Welcoming families from around the world...

I just got word that there will be a new student arriving and being placed in my school age classroom. She is from Germany her an her family,  German is her native language but she knows some english and her and her family have only been in the united states for a month now, so she does not know much about america.

There are a few ways that I will prepare myself to be culturally responsive to the child and the family:

1.) First I will be sure to be open and listen to the family and ask questions I may have being careful to rid myself of my own biases I may have.

2.) Learn the family dynamics and respect that within the family and incorporate it in how I deal with the family.

3.) Instill in the child to always stay true to their native culture all while learning a new one, making them feel comfortable with both.

4.) Offer advice care and attention to specific things that may not be familiar to the family and child.

5.) Learn as much as I can about the culture so that I myslelf am educated and going the extra mile to welcome a new family and culture into a new environment.

With these preparations, this will be a great start to learning from the family also making them feel a lot more comfortable and hopefully being able to trust and confide in me.  I want them to be able to come to me and not be afraid to ask me anything or talk to me about problems they may need help with.  I could learn a lot from them, and about a whole new culture and they could gain so much knowledge from me on my own culture and the united states as a whole.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

• What memory do you have of an incident when you experienced bias, prejudice, and/or oppression, or witnessed someone else as the target of bias, prejudice, and/or oppression? Keep in mind that one can encounter such incidents in real contexts, including online environments, as well as in fictional ones, such as movies, books, television shows, and the like.

One memory of prejudice that I remember distincly was when  I was in high school.  My brother got into an argument with a fellow classmate outside of the classroom and I was in a group with my friends and I could see him arguing with this boy who is Caucasian and I just remember hearing the boy call my brother the "N" Word. that stuck out to me so heavily.  I ran over because I knew my brother was about to get violent after that and I remember him hitting the boy once and I was able to grab him altough he was quite stronger than me,  I grabbed him because I did not want him to end up suspended or expelled. After explaining the situation to the principal because security still came because of all the comotion and noise from all the kids screaming and wanting to see a fight, both of them were suspended.  My brother was suspended for hitting the boy and the boy was suspended for saying the "N" word.  That situation was very scary to me to witness because I didn't know how it would play out especially to someone so close to me. 

• In what way(s) did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity?

I feel like in the situation, equity was diminished because of how they both were punished the same, I personally feel like the boy should have had a harsher punishment than my brother, because words hurt a whole lot more than being physical. The word that was used in this situation was like daggers and caught a lot of people off guard which caused retaliation.  I am not saying my brothers actions were right, but being that disrespected is very much uncalled for. 

• What feelings did this incident bring up for you?

The incident brought of feelings of anger for me personally and once I saw my brothers reaction it made me sad because I knew he was hurt more than anything with the situation.  For a long time I was hurting for him and with him because my family means the world to me.  When my family is treated badly or in situations that are emotional and hurtful it affects me as if it were me.

• What and/or who would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity?

Both of the individuals in the situation could have made the situation a better opportunity for greater equity by being more mature and talking out instead of speaking in anger and saying hurtful words. It could have all turned out so differently, but in high school when I was going a lot of kids were not as mature as they should have been. Thank God for growth though.  

Practicing awareness of microagressions.

• Describe at least one example of a microaggression which you detected this week or remember from another time. In what context did the microaggression happen? What did you think and feel when you observed the microaggression or when you found yourself as the target of a microaggression?

One Microagression that I noticed this week was from one of my friends who is African American.  He made a comment to his friend who is mexican that was a verbal racial microagression.  We were in Ihop and there were a lot of mexicans inside of there and it was pretty packed and my friend said to his mexican friend said "why yall people always travel in large groups."  He was referencing mexican people and saying they always travel in large groups together.  I didn't think much of it, I did look at his friend to see his reaction and it didn't seem to bother him as much because they make racial jokes like that a lot and make jokes about it.  His friend didn't really care but it someone else heard they may have taken offense to it.  

• In what ways did your observation experiences this week affect your perception of the effects of discrimination, prejudice, and/or stereotypes on people

This week with learning about microagressions and the different types of discrimination or prejudice it made me think of times when it was happening and I would really overlook it. Things like the comments people would make on race and how people treated others.  I am a pretty observant person, but this week taught me that there are a lot of things that I overlook.  With my friends they make racial jokes all the time and we all joke about it, but I wonder if it really affects them in a way even when they are laughing and joking around.  I will myself be more aware of what I say although I am not really a person to make comments about race or color, I can be more alert and not encourage it by not saying anything at all. 

Perspectives on culture and diversity.

This was a very interesting assignment for the assignment I chose to as 3 completely different people from completely different backgrounds on their definition of culture and diversity.  I asked my mother who is African American, One of my best friends who is Puerto Rican and a co worker who is Caucasian.

