Professional Hopes and Goals

There are a couple of careers that I really would love to take on as I have been seeking for answers through the Perspectives on Diversity and Equity course. Becoming an Early Childhood Mental Health Specialist or Infant therapist is very close to my heart. I really want to take time to get to know the families and children as we work together to create the best developmental outcome for the child. I also want to help parents understand their child's cues , that their silent language is still a language, then I want to the parents to feel empowered to make wise decisions about their child's rights as all of the facts and resources are presented to them,  I would also love to teacher early childhood education at a community college.  To you my classmates, this course has been very emotional for me, and to read your backgrounds with many highs and lows, I thank you for sharing. I hope my words have supported you for the last eight weeks. My hope for you (as I  speak to myself as well) is that we take risk for the "great" cause and that we truly work where our hearts have a desire to be , that is my prayer!

Thank you, be blessed!
Val

Welcoming Families From Around the World

Welcoming families from other countries into a child care center is both exciting and intimidating.
Not knowing a lot about different countries  can feel intimidating due to the lack of knowledge. However, the excitement  alone of  learning something new brings rich conversation for the teacher , child and parent.

As an example I picked the country Yugoslavia. I thought about how I would conduct the  orientation to the center and how I would implement diversity.  For an effective quality program we want parents to share their talents, interest and occupations with our small citizens.

I have a few ways  of culture responses to the families that I would demonstrate are ( not necessarily in this order).  

1.Inviting parents to serve on the Center's Support group meeting. The design will allow reflection  to meet needs of families.
2. Social and educational gathers annually  to encourage interaction between staff and families.
3. Become familiar with basic language and have words printed in areas of the room with pictures as a description, even an alphabet book available for children in the book area
4.Invite parents  to cook with children and explain their countries favorite food.
5. Get to know the parent child-rearing style and have conferences outside of daily talks/reports.
6. Last ( while always more) ask for information on sports that the country enjoys and Holidays that are celebrated.

Having parent surveys completed regularly will  make staff aware of  concerns or praise of follow up.
All of  my thoughts are to help the families have a positive experience while our staff grows in knowledge and the center as a whole grows in quality, effective care.

       

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

In this touchy subject of bias, prejudice and oppression I thought some comic relief  of the hit 70's series Good Times would show the oppression of a family's trials in a dominant society. The Son J.J. of James and Florida Evans  is arrested ( mistaken identity of a robbery)  they found the criminal ... he is white, yet J.J. is black,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBOXXTY4tbA

Equity was diminished when police wanted to quickly  blame a black man for a crime that a person of a another race had committed.  My feelings of this incident reminded me when my brother was arrested for another mans crime of breaking into a house. The other man was caught, however this effected my brothers trust or mistrust of the law.  In this case officers of the law could have taken the opportunity to have detailed conversation with staff and citizens about who they were looking before jumping to conclusions. This video speaks volumes. so many men in jail now for crimes that they  did not commit.  

Practing Awareness of Microaggressions

Practing Awareness of Microaggressions   An example of microaggression that comes to mind for me was about six months ago. A white co-worker complains about her community from time to time. Apparently there is a bar close by,  that she refers to as the “hood” ( black peoples hangout). She assumed that my husband and I would like it!   I felt angry that she presented it as “funny” or looked for me to make fun of the “hood”. This experience defiantly felt like a stereotype towards my husband and me. It is suggesting  we would feel comfortable in a less  then desirable area for entertainment.   And in return, I have to forgive her or I will fall back into stereotypes myself , because that is how we are taught from our environment  meaning; “if you say something offensive you must be prejudice” so I’m learning it was just an ignorant comment and to keep it moving.

 

Perspective on Diversity and Culture

I asked three people the question what does culture and diversity mean to them,  all three spoke around the terms   “  culture  is a group of people that share the same beliefs, experiences, expressions, understandings, and customs in particular place in time”  and diversity was explained as acceptance.  One person went a little farther to say it’s so important to her  because she wants her children to be immersed in many views and the way of life and in her opinion it’s the only way to make educated decisions.  

o     Which aspects of culture and diversity that I have studied in this course are included in the answers I received—and what are some examples?

All through the course we have talked about our beliefs and how we were raised. We talked about the strong beliefs and what is most important to us. One of the participant spoke on   diversity, he said “ I’d say diversity means the intentional inclusion and acceptance of others beyond what’s dominate and common.  It is embracing others of different paths, ethnicities, races, and beliefs.” When he shared that,  I thought  wow his descriptions is going beyond culture ( dominate) right into diversity…. Very cool    

o    Which aspects have been omitted—and what are some examples of such omission?

I can’t think of anything being omitted, everyone want to cover all their bases. Religion. Food, values, expression, experiences, holidays, schools, family life style, it seems all was covered

 

o    .  In what ways has thinking about other people’s definitions of culture and diversity influenced my own thinking about these topics?

I simply have more respect and acceptance of people. My husband says you cannot control people nor change people, so instead of saying “I like her,  accept…… change that accept to acceptance”  

 

 

My Family Culture

If something devastating happen to my country and I had to make some decisions about what I could take with me as far as items to live in another country with complete  strangers, I would take my  photo album, cell phone and bible.

I would explain to others that my photo album is of my family members , my cell phone has videos of family and friends and my bible  is part of my faith and inspiration of GOD’s word.

I would be devastated and depress if I were told that I would have to give up all but two items.

In the event that I was forced  give the items, I would keep my bible.  I would think  at this point in my life nothing on earth would help me get through this change in my life  accepted drawing closer to GOD.

I think this exercise would shed light on a number of things like;

·         How blessed I was and didn’t appreciated it.

 

 

·         How  prejudice I was and didn’t know it.  

·         I would take advantage of sharing things that  my host didn’t know.

·         And me learning things  at I didn’t know.  

When I Think of Research

I love research because I’m an analytic person; some may say a type A person who needs to know the function of matters. Research speaks volumes to my heart! It really doesn’t matter about the population of groups study but, whatever I’m researching, there will most likely be a twist.

The insight gain from the course are the vocabulary words that I will never forget “qualitative  and quantitative” as my examples, the “understanding the research chart “ was my favorite assignment to do, “it didn’t mean that I always got it right, BUT I could express my understanding of what I was try to learn .  Now I have the understanding of a protocol, the steps of planning, designing and conducting have guided me  in how to think through, collect necessary forms and proceed with caution, while working with children and families.  The ethical rights of children, the inform consent, the formal consent and the respect for others if the participants were no longer interested.  When I think of challenges, I can’t say that I really met any; it was all about learning and growing in knowledge.  

Finally, because of my research simulation project of “Teacher burnout in early childhood education” my perception and compassion of teacher responsibilities has grown deeper. Early education in a child care center is HARD work, especially if you claim to be a quality center.   Therefore, CHEERS to the best research class ever!!!!!! I have learned lot about myself and others.