Professional Hopes and Goals

It is my hope that I can provide a setting where all children, no matter where they come from, feel safe and a part of my class. I want to promote a successful learning environment and understand that this may take a little more effort on my part, but am willing to do whatever it takes to help them all succeed.

One goal I would like to see for the early childhood field would be to incorporate cultural awareness into my classroom more so that when we do acquire children form diverse backgrounds, it provides for a smoother transition for the children and their families.

I appreciate all the comments and posts that you each shared throughout this course and wish you the best of luck as you continue on this journey. It has been a great class full of information that will help us as educators in the early childhood field. Hopefully we will meet again in future courses!

Welcoming Families From Around the World

The family that I will be working with is from Guatemala, which is located in Central America.
As a child care center worker, I have the opportunity of integrating and acclimating this family into our community. Some of the things that I would do to help be culturally responsive to this family are:
1. Share common vocabulary words in both our language and their language.
2. Invite the family to come and share things with our group that pertains to their culture - games, items, foods.
3. Research information about how education system is in Guatemala.
4. Research information about special holidays and have the children share about holidays as a group activity.
5. Share books in my classroom library that pertains to their culture.
I hope that by gaining a more indepth study of their country and through sharing about where they came from in the classroom, I can help them see that I am excited that they are here and that I am interested in their family both personally and culturally.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

In considering bias, prejudice, and oppression and how these have affected me personally, I would recall an incident that was reflective of my identity as a pastor’s wife. Speaking from experience, being a pastor’s wife is not an easy job. Unfortunately, or fortunately, whichever way you choose to look at it, we are often defined by what our husbands do. I remember being asked questions and thought, “I am not the one that you are seeking for the pastoral position, I am a school teacher.” Another incident directly related to being a pastor’s wife that I would share involved a group of people that I worked with. I was not invited to participate in an outing with this group because I was a “pastor’s wife.” This incident initially belittled me. It was terribly hurtful and to think that these people were supposed to be my friends. It took me some time to realize that these people that chose to not include me in their evening activities, were probably more ashamed of what they were going to be doing than the fact that I was a pastor’s wife. They were embarrassed and not inviting me to participate with them kept them from feeling bad for doing whatever it was they were going to be doing. After a while, and a few hurt feelings, I realized just how fortunate I was to have been called to be the wife of a pastor. I love my husband and my church and would not change this part of my life for anything. If others wanted to shun me for who I am, then so be it. After praying about this situation, I knew that I had to change the way that I felt about this situation or I was going to be the one who was miserable and I did not want that.

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

During this week I overheard a conversation that was taking place in the hallway within a group of children. There were two little white girls (1st grade) and a little Hispanic girl named Josenia. (also 1st grade). Josenia was coming back from speech therapy and the two little white girls noticed she had a pink toy in her hand. They walked over to her and began asking her questions about the toy and where she had gotten it. Josenia was very shy acting and as she lowered her head, I heard her mumble something. The speech therapist was just a couple steps ahead and she stopped and looked back at Josenia. I could tell the speech teacher was listening in on the conversation and then I heard one of the other little girls ask her why she went with that teacher. I truly believe that these little girls were unintentional and meant no harm in anything they said, but Josenia sure looked scared.

I felt scared and nervous for Josenia as I know that she speaks some English as I have some interaction with her in the bus room, but her English is somewhat limited. I think she really was not sure what to say to them.

I can see after reading and learning about microaggressions that this is something that happens very frequently, sometimes unintentionally and sometimes intentionally.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

After speaking with a family member, and asking about him to define the terms culture and diversity this is how he described them:

Culture can be described as an identifiable group of people with common values and customs.

Diversity can be described as variations within a culture of those values and customs which are not necessary common to the culture but not sufficient enough to break from the culture.

A colleague of mine defined these terms as follows:

Culture can be described as the way people think and live.

Diversity can be defined as the differences in people and places.

I asked a friend from Iceland to also define these two terms and these are his responses:

Culture can be defined as the norms and the conditions under which a society lives.

Diversity can be defined as recognition of different cultures and different norms between more than one group of people.

I believe that each of these responses are very similar and reflect what I think and believe as the definitions of both terms. I also believe that through my educational courses I have a better understanding of these terms. I do not believe that the terms offer any omission, but I do believe that these terms have been described somewhat superficially, which is how I would have described them before studying them more thoroughly in my classes.

My Family Culture

What three items would I take with me, in the event that my country was devastated by a major catastrophe, and the emergency government had decided that the surviving citizens would be best served if they were evacuated to outher countries that were willing to take refugees,and me and my immediate family are among the survivors? I would take - My Bible, my family photos, and my passport.

I would take my Bible because as a Christian, it is where I find my strength. It is something that I can rely on to help me through troubled times.

I would also take photos of my family. I love my family and pictures would offer me some sort of comfort if they could not physically be with me.

My third and final item would be my passport. I know that when I have been out of the country in the past, that my passport is golden. It is my way back to where I am from and if the opportunity ever came to return to my country, I would hope that it would get me there.

If I was told that I could only keep one item it would be my Bible. I would just have to rely on my Lord and Savior to help me through.

This exercise really got me to thinking about what was most important. My bible and my photos are relevant to my family culture and who I am.

When I Think of Research...

I have gained several insights about research after completing this course. I have an increased knowledge about how to conduct research and how to dissect what I am reading when considering research – weeding out the good and the bad. Research is not something that can be taken lightly, and although there is a lot of research out there, it should not all be considered valid.

I think that I have realized that there is a lot more to consider when doing research than I had previously thought before taking this class. I have learned many lessons about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood. When planning research, it is important to take time to carefully design your research. Through carefully designed research, you can ensure that your research provides you with the data that allows you to achieve what you have set out to achieve (Mac Naughton, Rolfe, Siraj-Blatchford, 2010).

I think that a challenge for me is that I struggled with how to organize and implement all the different methods for my research simulation. I have realized that research offers us a lot of information and there is a lot of research already out there that we can use to our benefit. Again, not all research is reliable, but with what I have learned through this course, I feel that I am better able to distinguish what can be considered valuable and what cannot

I appreciate all the comments and posts that have been shared throughout this course and I look forward to continuing through this program with many of you!

References

Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S.A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood research: International perspectives on theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.