Wishes For Equality

 My biggest hope when I work with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds would be for children and families to help educating, communicating, living, and working together without bias.  By doing so we will model for children the way they should respect their peers.

                                One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field that is related to diversity, equity, and social justice would be to help promote ways for every child to have an quality early childhood education so that there will be no institutional bias when they are older.

                                I would like to say thank you to my colleagues for your support and help.  I wish everyone the best in continuing on this journey.

Making Cultural Connections with Families

I have a student that is from the country of Chad, which is found in central Africa.  There are five big points that I need to know in order for me to be culturally responsive to this child and his family. These points are as follows:

1.)    Who or whom does the child live with and why do they live with these particular person(s) if it is not biological parents?

2.)    What is the educational background for this child?

3.)    Does this child have any particular special interest?

4.)    How do people in his home country work and live?

5.)    What main language does this child speak, and how much English does this child know, if any?

6.)    I would want to learn about the country Chad.  So,  I would do research on the internet, read books, and do research with DVD’s or CD’S on Chad.

Asking and looking for answers to these questions from the family or guardians would help gain insight to the child’s and child’s family background.  These are questions that reach beyond the surface of the child’s race, culture, and ethnicity.  It helps myself as a educator get to the heart of the matter with the child’s actions.  For instance, if the child is fearful, little education, and live with adoptive parents.  It could mean that the child has come from a poverty-stricken, war-torn country that has many refugees.  His parents were not able to give him the safe, caring environment he or she needed.  In return, the parents placed their child up for adoption  for a better life in America.

Building Up Power

My Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

My Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

I have experienced bias particularly when I have been in groups with people and I have ideas for a project that totally get ignored.  For instance, I remember, having to work on with a group of students to read a book in junior high on the novel, A Christmas Carol. The school did not have enough funding for everyone to have a class set of the novel, so it was up to us to share as copy as a group of three.  I distinctly remember the other to girls who I had to work with were purposely not letting me see novel while were reading it during class.  I had asked nicely to please put the novel in the middle desk between us that way three of us could see it.  However the girls just put the novel in between the two of them.  Now, I do not know what caused these two girls to do this, but it definitely put me in a situation where I became a much more introverted person in my junior high and high school years.   When I was younger I was a much more extraverted child and loved singing, dancing, and acting.  My mother will even tell you that I changed from being that girl who love saying, “I will only sing for big crowds.”  to a child who has not sung a solo for the families at holidays or even a solo at church  in over fifteen years.  This specific bias diminished equity in myself because anytime group projects came up I did not really want to provide my opinion anymore simply because I did not feel important enough to stand up for myself.  I think there is a part of me is finally realizing at thirty years old that I have to begin putting a little more confidence in myself and take action for some balance of power to begin in my life with peers.  To me, if you see something unfair happening to someone you must stand up for yourself or the person it is happening to.

Microaggression and Being Aware of It

This past school year was very interesting for me because I had an assistant that was very difficult to work with because she wanted do things a certain way and I wanted to do things a certain way.  At one point during the year, it got to the point to where she did not want to help me do anything to discipline the children anymore in the classroom.  For instance, there were times that I felt my assistant did not get the full story on what was going on with the child and would punish the child before there was any reasoning behind the actions of the child.   It was for little things like the child needing to get a tissue when they are in line.  However, I am saying that I don’t agree with letting the child just get away with anything, but there is a point where you have to listen to a child and understand where he or she is coming from.  Especially, since there are circumstances that children come from that need to be address.

At one point this year, my assistant decided to explain in front of the children everything she thought I was doing wrong.  First of all, I found that being a microaggression because she made me feel like I was not doing anything right.  Now, I felt she could have talked about this situation with me during a time when the children were not in the classroom, but I understand that sometimes my assistant could be very direct and to the point without realizing she was doing so at an inappropriate time.  I know this is a silly microaggression  but it did hurt what I was trying to do with the children at the time,  because she took the focus off my lesson.