Professional Hope and Goals

I really enjoyed this course, I was able to challenge myself and reflect on experiences that really defined who I am. One hope that I have when working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that classrooms represents all of their culture.I really hope that every child and family can feel and be accepted as they are. 

One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity and social justice is that we see continue to see progress. Progress is so important and really makes a difference. We have to celebrate the things that we have overcome and continue to make differences. The first step of anything is awareness, so making families and people aware of diversity, equity and social justice is a big step.  

Thank you colleagues for supporting me and challenging my thinking. It has been a real blessing to write each of you this last 8 weeks. 

See you next semester!

Welcoming Families From Around the World

This post hit home to me because I had a lady in my training last week from Singapore. When I found out a month ago that I was going to have this lady in my training, I began to do my research on Singapore, really focusing on the child care system. The reason I did this is because I train on how to assess quality teacher child interactions, and I needed to ensure that what I was saying could a line to the culture of Singapore. I learned that Singapore child care system is a little different from America's mainstream child care, but that there are strides to really focus on quality care outside of the home.

In addition to researching Singapore, when I met Siren, my participant from Singapore, I asked her to tell me about the child care system she worked with. I asked her this because I didn't want to make the assumption that what I researched about Singapore was her experience. She was able to share with me her experience with child care, and the purpose of attending my training.

To answer the questions of the blog:

Since I work with adults who work with children, I will use that position to answer the following questions:

1. The name of "your" participant country of origin: Singapore
2. At least five ways in which you will prepare yourself to be culturally responsive towards the participant? 1. Conduct research 2. Ask the participants their experience instead of just assuming 3. Being aware of my own bias 4. Allow participants to share their stories and experience that may be different from the dominant culture 5. Create a diverse learning environment
3. A brief statement describing in what ways you hope that these preparations will benefit both you and the participant. I believe that the steps that I am taking will allow the participant to be comfortable in our discussions, and by asking their experiences, let them know that we value them an their opinions.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice and Oppression

When I reflect on my experience with bias, prejudice and oppression, I think the experiences that hurt the most were the ones that happened on the "sly". When I say the "sly" I mean that it was done in a passive aggressive manner. The experience that I have been thinking about the most lately was when I was working as a Director of a Child Care Center. When I was first hired to create a child care center from scratch. My boss who was a male, only expected me to work with the children because he believed that was my "place". When we first opened we were having some financial issues because we didn't have enough families yet. I had worked at a center before and wanted to share my financial experience with my boss because I had overcome the same problem at my previous job. I went to my boss with my idea, and basically was told not to worry about it, just to worry about the children because that was what I was good at, because women were good caretakers. At the time, because he said it in a laughing manner, I didn't let it get to me, but now I know I was a victim of sexism.

The way my story diminished equity, was I wasn't even given the chance to try my idea because I was out of my "lane". Our business ended up suffering, until we hired a financial consultant who was a woman. When I shared my idea with her, she tried it, and it worked, We were out of debt within 3 months.

The feelings that were brought up because of this was hurt, confusion and the feeling that I wasn't good enough, or smart enough to run a child care center. It also hurt my professional feeling because it made me feel like I was only the "babysitter" and that was it.

The fact that someone was hired and heard me out, lets me know that my boss had to be moved aside so that I could have an opportunity to try out my idea, that ended up working.

It's so funny now that I am able to spot different isms out, before I knew about them, but wasn't so aware. Now I am fully aware and find myself pointing them throughout my week.