Professional Hopes and Goals

This course has forced me to critically assess my belief system in light of the various issues pertaining to diversity, equity and social justice; identifying my biases and helping me to realize the need to remove the fortified barriers that might have been erected either intentionally or unintentionally thus impeding children’s progress. 

My hope for working with children and families from diverse backgrounds is that their culture will be honored in the teaching learning environment.  Their culture must become visible in order to give them an opportunity to develop into a just world, a world that recognizes each child as unique, fully human beings with the ability to be all that they can (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). 

Children must be able to make the connection between school culture and home culture in order to fulfill their highest potential.  Children who experience severe cultural discontinuity between home and school will experience difficulty succeeding at school.  Children thrive best when their home culture is integrated in all aspects of the early childhood setting.  In such setting, children will learn and develop because they feel “supported, nurtured and connected not only to their home communities and families but also to teachers and the educational setting” (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010 cited NAEYC 1995, 2)

One goal I will like to establish for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity and social justice is to ensure that all teachers are trained in the area so that all our children provided with critical pedagogy - provision has been made to address the issues of power and inequity and culturally relevant pedagogy - teaching aimed at educational liberation for groups of children who are marginalized that will optimize their development (Hyland 2010 cited Ladson-Billings 1994; Beauboeuf-Lafontant 1999).

I extend thanks to each and everyone who has been part of this journey.  It has been rewarding.  I know we are better poised to ensure that equity and social justice become a reality for all children.  I thank you for sharing your many experiences; they helped to reinforce our understanding of the various issues.  I am sure that you would have also benefitted from my contributions.  I wish you all the best in your future courses and I am looking forward to sharing future classes with many of you. 

References

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Hyland, N. E. (2010). Social justice in early childhood classrooms: What the research tells us. YC: Young Children, 65(1), 82–87. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the ProQuest Central database: http://search.proquest.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/docview/197637742?accountid=14872

Welcoming Families From Around the World

The country I have selected is Indonesia.  It is the world’s fourth most populated nation. 

In order to be culturally responsive towards the family I will prepare myself in the following ways:-

1.      Familiarize myself with the culture of the country.

2.      Enquire from which region of Indonesia the family is from so I can familiarize myself with basic words from their culture such as good morning, good afternoon, how are you so I can utilize them to make the family feel welcome and at the same time expressing care and concern for the family.

3.      Include artifacts from Indonesia in our centre such as books, customs and traditions.

4.      Source the assistance of an interpreter if required.

5.       Enquire from the family what their expectations for their child and how the school can assist in that regard.

6.      Exercise sensitivity when dealing with the family.  Ensure that respect is displayed at all times and an increased level of alertness in order to analyze carefully the spoken and the unspoken forms of language.

I hope that the preparations will benefit both parties – the family and myself, in that, the family will realize that they are valued.  Each family matters as such by taking time to familiarize myself about their culture and to display aspects of their culture, the family will recognize that I value diversity so it can reduce or possible eradicate some of the barriers that are usually erected as defensive measures.  They will therefore realize that their input will be greatly appreciated.  As the educator, the preparation will sensitize me on the culture including the do and don’ts so I can operate from a position of knowledge.  By so doing, both parties will exchange ideas for the enhancement of the child’s development in an atmosphere of respect and tolerance.  

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

My brother was performing quite well at medical school; he even assisted many students who were experiencing difficulty.  However, to complete his program requires him to successful complete the National Board Exam which takes about 12 hours.  When he sat the National Board Exam, he was informed that he passed the exam.  About 2 weeks later he received another call this time notifying him that he did not succeed.

It is highly unacceptable for a university to release results stating that someone was successful and subsequently call again this time informing the person that he did not succeed.  It means that they had engaged in institutional and interpersonal racism.  My brother noted that some students from the dominant culture, who succeeded struggled throughout the program, even sought his assistance at times yet he was being told that he did not succeed.

I was spell-bound when I got the news.  My brother is a conscientious worker.  He has applied himself extremely well throughout his schooling and never failed any exam so it was really shocking to receive such devastating news.  More so the manner in which the result was conveyed. 

In order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity, I believe that people of color who will advocate for social justice must form part of all the committees at those institutions to ensure that fairness exists.  Persons of the dominant culture who sit on the various committees at the institution need to understand their own biases and deal with them, before they can honestly relate to people of color.  Margles and Margles (2010) noted that “no one, no matter how intelligent and skillful at critical thinking, is protected against the subliminal suggestions that imprint themselves on our unconscious brain.”  This implies that institution should seek to empower all citizens equitably.  Persons should not be given an unfair advantage over others on the basis of racism or any other “ism.”     Discrimination can alter a person’s destiny if measures are not taken to avert the likely results.

Reference

Margles, S., & Margles, R. M. (2010). Inverting racism's distortions. Our Schools/Our Selves, 19(3), 137–149. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database: http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=51372248&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

My awareness of microaggressions has forced me exercise greater alertness to the use of oral language because I am now aware that it is possible to classify some of these messages as microaggression which can be categorized as racial, sexual orientation and gender microaggressions according to Dr Sue (Laureate Education, 2011).  During the week West Indies Cricket team played a match and the commentators were discussing Marlon Samuel’s bowling so John turned to Rebecca and said Samuel’s bowling is once again engaging the attention of the commentators.  Rebecca replied, “Wasn’t Marlon accused of that before?”  John said, “Rebecca, you know the game!  Rebecca simply turned and looked at him.  He simply smiled.  Immediately upon witnessing it, I said to John you have just committed a microaggression.  I told him that it’s a new term to me and I am paying attention to the spoken word to identify instances where these indignities are committed. John most likely was well-intentional but that microaggression sought to invalidate the lady because it is not very common in his opinion for a lady to be abreast of what is taking place in cricket which to him may be still considered a man’s game. 

My observation this week made me recognize that discrimination, prejudice and /or stereotypes on people occur on a daily basis and in different degrees.  Microaggressions inflict the greatest pain on the person who is on the receiving end. Some may be a bit slight but some may be very blatant so there is need to exercise sensitivity.    According to Dr. Sue “It saps the spiritual and psychological energies of the person receiving the microaggression because it is cumulative in nature.”  Microaggressions have further raised my level of awareness to additional injustices that are committed on a daily basis and some of them may provide teachable moments which we may be able to capitalize on because these offensive remarks can be extremely damaging.  In order to live harmoniously with each other in our multicultural society, we must identify acts of microaggression where possible so we can avoid using them since they are repressive to the person/s receiving them.

Reference

Laureate Education (2011). Microaggressions in Everyday Life [Video Program]. Retrieved fromhttp://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5691618&Survey=1&47=8207343&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1