Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have when I think about children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is for them to encounter people who are supportive, willing to listen and learn about their culture.  I want people to look beyond the evident of a individuals ethnicity and culture and open their heart to change

One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity and social justice is for people to respect each other and be open to learning what you do not understand and give people an opportunity to tell you who they are.

I would like to say to each one of my discussion board colleagues "Thank you" for the feedback you gave to some of my post.  I have learned one more thing or two about myself since the first week of this course.  But the most important things are I have learned has been how to guide children to think a different way about diversity.  We should learn about what we do not know or understand before we can make informed decisions about the behaviors we do not like in others that we encounter.  Again, Thank you to everyone enrolled in EDUC 6164 I look forward to our next discussion board meeting.  ck

Welcoming families From Around the World

The setting I chose is the child care center; I have a child joining my group from Denmark.  Ninety-eight percent of the country’s language is Danish; the other two-percent is German.  Denmark is an egalitarian society that supports women in business with equal pay and access to senior positions.  Families in Denmark are generally small and the nuclear family is the center of social structure.  They encourage their children to independent at an early age and they enter day care by age 1. 

The five ways I would prepare to culturally responsive towards the family joining my group would include:

1.  Learn how to greet the family in their native language.  I would also post some common Danish words and phrases around the classroom.
2. I would use the internet to educate myself about Danish beliefs such as the fact that they expect courteous behavior from everyone.  They greet with a firm handshake and eye-contact.
3. Plan a visit with the family in their home setting
4. Invite the family to visit the classroom before the child’s first day. 
5. Create a short video for the family to view introducing myself along with the children in the classroom then I would video some of the activities the children engage in during their day.  I invite the family to share any part of their culture that they feel comfortable revealing (I would permission from each child’s parent before videotaping).

I hope my choices of preparing will allow this family to have some insight into who I am as educator and that I am open and receptive to their child joining my group.  Including the children should help to allow the child an opportunity to put faces with the names of the children they are about to build new relationships with. 

Reference:

Denmark- Language, culture, customs and etiquette (2015).  Retrieved from

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/denmark-country-profile.html

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

The incident involving bias, prejudice, and oppression I observed this week is based on the description of a microaggression given by Dr. Sue as every day insults indignities, invalidations that occur day in and day out outside the level of awareness of the well-intentioned individual (Laureate Education, 2011).  There were three employees on break Dana who is a forty something Caucasian women, Chelsea is a dark brown complexed African-American young lady in her early twenties, and Katie who is also Caucasian and in her early twenties.  Dana comes to the desk and stands near Chelsea and comments "I am going to be working in my garden on my day off and when I am done I am sure I will be the same complexion as you little lady” referencing Chelsea.  Katie and Chelsea share a glance at each other; Katie walks away.  Chelsea's response was to laugh and after a few seconds she walked away and left Dana standing alone.  Dana never realized she committed an oppressive statement.  Katie shared with me later that she spoke with Chelsea about the incident to apologize for having experienced that situation.  Chelsea said it was fine “that is just Dana.” 

 Dana may not have intended to cast a bias, prejudice or oppressive light on Chelsea but the equity diminished at the thought Dana felt she was showing solidarity for the African-American culture and heritage.  She does not understand it is not about changing or conforming to fit in; we just want to be respected and made not to feel that the dominate culture rules. 

 The feeling the incident sparked in me was a setback in learning how to become culturally supportive to the families in our center.  I say this because while I have learned to become self-aware about my issues with –ism’s Dana is allowed to be completely free to say whatever she likes to anyone including our families. Dana is a worker who has been with the center for more than ten years engaging with families of various cultures yet she pretends to not be bias or prejudice.  A year ago she was upset because a co-worker said she made yet another prejudice comment. She is clearly not a culturally responsive individual; she along with the rest of the staff should be provided with the information about microaggressions.   

 Dana is the individual who should have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity.  She needs to do a self-awareness assessment of her cultural responsiveness.  Dana believes her honesty is approved by all; yet she does not understand that families joining our center from different cultural ethnic groups will not find any humor behind her comments much less they would not understand what she is saying. I think she should watch Dr. Derald Sue’s video about Micoraggressions. 

 

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