Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that everyone will learn to love all people and not to judge no matter race, culture, beliefs or whatever background they may come from. I hope that in the future there will be resources to help ALL families from all of the different backgrounds so no one will feel left out and the children will be more comfortable in their surroundings whether it is new for them or not. I hope that I am able to help at least one child that I come in contact with and inspire them to chase after their dreams and goals and to be such a successful person in life.

One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity and social justice would be that I would like to create a community or just a liaison group that consists of people from different cultures, race, beliefs and other background differences where we can serve as a helping board for different people no matter what form of help that they may need - if they need help with translating from their language to English or the other way around I want to have a group there that will help them no matter what.

I would like to thank all of my colleagues during the 8 weeks of this course I have learned all different types of things and was able to hear different opinions and receive new insights that were different from mine which made all the more fun of learning about diversity. Thank you to those that I learned new things from and to those who inspired me to think differently about the things that we were learning on that particular week. I wish you all much success to all of your future endeavors and to the next class that you all are about to take on.

Much love and well wishes.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.

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Barbados 

If I was a working at an early childhood facility of any kind and I learned that I was about to get a new student who is from Barbados and is new to the United States I would feel happy to meet him/her and their family because I love to meet new people and learn new things if they are from a different state or country. I would want to definitely make sure that I am open minded and ready to learn and adapt to a new culture and their way of thinking and doing things as well as introducing the student and their family of the way things flow in the US. I would make sure to do the following things before the student arrives in my classroom so that I may be culturally responsive towards them:

1. I would go over ALL paperwork/applications that is filled out because those documents will let me know the gender of the child, age, likes/dislikes, interesting facts and I would be able to get a little bit of the child's characteristics and personality just from the paperwork that is filled out by the parents or guardians. I would establish personalized contact with the parents and other individuals of the family to let them know they are more than just a parent to me - they are a person.
2. I would develop and use vocabulary of greetings and key phrases in the child's primary language to show that I have taken time to enter into their world which can in turn become an "ice breaker" which sometimes helps other feel more comfortable with you.
3. Try to discover some commonalities of experiences. I would try to find out what their favorite hobby is, styles of cooking, parenting secrets or anything that we may have in common. I would use those experiences to establish a bond that will help me relate to the student and family as individuals rather than as student/parent.
4. I will do my best to accommodate the needs of the family. I would keep in mind the work schedules of the parents/guardians, transportation needs, religious or cultural holidays and child care arrangements when scheduling meetings, visits, etc.
5. Lastly I would try to convince myself that just because someone else's customs and beliefs are different from mine, there are no right and wrong cultural beliefs. All beliefs and customs are correct in the culture in which it occurs. I would make sure to keep an open mind to ALL of the students' beliefs and customs and discuss them with the parents/guardians if needed and sometimes the differences could result in more choices and options. 

I hope that the above preparations would help my whole classroom and not just one student in particular - I feel as if I have an open mind and free spirit so that no one would feel left out or excluded from any activity. I hope that the preparations would help the parents or guardians feel extremely comfortable with me and in return we are able to develop a great relationship. 

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

I have had several incidents where I have encountered bias and prejudice. One of the memories that I do have is of an incident where there was a biased attitude or a biased opinion of me when I went to a restaurant that is located in North Dallas. Now North Dallas consists mostly of rich white people - there are not a lot of black people in this particular area of North Dallas where I was at - but I was with one of my friends and we decided to go to Chili's Restaurant to have lunch and while we were there the service from the waitress was extremely terrible and I believe that she acted that way because of our skin color and the perception that African Americans do not tip their waiters/waitresses. During this particular visit to Chili's we waited almost 20 minutes before she came over to take our drink orders and her attitude was just very bad and she acted as if we were bothering her and she didn't want to be there at work. I apologized to my friend for the worst service at this restaurant because I feel as if her rude attitude was directed towards me because I am African American and my friend was White - maybe the waitress wasn't too fond of that type of friendship between two different races.
This specific bias diminished equity by separating the love for one another or just the human kind because of the difference of race or culture. Equity is when one or the quality of something fair and impartial and the service at the time was everything but fair and impartial.
I had a lot of different feelings and emotions going on at the time but I was too busy trying to enjoy my friend since I don't get to see her as much that I simply ignored or brushed off the bad service an the waitress' attitude - I think that is what everyone needs to do when they encounter a person with a negative attitude - just ignore them, they will eventually act like they have some sense when no one feeds into their foolishness.
As I stated I think my friend and I did a great job with turning this incident into an opportunity for greater equity by ignoring her and proving to her that not all people of the African American race act loud and crazy.