either because I wasn't a small either. They were not being fair because I was not being picked first because of my appearance. This made me always stay quiet and hide in the back of the classroom. My mother and father did not have much and did they best they could. I was just grateful that I did not have to wear hand me downs, I was not focused on who name was on my clothes. All I knew was that I had on new clothes. Because of the shame I felt I went home and yelled at my mother for not buying me name-brand clothes. She said it is not what you wear, but who is wearing the clothes. I said I don't get it, she said clothes do not make the person the person makes the clothes. I said okay. I accessorized the clothes that I had and I went to school the next day and everyone thought I had been shopping again. I walked with my head up and I had gained confidence in myself from what my mother had told me. I walked around like I was wearing a million dollars worth of clothing. The other girls started talking to me after that. Older students who were there knew me from church and the neighborhood and they started introducing me to their friends and so I began to be more popular. When the girls who were being bias against me saw that I was hanging out with Juniors and Seniors, they began to want to hang out with me. I use to come home to my mom every day and tell her how those girls were acting like they never treated me wrongly. She laughed and said I told you it is not the clothes, it is the person in the clothes! I had to change me!

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Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

For this week assignment we have to describe at least one microaggression that we detected this week or remember from one time.
According to Dr. Sue, microaggressions 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.
I remember a time when I had to give a speech in front of a large audience for work. Some of the people I had never met before and the audience was a mixture of men and women of different ethnicity. I was nervous about giving the speech because I was not a speaker, I am a more pf a behind the scene person. After my speech two white ladies came up to me and said I did not know you could speak that well. I had a confuse look on my face and when I want people to repeat what they have said I always say excuse me. The ladies said again I did not know you could speak that well. You spoke really well and you are articulated your words. I said reluctantly thank you. I ask them what department were they from because I have never seen them before. They said they were from the youth department. I really felt sorry for the youth that they were over because they were clearly making a racist statement. I told my other coworkers what they said and they became upset and said do you know they were being racist. I said I know, but I did not want to start a riot so I left it alone. I was raised to pick and chose your battles and I did not want to battle with those two women because they may have not known what they were doing. I felt very uncomfortable and I already did not like to speak in front of a large crowd and this incident did not help encourage me to keep speaking.
The effects of discrimination, prejudice, and/or stereotypes on people can be permanent and damaging. Like the microaggression that I experienced, I speak in front of large audiences if I have to, but I do not choose to do it. I still feel uncomfortable and that incident happened in 2007. I do not understand how someone can think that they have a right to discriminate against someone else. I may not agree with something or like something, but I do not mistreat people because of my thoughts or beliefs. I treat everyone equally.

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

http://www.waldenu.edu

Perspective on Diversity and Culture

For this assignment we had to talk to three people (friends, family, acquaintance, and/or colleague) about their definition of culture and their definition of diversity.
I talked to my brother (Dexter), best friend (Rashad), and colleague (Barbara).

Rashad (30 years old, male, and Catholic) definition of diversity:
I think diversity is a catch 22. To be diverse in a sense of being able to adapt to different situations is vital. It's almost animalistic for one to "change" in a new environment. However one can lose their own identity in an attempt to "change". In modern society the push for diversity is so strong that I believe it's pretend or forced. The theory that America is "melting pot" is preposterous it is a victim of "forced diversity". Ships of individuals sent here where their culture was considered second class had to diversify...and that diversity still exist. 

Rashad definition of culture:
Culture is the thread to every person, it's our life! Culture is what creates wars...to fight for your culture is to fight for yourself.

Barbara (54 years old, Female, and Christian) definition of diversity:
My definition of diversity would be different groups of individuals who are of different races. Who accept each other for who they are despite their differences; whether is is their sexual preferences, beliefs, race, or gender. There are many different races in America who respect others beliefs and are not judgmental. The reason that America is called the melting pot is because of the diversity. 

Barbara definition of culture:
My definition of culture would be whatever a particular group's belief and values are. Culture is passed down from one generation to the next. For instance, at a young age my parents taught my siblings and I to respect others no matter how different they are from us. They also taught us to always be honest, humble, and willing to help others. I have instilled the same attributes into my children and from what I have observed with my grandchildren their parents have done the same thing.

