EDUC 6164

 

Week 8: Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that they find acceptance and opportunities in their early childhood programs and/or communities. When you accept, you respect and you open up to learning more about someone and that in turn builds opportunities.

One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice would be to listen. Listen and find out more about someone you don’t know anything about. When we take the time to learn, we create relationships and diminish those biases and “isms” that exist.  This course really gave me a chance to analyze and reanalyze my own social identities as a person and as a professional.  

I would like to thank all of my colleagues in EDUC 6164. I appreciate your contributions in the class discussions and blogs. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors. Good luck to you all!

Week 7: Welcoming Families From Around the World

A child in my daughter’s class comes from an East India decent. I would like to find out more about their family and their culture.

Five ways in which you I would prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family would be:

1.     Research the country and its origins

2.     Conduct the first family conference in their home. This would give you an opportunity to observe the child in their own environment and how they interact with their family members.

3.     Create a picture dictionary for the child if they don’t speak English.

4.     Ask the family to volunteer in the classroom and observe the routines and activities. This gives them an opportunity to see their child in their classroom environment and ask questions about the structure of the classroom.

5.     Incorporate the family’s beliefs, values, and food into the classroom environment.

I would hope that by being open and receptive to new cultures would allow the family to feel comfortable in the classroom setting and would invite their participation in the classroom. This would also bridge the gap between home and school and provide a consistent and culturally aware environment.

Week 4: Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

 Last night my husband and I went to comedy show here in town. Actor & Comedian Eddie Griffin was performing. WOW, talk about microinsult overload! Not only that, but every other word he spoke was the "n" word. I was even starting to feel uncomfortable. During the show someone in the audience yelled out an unrelated comment to his joke at the time and he came back at them with "r" word jokes. (I don't like to use this word, so please forgive me but I"m referring to the word retard.) Just then, a man sitting a few rows ahead of us got up and walked out. I didn't think anything of it, but my husband nudged my shoulder to look at him as he limped up the stairs. I felt really upset with the comedian for pushing it that far and I also felt sad for the man who got up and walked out. He eventually returned to his seat some 15 minutes later.

In a way I understand that the comedian didn't mean any harm to one person, but because of his comments and jokes could've ended up hurting more than one person. I feel that there's a way that you can make jokes and still be funny, without hurting anyone emotionally. This is how stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination begin. All it takes is one person to say something "funny" and one more person to think its "funny".


Week 3:

After talking with my friend, cousin, and co-worker, I realized that everyone has their own definitions of culture and diversity.

Friend: I define culture as our language, heritage, customs, beliefs, and religion. Diversity is a group of people who associate with cultures in a different way, or their own way. Cousin: Culture is everything about us. It’s our language, the way we celebrate, our food, religious practices, and much much more. Diversity means a blend of differences.

Co-worker: I would define culture as the way we live our lives. Everything that we do, eat, speak, believe, associate with, choose, teach, practice, defines our culture. Diversity means being different. We share differences and similarities in our world and that is what creates our culture as well.

Our experiences, values, and beliefs shape our definition of culture and diversity. What we have learned so far is apparent in the responses I received. Everyone I interviewed described culture as our values, religion, beliefs, food, language, lifestyle, etc. I don’t think any aspects have been omitted. They did a good job defining what they feel defines culture and diversity. After thinking about their responses, it has given me a better understanding of how my friends and family identify with culture and diversity. I agree with many of their responses and have learned a lot about them that I didn’t know before.

Week 2: My Family Culture

This is so hard for me to think about because I can sometimes be a hoarder and everything I own holds some personal significance to me. I know for sure I would take a rosary. We're Catholic and although we don't attend church regularly, we still hold our religion dear and value faith. The second item would be a family photo album. I would like to take something with me that would help remind me of my friends and family members. I love looking at photos and remembering events and special times in our lives. The third item would have to be a folder of all of our personal and financial documents such as birth certificates, life insurance info, medical insurance info, living will, passports, etc. These are important documents that verify your identity and financial means, without them you have nothing.

If upon arrival I would have to give up two of those items, I think I would keep my photo album. I'm a visual person and I would hate to forget what my friends, family members, and kids looked like at a special time in theirs and our lives. We will always have our faith and can always pray, but sometimes we remember something we didn't notice before from pictures.

This experience really gave me the opportunity to take a deeper look into my culture and what items we own that are of true significance and value. The things I thought that meant a lot to me didn't really matter when I thought about losing the 3 items I chose. This also made me think of family members we immigrated to the United States and the valuable things they were forced to leave behind. In the end, the true value is being with your family and in good health.