Professional Hopes and Goals

            When it comes to working with children and families from diverse backgrounds, the hope that I have is that we are able to communicate and understand one another. A goal I would like to set for the early childhood field relating to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is to 1) show families from diverse backgrounds that they are welcome by displaying flags and the word welcome in the language each flag represents as well as through our actions. 2) Demonstrate equity by honoring diverse families represented in the facility with a given week to share and answer questions about their culture. 3) Create strategies to increase awareness of the harmful effects of microaggressions. I am truly inspired by all of the insights and questions from the discussion. I listened to  the hearts of each of you and I learned a lot from all of you; you all have played a tremendous part in shaping my professionalism for the better. Thank you!

Welcoming Families From Around the World

            This week I will interview with a family who recently immigrated to Oklahoma from Chile. They are seeking a facility to care for their two year old while they look for work and get established. I am not familiar with culture of this country, so what I will do first is research the family dynamics and makes their visit as comfortable as possible. Secondly, I will ask them about their culture and how can I best serve them. Thirdly, I will share with them the vision and mission of the facility. I will listen to the family; there may be unspoken rules related to gender, power, and how we interact with each other and make adjustments where possible (Christen, 2006). I will ask about their needs and expectations for the child and allow them to ask questions about me, the facility, and staff.

            This increases the family’s knowledge about the facility and personnel; it assures them that they have a voice and their voice is heard; and that their culture is accepted. We benefit by learning about another culture and experiencing new and different ways of doing things.

 

Reference

Christian, L. G. (2006). Understanding families: Applying family systems theory to early childhood practice. Young Children, 61(1), 12–20. Retrieved from http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/pqdweb?did=1042679491&sid=1&Fmt=4&clientId=70192&RQT=309&VName=PQD

 

 

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

            Sometime ago, I read a book entitled A Time to Kill, written by John Grisham. It was about a little girl of color, living in the south at a time when racism was at its peak. The little girl was around 7/8 years old and while walking home from the store was struck in the head with an unopened beer, thrown at her by two white men who had passed her in a truck. They beat her, raped her, urinated and defecated on her, then dropped her from a 10 foot bridge.

            The dad of this little girl knew that justice for his daughter was not an option, given the era and geographical location in which he lived. So he took matters into his own hands and killed the two men. Now the trial is centered on a man of color, who killed two white men in cold blood; none of the people-except those of color-was interested in ‘why’ they were killed, only that they were killed by a man of color.

            While reading this novel, I had feelings of hurt, anger, sadness, sorrow and relief. I kept thinking how could this community of people be so cruel and heartless? I wanted justice so much for this family that I thought about writing a sequel to the book myself. Needless to say, due to the cunningness of the defense attorney, I was spared that task.

            The family’s attorney cleverly got the jurors to imagine every horrid detail of the abuse, rape, and attempted murder of the child and won the case with these three words-imagine her white! In this incident, had the attorney not challenged the juror to see the child white, the father would have received the death penalty. Sometimes, all it takes to avoid prejudices/oppression, or unintentional micro aggressions, is to put yourself in their shoes.

 

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

            Guadalupe and I were friends for quite some time, we met on the job. I was a security dispatcher and she with her husband cleaned the building. As I was leaving work, she politely asked me, “Why do Black women have large hips? I retorted, “Why do Hispanics have squinty eyes?” She just looked at me and walked away, we never had that conversation again. I was offended and did not feel bad for snapping back at her. Having large hips is no more a Black thing than having squinty eyes is a Hispanic thing.

             I was offended and really wanted to know why she would ask me something like that; I felt at first that she was being sarcastic but now after learning about microaggressions, I do not think her actions were intentional.
            This week’s lesson opened my eyes to the many different ways people offend one another. Microaggression happens frequently and because it is unintentional it is either numbing-you get so use to it until you do not feel the pain of it anymore, or you become desensitized- you no longer recognize it when it happens or you address it with the understanding that the perpetrator may not be aware of the hidden message received by their words. As a result, from what I learned, I choose to be mindful of candid remarks and think about how certain remarks may be perceive by others before I speak, as best I can.

