Ending the course but beginning with the fight...

As this course on diversity and anti-bias education comes to a close I realize that my role as an EC professional fighting for anti-bias education has just begun. I hope that one day diverse children and families will be welcomed and celebrated in the classroom by professionals who genuinely care about their well-being and education. I hope that my anti-bias work will influence and even change the societal stigma that diverse families and children face on a regular basis.
One goal I suggest for the early childhood field as it relates to diversity, equity, and social justice, is to train up professionals who are challenged to look past their personal bias and move forward with anti-bias education, before they begin in the classroom.
To all my colleagues I want to say thank you. Thank you for sharing your experiences, stories, and opinions openly. I have learned so much from the different perspectives you all have shared and it has made me a better professional and colleague. May you prosper in your efforts against bias in education.

Welcoming Families from Around the World

 

 

I chose Russia to be my new family's country of origin. I do not know anything about this culture and would love to learn more about it. Working in an early childhood center, some things I would do to prepare myself for the arrival of this child and family would be:

 

-Read up on the country history and government and learn about the traditions, culture, education systems, food, pop culture, and music.

-Include Russian children's stories and books in my class library and put out the food and dress  representative of the country in the Dramatic Play area. 

-Learn some basic phrases and words in the language like sit down, paper, crayons, scissors, bathroom, hello, etc.

-Print out labels in the written language to post around the room to accompany the labels in English and Spanish.

-Purchase popular Russian children's songs and include them into the curriculum.

 

I hope that by researching this country and setting up the classroom to include some of the things the child possibly saw in previous classrooms would be welcoming to the child and family. That they would see I was open and willing to help with the transition and with the education of their child. I hope they would see that me and the class were happy to have them be a part of our class community. I do not want to appear to be trying too hard and fake, so I would not bombard them with too much enthusiasm. Moving to another country is hard enough, so I would hope they could find some peace knowing their child was in an environment that celebrated her and not ignored her.



The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

What memory do you have of an incident when you experienced bias, prejudice, and/or oppression?

My memory happened about five months ago when I arrived home from work, I had noticed my lawn had been cut. I had asked the young man who cut it for me not to cut it when I was not home (for safety reasons) and this happened to be the third time he had done so. I decided that I would pay him but no longer require his services. I drove around the corner to his house where his step father was sitting out on the porch. He called for the boy to come out and I gave him his money and told him I would no longer need his services. I also told him why and he said he forgot. As I was leaving his step father asked me where I got my truck (I had just purchased it the month before). I told him and he said it must have been a nice treat from my husband. I told him I was not married and to that he scoffed and said “you bought that all on your own? And you own that house up there on the hill? I thought for sure you had a man living there with you. I never heard of a woman doing that all by herself. My God! Well that’s a nice truck and if you ever need anything (creepy emphasis here) at all, you know there’s a man right here.”

This specific incident displayed sexism at its best. I thought it odd for him to think I, a hard working woman, could not buy a house and a car without the help of a man. He thought it odd for me to have done it. He acted like I was a freak of nature. This diminishes equity because he didn’t take into account my individual ability as a woman without a man. This incident , number one made me laugh at his ignorance, number two made me gag at his offer of manhood to assist me, and number three made me proud of my accomplishments. Did I feel a twinge of apprehension because I do want a husband one day? Nope. J

In order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity that man’s thinking about the capacity of women needs to change. And perhaps meeting me has started that process for him...

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

Microaggressions are defined as brief everyday indignities that are verbal, behavioral, or environmental. They may be intentional or unintentionally communicated to women, to people of color, or to those of differing sexual orientation, and have an insulting message behind them that often causes severe psychological distress and harm ( Laureate Education, Inc., 2011).

One microaggression that I have witnessed, among many in my workplace, was toward my best friend. She is bicultural with a Hispanic father and a German mother. She has a last name that is rather easy to pronounce but teachers in our school seem to have a difficult time pronouncing it. Her last name is Chavez. Many teachers pronounce it with a fake French-sounding accent (Shhhha-vez). She politely corrects them all the time and even provides a word to help them remember how to say it (rhymes with Travis). The other teachers responses range from apologetic to annoyance. One teacher in particular addressed her incorrectly (Hey Shhhha-vez or however you say it, I don't know. Well, all your names end in a 'z' anyway.)

I was furious upon hearing it, not to mention my friend's reaction- she walked away. This just happened in an elementary school by a teacher. When my friend addressed it the next day, the teacher got defensive and apologized saying she just gets confused.