Definition of Culture: The definitions I got from the 3 people for this is either The background of a person and what they are and what defines them, this having to do with home life, different traditions, and something that makes the person unique.

Definition of Diversity:  The definitions I got were a persons uniqueness, special traits that make up the person, the differences of one person to the next.

Some aspects of culture and diversity that I have learned so far in the course I did receive in the answers that I got.  Such as the aspect of uniqueness in both culture and diversity.  Both culture and diversity make up a person and are individual.  The things that make you the person that you are are your own culture and diversity.

One thing that I noticed was that no one mentioned race or color when I mentioned diversity and culture.  They mostly looked outside of that although race is a huge factor in culture and diversity.  Thinking about other peoples definition of culture and diversity has only affirmed how I think of it, most of the people have similar definitions of it and that is what brings us together in that sense.

My family culture

• A description of the three items you would choose

If I were in a major catastrophe and only could bring three items the first item I would bring is my family album. This way I can keep those memories alive and be able to reminisce on old traditions and that will make me feel my connection to home and help in hard emotional times I may have. I'd also bring my journal, so I can keep track of daily life and help me to get my emotions out on paper.  Something to keep me busy and uplifted by writing and expressing myself.  The last thing I would bring is traditional home recipes so that I can keep the food traditions alive and have a taste of home with the food, your cultural food always makes you feel better.

• How you would explain to others what each of these items means to you

I would tell each person that these things describe me in a way and are close to me. They help me to be uplifted and to never forget where I came from.  It is important to have things that are dear to you near because it's hard being in a whole new place and not to have anything memorable around. 

• Your feelings if, upon arrival, you were told that you could only keep one personal item and have to give up the other two items you brought with you

I feel like I would be really sad and I wouldn't be settle with it, it would also be hard to choose which one to keep and which one I would have to give up.  All of them mean so much to me so is have a very hard time giving them up because I'm already sacrificing leaving my home and being in a completely new and foreign environment.

• Any insights you gained about yourself, your family culture, diversity, and/or cultural differences in general, as a result of this exercise,

I found it hard to choose what o would take with me. There are so any important things in my life I would want to take, and I realized that while doing the exercise. 

When I think of research.....

• What insights have you gained about research from taking this course?

I have gained a lot of knowledge and insight about research from taking this course.  I got to learn the insides of research and what elements are included in research such as the dependent and independent variables and what each part of the research represents.  I now know how to actually look for research and how to start my own research in an effective way, that I did not know before.

• In what ways have your ideas about the nature of doing research changed?

My ideas about doing research have changed in that now I know how to properly do research if that makes sense.  Effective research, before I didn't know where to begin because I had never really been good at research or taken any course on doing research.  I know how important research is by seeing a breakdown of everything that is included in it and what I can and cannot do to make research work for me and whatever I may be researching. 

• What lessons about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood did you learn?

The lessons I have learned about conducting research is that you must have great communication and consent from the parties involved in the research and if with children you must have their parents or guardians consent.  planning takes many steps and outlining before you can actually conduct the research, you have to make sure you have all of you elements together.  As far as the design of the research this was very new to me.  The quantitative and qualitative approach was something that i had never knew before and something I learned in the class. You just needed to find out what design worked best for your particular study if either of them worked.  

• What were some of the challenges you encountered—and in what ways did you meet them?

Some challenges for me were the technical aspects of research and that it contains so many steps that I was pretty unfamiliar with because a lot of the terms that I did not know so in order for me to really understand I had to first learn the terms used for the research and that allowed me to understand more of how to go step by step while using my own research example.  Actually reading and learning was the only thing that helped me and going through the assignments each week got me to learning more and more.

• What are some of the ways your perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of this course?

Some ways that my perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified is that I now understand and see how important the job is and how much work is included in it. Research is an important part of the profession because it helps to advance in the field and with the growth and development of the children as a priority it makes my job that much more important.  It really makes me want to continue to push forward in this field and learn as much as I can because someday I will be a very important factor in a child's life and their growth.  

Reference:

MacNaughton, G., Rolfe, S.A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood research: International perspectives on theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Research around the world

The website that I chose to explore is http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/.

"EECERA is an independent, self-governing, international association which promotes and disseminates multi-disciplinary research on early childhood and its applications to policy and practice" 

They support cross national collaborations and themed publications through special interest groups. They provide a great forum for policy makers, scholars, researchers etc.

One surprising thing I learned about the site is that they largely support researchers in Europe. They have a lot of support groups and behemoths to the researchers and policy makers. 

One noteworthy thing about the site is the EECERA is one of the most prestigious Journals in the world. It is only one of 4 early years journals indexed by the institute for scientific information.

I definitely did learn great things from the site as far as research and their journal and how much support and effort is put into the Europeans research. It is great to read in it and compare and see similarities and differences from the ones in the United States.