           

 

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I thought this would be an easy assignment; instead it challenged me to look in to the heart of diversity and culture. I asked three of my co-workers, how they define diversity and culture. The first response came from a female of native descent:

“I really don’t have a culture because I was adopted.”

 Linda was adopted as a child, her adopted parents failed to keep her connected with her culture. As an adult, she continues to experience discontinuity and invisibility. The dominant culture in her life was the culture of her adoptive parents. The second response is from a female born and raised in West Africa:

“In my country, in the place where I grew up, we help one another. I am not there now but I still help out my family and friends there; and we love to praise and worship God. Where I am from, we raise our children to respect their elders. American children do not respect their elders, so me and my husband work together to raise our children like we were raised back home.”

 Kumbi left her country after she graduated college; her husband is from the same country. They have three children all born in the United States. Kumbi says diversity is God’s way of using people to show how much He loves colors. The last response is from a female who lives in Oklahoma City:

“Diversity is when you have too many people in your business trying to define you when they don’t even know you. White people, black people, Hispanics, Asian, everybody writing books about people they never met but think they know and predict how they will behave. We all might look different, but we all want the same thing to be happy and enjoy life.”

Lashawn is a LPN, single with no children. She defines culture as being a lifestyle that follows you to the grave; the part of a person that never changes.

Linda, Kumbi, and Lashawn, all gave answers that were unique to what was discussed in class and I appreciate all of them. Their responses were straight forward and to the point. What I have learned this week is that a person’s or a peoples’ culture should not be taken for granted as if it doesn’t matter-it all matters.

 

My Family Culture

            If I had to leave the country abruptly, I would take with me, my Bible, a dictionary, and my portfolio case. I would take my Bible because I believe that there is a higher power greater than man’s will, and that power is love which is God. The Bible helps me to understand who God is and how to live in faith and obedience to Him; and in unity with people near and far. I would take a dictionary because it is important for me to understand and be understood; so when I hear words that I do not know, I look them up. In my portfolio case, I have everything I would need if I had to relocate without prior notice. In it I store important documents, pictures, credit cards, cash, jewelry, additional keys, etc.  I call it the ‘get away’ case; if something were to happen I would grab it and go. Of the three, I would take the portfolio case and stuff my bible and dictionary in it.

When I think of Research...

When I think of research, I think of being a part of doing something worthwhile for the betterment of someone else. Through this course Building Research Competencies, my knowledge of how to conduct research has been greatly enriched. I understand the importance of selecting a topic and the need to include a literary review. I have learned how to narrow a topic to formulate a research issue/question and then select a research design that will enable me to collect data specific to the topic.

The process of sampling populations was a bit intimidating at first, now I understand that selecting representative samples is quite complex and entails decision-making around not only the characteristics of the participants, but also how many of them should be included ((MacNaughton, G., Rolfe, S.A. & Sarij-Blatchford, I., 2010).

My perspective of research is no longer just about finding solutions to problems or causes to effects but about getting to know and understand what moves people to do what they do, their interests, motivations, and passions. The lesson I learned about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood is to do everything intentionally; meaning be clear about what I want to discover, who will participate, when, and where.

I was introduced to a vast amount of information concerning research, the challenges I encountered are not being able to digest it all and make it workable in real life setting. The way I deal with overwhelming situations is to read and re-read until I can explain what I read to someone else-then I can implement it.

As a result of this course, I have a new found respect for research. In the beginning it was something I would shy away from; but now, I feel like it is part of my duty to learn more, find out more, and share more of what I learn with those I interact with daily. I want children to benefit from childhood in the most meaningful way possible. So from this course, I have learned to embrace research and use it as a tool to understand people better.

 Reference

MacNaughtion, G., Rolfe, S.A. & Sarij-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood research: International perspectives on theory and practices. (2^nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. P. 177-78.