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!
Best of luck to you and thank you for shring such great post with us! I too have only seen a couple of male teachers in the early childhood field, and the ones I knew were great. In some cases little boys might not have an active father in their lives, and having a male teacher gives them someone to look up too. I have seen this in my center, and I love it! How to have another class with you at Walden. Take care
ReplyDeleteI have really enjoyed reading this last blog post. I have really enjoyed this course and interacting with my classmates. Each person has taught me new things that I did not know before taking this course. I see that you have a goal of having more diverse teachers and directors, I never would have thought of that. This is a very good idea and I wish you good luck in whatever you do. I know sometimes it may get hard, but motivation is the key. I hope to one day, create materials where more than one grop is represented in the early childhood field.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading you post on all groups of people: disabled and older generation. My passion is special education. So when it comes to disabled, I am an advocate for the rights of my children. Good luck and hopefully we will be in the next class together.
ReplyDeleteCreating a diverse staff is one of the major steps in providing an truly educational and welcoming environment. Diversity of thought is similarly as important as diversity of culture or race. Although it may be hard to hire or work with someone who knowing disagrees with you, having the power to look behind that and see the benefit of exposure to conflicting viewpoints could provide to the learning experience can be very rewarding for all members of the educational community.
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