Professional Hopes and Goals

When reaching out to families who come from diverse backgrounds my goal is to ensure that they feel included because we have put forth the effort to gain an understanding of their cultural beliefs.  My hope is that they will feel valued and become a resource to other families that have cultural differences.  I also hope that the children will feel that they were given the same opportunities to progress as those that are not from their culture.

One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is that we all put forth the effort to understand others and see each other as valuable pieces to a great society.  Our differences are what make us strong.

Thanks to all of my colleagues during these eight weeks it was such a great opportunity to have discussions and share our different experiences regarding the children and families in the early childhood.  Thanks for your valuable input.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

My family’s country of origin is Chile.

The five ways in which I would prepare myself to be culturally responsive to the family is:

·         First I must learn about their dominant language.

·         Create an atmosphere in the classroom that will promote inclusiveness (i.e. post pictures of familiar things in different countries, have a day that we invite families in to share different cultural beliefs, foods etc.)

·         Learn about acceptable practices in the family’s home (i.e. How do they care for their children, what are acceptable eating practices)

·         If the family is not religious or does not have any religious beliefs I will ensure that the lesson include diversity so that when they are unable to participate in a religious celebration other activities will be planned in which they can participate

·         What is your country’s culture in regards to adult child interaction (i.e. is it okay for children to speak with an adult without being prompted, is eye contact acceptable are handshakes and hugs acceptable?)

These preparations will be if benefit because it will first show genuine interest to the family our willingness to learn about them and their cultural practices, it will encourage the students to make the young child feel accepted and it will also develop a strong relationship between the family, school and child which eventually will become a resource.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

The memory of an incident that I witnessed someone else as the target of bias, prejudice, and/or oppression was recently with a parent or of our child care center.  This young lady works as a private duty nurse. She visits the homes of seniors that maybe home bound and need around the clock medical attention.  One day when going to work at a team meeting she discovered that her employer had fired all of the African American CNA’s but two of them and rehired all Caucasian’s.  In a staff meeting the supervisor stated that I have heard rumors that I am prejudice.  She started by opening the meeting with a statement that “I am not prejudice.”  While making this statement she was only looking at the two African American ladies in the room.  This was clearly prejudiced.

This specific prejudice in this incident diminishes equity because it clearly discriminated against a specific race.  This also caused the African American ladies to question their abilities to work in this capacity. And they felt threatened.  This sent a negative message and they both put in a two weeks notice to leave their jobs.

This incident made me feel slighted because there are so many prejudices against that occur some intentional and some unintentional against African Americans and females as well.  It also caused me to feel saddened for the young lady because she worked really hard and long hours in school and internships to receive her certificates to work in her chosen field only to experience prejudice in her first weeks of work in the first job after completing her training.

To turn this opportunity into an opportunity for greater equity the supervisor should have provided and explanation to her staff outside of the meeting that validated the African American girls as good workers in this field.