I was aware of the effects of discrimination, prejudice, and stereotypes on people previous to this observation because I have been on the receiving end of them too often.

References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). Microaggressions in Everyday Life. [Multimedia Presentation]. Retrieved from Walden University course notes.

Perspectives on Diversity & Culture

 

I interviewed different people that I know about their thoughts on culture and diversity. When I asked them they all acknowledged that both were hard to define.

Person #1 (Jessica, 3rd grade teacher, Hispanic and German, best friend)

Diversity: Different Individuals Valuing Each other Regardless of Size, Intelligence, Talent, or Years

Culture: a group of people that celebrate the same values and traditions, see things in the same perspective, respect one another regardless of their differences, value one another

 

Person #2 (Nevia, PreK teacher, African American, mentor)

Diversity: Differences between any given group.

Culture: The background of an individuals upbringing.

 

Person #3 (John, insurance adjuster, African American, older brother)

Diversity: Diversity is about all-inclusiveness, the antithesis of homogeneity. Unfortunately it is defined by its absence in our country. Diversity would not be an issue in a true melting pot situation. we don't have diversity, we have homogeneity in our workplaces and in the lunchrooms at schools. We gravitate to people that look like us. Diversity is the opposing force to homogeneity. The concept of diversity has been developed because of our natural inclination to be with people like ourselves. It is our effort to change our natural instinct.

Culture: Culture is the set of beliefs, traditions, activities, and art of a group of people (utensils they eat with, the way they dress, their music, religion, what they watch). All of the semi-tangible things that make up a people.

 

Person #4 (Justin, Optical Dept., African American, younger brother)

Diversity: a melting pot, adds flavor, keeps things from being bland, individuality brought together as a whole.

Culture: heritage, roots, origin, the individuality of a specific group, different lifestyles that go through time.

 

So far this course has covered a few different aspects of culture and diversity, a few of which are mentioned in some of the above answers from the interviews- diversity as a representation of people who are different valuing other people who are different, and diversity being what makes us special as a people. Culture is represented in the very essence of a people. What they do and how they do it and how it gets passed on through generations.

Some aspects of culture and diversity were omitted like the importance of children and families being celebrated in their differences and what we as people can do about changing the way we view each other.

Learning what other people think about culture and diversity has helped me to realize that everyone does not necessarily think about culture and diversity on a regular basis or what they actually mean. As an educator I am to think about it all the time and how I can foster a healthy environment that encourages and supports family cultures and student diversity in my classroom. I need to not only think of it how I see it but also how other people (families I serve) may see it and consider their view when teaching their children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





My Family Culture
Three items I would take with me in the event a catastrophe were to devastate my home country would be my Bible, my glasses, and a photo album.
The Bible is probably my most prized possession. My encouragement and sustenance is derived from the Word of God. It means that much to me. My glasses are also important because I cannot see adequately without them. Depending on what host country I am in- I may not be able to get another pair of glasses. I would also take a photo album with my family and home in it.
If, upon arrival to my host country I was told I could only keep one item, I would keep my Bible.
Through this exercise I have learned that my family is important to me, but my faith is more important than them. In the end that is all I will have. My family culture is one that encourages rich relationship with Christ and to be real representations of His love to others.

When I Think of Research....

This course has helped me to realize that research is exactly what I thought it was- a lot of work. However my attitude toward it previous to taking this course and becoming knowledgeable about it was a negative one. I was not willing to do the work before because I was not sure if it was all necessary. Now I know that every part of the research design is necessary and deliberate in producing a quality project and I willfully take on the challenge of doing the work.

Speaking of being deliberate in the research process includes the planning, designing, and conducting of it- which are all equally tedious and potentially difficult. One has to plan for as many outcomes as possible and design a study in such a way that it respects the field, the children, the educators, and the researcher while proving, uncovering, supporting, or informing others of the topic.

Some of the challenges I encountered were designing a way to conduct my research. I had trouble gaining permission to use some methods such as interviewing, and had to change up my method of data collection a few times. I also foresee problems in analyzing the data because I do not want it to be tainted with my views. Having other researchers look into analyzing my data will be a great solution to this problem.

I have grown to respect EC professionals, including myself, as researchers. As mentioned before I did not think there was much to it before this class. Knowing now that I hold the tools and the power to be a legitimate researcher, I feel like I have more to contribute to the field of EC.