Professional Hopes and Goals

I hope that when I work with children and families, who come from diverse backgrounds, I utilize all the knowledge I learned in this course to address their needs, goals, expectations, as well as making them feel welcome. I hope to create an environment where they feel at home.  To do so, I will learn as much as I can about their culture and look beyond the surface. I will put all bias aside and look at them as individuals with a clear and open outlook.

The one goal I would like to set for the early childhood field in regards to diversity, equity, and social justice is: For all to incorporate cultural awareness into their classrooms to assure the best for the children in the classroom. The more aware the educator is, the more aware the children will be. M goal for me is to make it a point to teach my students about different cultures and to make them aware of others beyond just the surface.

Thank you to all my classmates and professor for all the support and guidance they have shown me throughout this course. All the comments and feedback I have received helped in my educational journey and my understanding of the topics.  I have learned so much from each and every one. Thank you sharing all your thoughts as well as allowing me to share mine without judgments. I am learning more about myself in this journey and I am becoming more open to sharing my thoughts with those around me, whereas before I would have been self-conscious. 

I wish you all the best on your journey and I hope to continue to have classes with you all. You all have made an impact on my journey.

 

 

 

Families Around the World

 

Families Around the World

My family’s country of origin is Australian.

 

 

                                            

 

I will prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family by first begin to research all that I can find on this origin. I know this will only give me surface information but that will begin my education process. The second thing that I would do is begin writing to this family and start a pen pal type of relationship before they even get here, in hopes of further understanding their origin.  The third thing I would do is invite the family to attend different functions to share their culture with others and learn from our culture too- maybe set up a night where everyone can set up a table of their nationality and share with others about it.  The fourth thing I would do is share information and books about their culture that I already know. This can build our relationship and help in starting conversations.  The last thing I would do is share common vocabulary to show the similarities between nationalities.  

I hope that my preparations will hopefully benefit not only myself but my family’s origin too.  My hope is to make my family feel at home and comfortable in their new setting.  My hope is to always show them that their county’s origin is important to us and that we will be incorporating their origin as well into the different things we do. Lastly, I hope to gain as much knowledge about their culture I can possibly obtain to better serve their needs and culture. 

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

I remember a time when I was a witness to a biased/ prejudice situation.  There was a teacher who I use to work with who had a thing about girls. This particular teacher also picked a male when they needed help. Girls were never chosen to help because this teacher thought girls were not strong enough or capable to help.

This situation diminished equity because females are just as capable as males to help. I could understand if what this teacher was asking to do was too dangerous for a female or it really was a job for a male, but the things this teacher wanted help with were jobs for both males and females.  

This situation caused me to make a conscious effort to find things for females to help me with. The difference between what I did and what this teacher did was even though I was purposely trying to find things for students to help me with, I called upon males and females to help.  This allowed the females to have a sense of worth and felt welcomed in the classroom. Children do not understand at a young age what is going on, but they do know when things become unfair and when the same people are picked for everything. They then begin to ask questions, in which they never receive the proper answer for.  When things are not done fairly and children are not spoken to in a way they understand, I become frustrated. I become frustrated because I look at my students as humans and I talk to them as I would anyone else and in a way they understand what I say.

Looking at this situation, I feel the teacher would have to change in order to allow an opportunity for greater equity between males and females. I feel that I could change too by lending a few suggestions to this teacher and maybe making them aware of the situation that is being seen by other staff members as well as the students. It was also be nice if the males of the class maybe offered to the females to help instead, that way the teacher is hearing it from students and staff together.