Communication and Culture

I find myself communicating differently when families of a different culture come into our center.  I overly prepare.  I think of how we interacting with the previous family and draw on the knowledge from that family.  However, in doing so I negate that fact that a family may be from the same culture but the families culture may not be the same as the previous family.

Three strategies that I could use to help me communicate more effectively with the people that I have identified are: “Be conscious of cultural differences, rather than ignoring the differences, Learn as I interact and be willing to adjust my behavior as I learn, and adjust my behavior to others to ethnically accommodate difference and expectations” (Beebe, 2011, p. 114).

References

Beebe, S. A., Beebe, S. J., & Redmond, M. V. (2011). Interpersonal communication: Relating to others (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

           

Communication Skills: Language, Nonverbal, Listening

SILENCE

I chose to watch 30 minutes of a movie clip. The title of the movie was “Source Code.”

In silence the movie began with a view of a city with water surrounding it and a train that was moving along a track.  A man sleeping train was frowning, he appeared to be dreaming. Suddenly he wakes up and looks frightened.  There was a woman seated across from him that began to speak to him while smiling.  The man appears to be confused.  The man talks to the woman and she smiles.  He gets up and walks on the train looking around as if he is lost.  The man goes to the door of the train looks out and then gets back on the train.  He sits back in his seat and peers out the window of the train while frowning.  He holds up his head and looks at his watch. He begins to talk with the woman using a hand gesture to indicate stop.  Then an explosion happened and the man opened his eyes in a different place.  He’s looking around, closes his eyes tightly and reopens he appears to be confused.  He‘s fastened in a belt in a seat and struggles to free himself but could not.  He talks with a woman on a television screen. Then he flashes back to the train with the young lady on the train talking and smiling at him.  He still appears to be confused, but he smiles and look at his watch and seems to be at ease.  He jumps out of his seat and goes over to another passenger, snatches the papers out of his hand and speaks to him in close proximity.  He get’s off of the train, then steps back on. He walks along the aisle of the train as if he is franticly looking for something, he begins to search compartments, his eyes are looking back and forth, he opens a vent and looks in an finds what appears to be a bomb. He looks up and is talking to someone.  He then leaves that area flashes his identification and states something.  He walks over to a passenger with a computer and states something the passenger responds and then the man proceeds to punch him in the face.  After this occurred the women moves out of her seat says something to the guy and helps the young man that was punched.  He is then back talking with the woman on the screen, he yells and appears to be very upset.  He looks directly at the woman.

WITH SOUND

After watching the movie clip with the sound the difference that I noticed was the music indicated that there was something about to take place.  And as the facial expressions by the actor was as I had indicated when viewing the clip in silence he was confused.  An “Aha” moment that took place was that I noticed that when I watched the clip in silence I could not turn away for a moment because I would miss something that happened during the movie clip, but with the sound the music and listening to the language that was being spoken aided in my interpretation of what was taking place during the movie.

Effective Communication

I will use my mentor she is a very effective communicator.  When it comes to her staff she always provides answers to why certain things have to happen.  Her nonverbal communication is always pleasant.  We she is feeling certain why she openly communicates with her staff. She is honest.  She is not passive.  She addresses issues so that it does not leave room for assumption. She guides her staff in their educational development.  She makes everyone feel valued and important in their respective places but always leaves room for their growth.

I definitely would like to model my own communication behaviors after this person because it makes your job much easier and the staff have a certain level of respect because of your honestly and they see your genuine care.

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.

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

On this week there was a little girl who attends our center.  She outwardly disobeyed her parent and was disciplined immediately. The staff shrugged their shoulders and made the assumption that the mother would still allow the child to participate in the activities regardless of the unacceptable behavior.  “You know that you people give in and the child is in charge.” During our Summer Program children participate in different field trips and art projects on the next week the children are scheduled to go to the Children’s Museum.  However, the mother called back later to check on the child and stated that “She will not be attending the field trip on next week.” 

This was a microinsult.  Because of the staff member’s experience with that culture they made the assumption that this parent would do the same.  That their children are verbally disciplined but there are no consequences.  When hearing the microaggression I wanted to apologize to the parent and correct the staff member for making such an accusation.

My observation really made me feel like I needed to do something.  Have training with my staff to inform them of what microaggression really are and to encourage them to be more careful when speaking with parents and children because we want them to feel included in our program and not to make statements that would make them feel otherwise.