For my last blog assignment for the course Perspectives on Diversity and Equity, I was assigned to answer the following questions:

One hope that you have when you think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds:

With the knowledge that I have acquired about diversity and equity in mind, I hope that I will be able to be a non-bias and accepting early childhood educator to all of my students and their parents.

One goal you would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice:

A goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field is to heighten awareness of teachers of their personal biases. I would like to continue to research ways to improve my understanding of diversity and the early childhood education field.  I hope to find a way to be a part of heightening global awareness of the importance of acceptance of all people.

A brief note of thanks to your colleagues:

I would like to thank my colleagues for a great semester. I have learned so much from your comments and discussions. I have enjoyed reading your blog posts during this course. I have appreciated your insights into the field of early childhood education.

I would like to close this final post with the following quote:

"Once children learn how to learn, nothing is going to narrow their mind. The essence of teaching is to make learning contagious, to have one idea spark another." -- Marva Collins

For this assignment, imagine the following scenario:

You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.

The name of “your” family’s country of origin:

The last name of the family I chose is Felbiger and the country they are from is Austria.

At least five ways in which you will prepare yourself to be culturally responsive towards this family:

1.      I will research the Felbiger’s country and their cultural customs and practices.

2.      I will contact the Felbigers and request that we have a meeting so that I can get to know them on a personal level and learn more about their culture and customs.

3.      I will ask how to correctly pronounce their first and last names and practice them until I can say them comfortably.

4.      I will make sure to include some cultural items and depictions in my classroom of Austrian people and their culture.

5.      I will learn some key terms in German (the language spoken in Austria) and share them with the class.

A brief statement describing in what ways you hope that these preparations will benefit both you and the family:

These preparations will help me become a more knowledgeable and rounded educator. It is important for educators to have knowledge of a wide variety of cultures. I hope that these preparations will help the Felbigers to feel welcomed and comfortable in my classroom. I hope that they will see that I am making an effort in including their culture and language in my classroom. 

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

 

This week was given an assignment to discuss a time when myself or someone I knew experienced bias, prejudice, or oppression. I remember a time when I was volunteering in a pre-k classroom. During the year we received a new student. He was of Asian descent, and the only one from his cultural background in the class. Most of the students had never seen an Asian person before and they found his facial features amusing. They would pull the corner of their eyes back and attempt to mimic his accent. He had a hard time fitting in, but with encouragement from the teacher he was finally accepted as part of the class.

This incident was conflicting for me. I was a part-time volunteer and didn’t feel that I was in a position to reprimand the children. I felt that the teacher should have addressed this issue much sooner than she did. There wasn’t a feeling of equality in the classroom; it was the class against the new kid. I did my best to try to help him, but again, I felt limited because of my position. It made me feel frustrated and discouraged. How could the teacher let her student treat this child they way that they were. Why didn’t she do something about it?

Finally I got the courage to speak to her about it. She pretended she hadn’t noticed that it bothered him and said that all children experience a period of transition when they enter a new school. I felt this was just an excuse on her part because she didn’t want to put in the extra effort it would take to do the right thing.

By the end of the year the little boy had several friends. It appeared that he fit in, but there were still several students who didn’t treat him like they treated everyone else. I requested a transfer to a different room because I felt that I wasn’t learning the teaching and management skills that I knew were necessary to becoming a quality educator. Looking back, I wonder if I made the right choice. Perhaps I should have stayed in that classroom. I could have become an advocate for students who weren’t being treated fairly. I probably could have made a positive change in those students lives.