Professional Hopes and Goals

When I think about working with children and families who come from diverse background my hope is that they understand that everyone will not respect and understand their culture and the way they do things at home. However; my hope is that they continue to push forward with their careers and education and not allow barriers to hinder their success.

As I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds the goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity and social justice is that we as professionals do our part to ensure that every child regardless of their ethnic background receive an adequate education. 

I want to thank my colleagues for all their input and insight throughout this course. I have greatly learned a lot from our professor and my colleagues. Learning about diversity, equity, and social justice has allowed me to look at myself as a professional and how I can improve the lives of all my students by addressing bias behavior, making my students culturally responsive, and helping them develop a level of tolerance for other people's differences.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

My families' Country: Mexico


5 way in which I would prepare to be  culturally responsive to this family:

• I would first brush up on my Spanish ensure that I know the fundamental of Spanish.
• Learn the families dynamics.
• Search way to integrate their cultural tradition into the classroom curriculum.
• Add classroom visuals reflecting their racial and ethnic diversity of the classroom.
• Prepare my other students

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

My hope is that the preparations I have made will benefit myself as well as the family would be to making learning fun. My hope it to get the family excited about the child learning because they feel included. I hope that my preparations help me become a teacher , and makes it easier to teach someone of a different culture than my own.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

When I was a little girl I remember my grandmother telling me the story of Emmet Till, a young African American boy, who was murdered for flirting with a white woman. For my young mind the story bought up so many questions. Why did he have to die for flirting with a white woman? What is wrong with him liking white woman? What happen to the people that killed him? I remember my grandmother taking her time to explain to me how life was years ago. After several more questions I soon learned that years before I was born things were different, African Americans were not afford the privileges that whites had. The murderers of Emmet Till were acquitted because they were white.

After hearing the story of Emmet Till I felt powerless, and angry, how could people simply dislike you because of the color of your skin? I felt as if the government failed to protect and seek justice for Emmet and his family. I remember feeling sad and scared, that if I acted in a way that was not suitable to “White America” I could be next. The world would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity.  

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

This week I was required to attend a week long training for my job while, there a middle aged white woman ran her fingers through my hair and said "oh wow that's all your hair" the context of this microaggression was racial, I believe that the woman was expecting my hair not to be real, although she did not exactly say that, however she was surprised to find out that an African American was capable of having long hair without it being extensions. I felt comfortable about how to respond to this woman I had only met two days prior, so I simply said yes and continued my day. The ways in which this experience this week affected my perception of the effects of stereotypes on people, is that people still believe in to them without considering that not all people are the same regardless of there background or culture.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

For this blog assignment for this week we are required to interview three people (one whom as to be of a different culture, ethnicity, or background) and ask them what's their definition of culture and diversity these are the responses I received.

Friend:I'd say culture is the way of life for a particular group and how that lifestyle shapes them.. environment, traditions.. diversity is what makes something different than the next.. diversity kinda makes culture.

Sibling:Definition of culture a person environment what shapes them . Diversity : different backgrounds for  example this neighborhood is diverse meaning different types of people  from different ethnicities, races, and backgrounds live here.

Some one of a different race: my definition of culture means traditions passed along from generation to generation that are still practiced today, along with how you environment effects these traditions. How I would define diversity is by identifying someone culture and determining the differences.

The aspects of culture and diversity that I have studied in this course that are included in the answers I received is that diversity can be defined in many different way no one person has the same definition. The aspect I would omit is the stereotypes when it comes to culture that based on how someone looks you assume what culture they belong to. For example if I was to see an Indian person I can assume she is buddhist or Hindu. When think about other people's definition of culture and diversity it has influenced my thinking because it allows me to look deeper in to what the world believes to be culture and how I would be define culture or diversity.

My Family Culture

My Family Culture

If I were among surviving citizen and the emergency government decided it will best serve me to evacuate to another country whose culture was completely different from my own. The three items I would take to represent my culture would be a bible for religious purposes, a recipe book with recipes of soul food dishes, and my family scrap book with pictures and captions.  If there were questions as to what these articles mean to me I would be open and honest about them and allow for question, how I would explain the importance of the bible would be to explain Christianity and how the bible relates to it, the recipe book is important to me because I want to reserve African- American cuisine, and having my family scrap would help me explain my culture and how my life was before having to move. If upon arrival I was told could only keep one personal item and have to give up the other two items I brought with me I would be completely sadden. I would feel as if my families’ culture would be soon forgotten. Insight I gained about myself as a result of this exercise is that reserving my culture is very important to me, and it helps support my self-identity.

When I Think of Research

While taking this eight week course on Building research competency the insight what I have gained about research is that it takes time and dedication as well as discipline. Research requires for one to take his or her self out of the equation in order for the results to be valid. The lesson that I learned about planning, designing and conducting research in early childhood is that it all must be done in an orderly and timely fashion. Some of the challenges I encountered what trying to stick to the facts and not going off my opinion when conducting research, how I met this challenge was staying true to my findings and seeking evidence to back that up. Ways in which my perception of an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of this course has only strengthen my level of respect these professional.  I can only hope to be labeled as a early childhood professional later in my career.