Professional hopes and goals

                       I have learned countless valuable lessons and gained so much knowledge about diversity in the early childhood classroom. I definitely learned more about the human condition and society as well as more about child development and practices. This has been one of my most enjoyable and eye-opening classes yet

                      One hope I have as it relates to children and families that come from diverse backgrounds is for more child practitioners to learn about the importance of diversity. I hope more teachers and center directors value diversity and learn how to serve diverse families in ways that suit these children and families best. I want to see more classes on diversity in the certification programs offered by schools and at my local child resources office.  I will definitely always try to share my knowledge, be an example, and teach these lessons to my fellow teachers.

                      One goal I have for the early childhood field as it relates to diversity, equity, and social justice is to grow a more diverse group of teachers and directors. I think having a very diverse groups of staff helps more in sending out the positive message of diversity to the children it serves. This goes for all groups of people: disabled, older generation, people from various ethnicities and who speak other languages, ect.. Specifically, I would like to see more men working in the field. There are many valuable experiences in having a male preschool teacher included in the classroom. There is a pretty even amount of female to male teachers in middle school and up but not as many men in grades below that. In my 7 years of working in a preschool, I have only seen one male teacher and he was wonderful with the children. One way this could be done is to encourage more boys/men in high school to take on these jobs and careers as they decide for college. It may also help if the benefits and salaries of preschool teachers rose. I found a wonderful resource from the Early Childhood News website about men working in the early childhood field: http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=400

                      I want to thank all of my classmates for their incredibly insightful comments and discussion posts. I am going to take all of the knowledge you shared with me as I teach and lead others. I lok forward to seeing you all again in the next class and best of luck to you!

Welcoming Families from Around the World

               This week I am going to research a country I know nothing about. This is great to do to help children and families feel welcome and supported. This will also help me to be more informed and do my job better. The country I picked is Indonesia. Before I read about this country, I didn’t even know where it was located.

Five ways I plan on preparing myself to be culturally responsive towards this family:

1.      ~I will make sure to learn about all the aspects of their native language; what it sounds like, if there are other similar languages native to that country, and familiarize myself with some basic words.

2.     ~ I plan to read about the countries child care practices past and present. What is the most common form of child care and what are its costs? What are some popular child rearing practices and family set-ups?

3.     ~I will research the state of the government and its history.

4.      ~I will give them a “get to know me” sheet to get some basic information on the family, such as, the child’s likes and dislikes, the parents jobs, and other unique aspects of the family and child.

5.      ~I plan on adding toys and books about Indonesia with the hope of sharing this information with the rest of the children and making the new child feel welcome.

6.     ~ I will look up information on their surface culture.

             I hope these preparations give me the confidence I need to feel that I can serve this family it their best interests. I do a better job when I feel informed, knowledgeable, and confident in my abilities.  I hope that the family will gain a sense of trust and partnership with me. This task can take some time but the sooner the better. The better I can serve this family and make them feel welcome, the better they will feel about working with me in caring for their child. 

My experience

                Since I have been learning about microaggressions, inequities, and oppression, I have been watching out for and noticing their examples. Just last week I noticed an example of an inequity/discrimination within a community college I used to attend.

                 I was at the front desk getting some info on a class and a black woman came up to the counter. She asked the lady (who was white) if she could pull up her account and let her know what classes are coming up next semester. As she was explaining them to her, the black woman asked why she wasn’t register to take a certain class she was expecting to take. The girl behind the counter said that she can only take two classes this semester and was penalized for taking a class twice. The black woman explained that she took the class to get a better grade and is aiming for a 4.0 GPA. The girl behind the counter repeated her comment and said that was the policy. The black woman was upset and confused and made it clear that something was wrong about that policy. My initial thought was that the student was in the right and that she could have been discriminated against. I am very certain that students are allowed to take a class a second time, and only a second time, to improve their grade. She is trying to graduate with honors and maybe this particular white girl or whoever penalized her in the computer system did not like this successful black woman. It was certainly a fishy conversation and I would have been upset myself if had happened to me; especially if it is about the color of my skin. The lady behind the counter might have been misunderstood about the policy. I really cannot say for sure. I know one thing for sure, if my assumptions are correct, then the white girl or whoever penalized her needs a lesson on tolerance, equality, and herself. That is the only way this inequity could change for the better.

              I don’t think I would have thought about this being an act of discrimination before having taken this class. I probably would have not thought about it much. It has my eyes open and I am glad for it. I hope I can influence others in doing the right thing.