Dexter (45 years old, Male, Episcopal) definition of diversity:
Diversity is the blending and understanding of a variety of cultures.

Dexter definition of culture:
Culture is simply the customs, traditions, values, morals, and beliefs of given group of people in a simple culture is who a people are with or without reason or explanation. 

The three people I spoke with gave some passionate definitions for diversity and culture. I think that this topic can become very controversial for some people. It made me think about what I think diversity and culture is. Diversity to me a variety of different groups from different backgrounds, religions, race, gender, social status, and sexual preference. Culture to me is a persons values, beliefs, and traditions. I think that Barbara and Dexter definitions were very close to mine and the definitions I have read from the text and articles. It was interesting to find out how each person think from 3 different generations and backgrounds. 

My Family Culture

This week we were asked to imagine ourselves in a major catastrophe were we would have to evacuate our country and we had no input in anything. We were asked to choose three things that we hold dear to us and that represent my family culture.

The 3 items that I would choose to take with me would be a picture of my family, a bible given to me by my mother, and my birth certificate. 

The family picture is important to me because it will remind me where I came from and if by any chance that I get separated from my family that I would not forget what they looked like.

 

I brought the bible with me because my help comes from the Lord. All the answers I need for everything that is going on in my life would come from that book. My religion is very important to me and I would need to take it with me everywhere I go. 

My birth certificate would be important to me because I need proof of where I was born. I needed a reminder and certification of my birth place. 

I would be very upset if I could only bring one of my items with me. I would be very heartbroken and I may even protest. All 3 of my items are very important to me and I need all 3 of them with me. If I truly had to the only item I would bring with me would be my bible. The bible would help me get through this hard time. 

I learned that my faith is stronger than I thought it was. I have been doubting my faith because I have been worrying about to many things that I do not have control over, but after reading my post I realized that my faith is strong in the Lord than I thought it was. My family has always been very strict about our Christianity and we always went to church and not just on Sunday's. I guess I have not lost those values and I will continue to use them. Years ago during slavery and the civil rights movement, religion was a major source for African Americans. They trusted and believed that the Lord would free them and get them through that time. The Lord is the only one who could help them sustain beatings and mistreatment by the dominant culture. 

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When I Think of Research..........

    

•  I have gained a lot of insight from taking this course. I have a better understanding of what research is and what steps to take to conduct a research study. I understand that every question may not be compatible for a research study. Some questions may be to broad and cannot be condensed into a hypothesis. I have learned that there are more than one method to conduct a research. For instance, there is quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. I learned how to turn my research question into a hypothesis. I learned the meaning of several words I was unfamiliar with. There is a lot of insight I have gained about research through this course. 

•      I was terrified of research before this course. I did not know the extent of doing a research study. I am more comfortable about doing research. I use to think that research was boring and I have found out through this course that research can be exciting and it takes a lot of hard work and dedication.

 

•      I learned that planning is very important. You must have a plan about your research before you can even start. I believe planning is important with everything you do in life. I cannot just up and go on vacation without planning the vacation because I would need to book the hotel, air flight, save money, put in for days off of work. The same goes for research; I would have to develop a research question, find material on my research question, decide on who I will use for my research, where I will do my research, and how I will do my research. Planning, designing, and conducting the research takes a lot of time and effort. 

•      A challenge that I encountered in the beginning of the class was my research question. My original research question was too broad and could not be condensed into a hypothesis, so I had to change my research question. Another challenge I encountered was understanding some of the terminology used during certain projects. It took me a minute to grasp the understanding and get a better understanding of what was being asked of me to do. Some of the feedback from my colleagues and instructor helped me better understand the terminology.

•           An early childhood professional has a lot of work to do. It is not as easy as most people may perceive this profession. Teaching, protecting, guiding, and developing young minds is a challenge. Working directly with children ages 0 to 8 years old can be very stressful and rewarding. Watching children grow and their families grow is very rewarding. Research in early childhood is very important because it helps protect the children and their families along with correcting any challenges that may occur in this field. Finding out why a child is so aggressive or why the child cries most of the day is very important to research in early childhood. With the knowledge of know what is going on with the child and the family can help both the child and family succeed in life. A child in poverty does not have to become an adult in poverty. Early childhood can make a difference in every community, nationality, and social background!