My Professional Hopes and Goals

Hi Colleagues,
Thanks once again for all the contributions you made throughout this course. They were a source of support for me. I wish you all the best in your upcoming course and look forward to your continued collegial support.This course was very insightful. The concepts of diversity  that I have learned have been concreted in my mind.

One hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that every family that comes through our doors will feel comfortable because of the removed barriers and the respect that will be shown to them despite their race, nationality, sexual orientation preference, religion, gender, and excreta. I also hope that as we continue to stand for social justice we would eventually eradicate all forms of social injustices meted out to those who are from diverse backgrounds and do not confirm to the normative culture.

One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is to equip all teacher educators with the tools needed address issues of oppression and discrimination. I believe if they are skilled enough then they will be able to equip each early childhood teacher with the tools needed to stand up against injustices. Can you imagine working at a centre where all are equipped and on board with the notion of equity for all? What a force they will be. 

Blog: Welcoming Families From Around the World

Blog: Welcoming Families From Around the World

For this assignment, imagine the following scenario:

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.

In order to complete this assignment, first choose a country you know nothing about as this family’s country of origin.


POST        The name of “your” family’s country of origin
                  At least five ways in which you will prepare yourself to be culturally responsive towards this                           family.
                 A brief statement describing in what ways you hope that these preparations will benefit both you                    and the family.

The name of the family's country of origin is Brazil. Brazil is one of our closest neighbours in South America and Brazilian families have been migrating to our country in large numbers. If a Brazilian comes to my child care centre I would have to prepare myself to welcome that child and his family. Firstly, I would seek to learn key words and greetings in Portuguese the language of Brazil. This will enable me to connect to the child and family on their arrival. Secondly, I would meet with the family through an organized home visit. During the home visit I would seek to learn about the family culture, expectations and also about the child. I have included this visit in my preparations because I understand that surface culture would not provide the information that is needed for me to understand the true dynamics of the specific family I need to go deeper. Thirdly, once I understand the culture of the family I would ensure that the resources include images that reflects their culture. Fourthly, I would seek to prepare the teachers and the children to welcome this child by talking about the culture of the people of Brazil.  I would also talk to them about how to treat someone who looks and speaks differently than they do. This will ensure that the stress of transitioning to a new environment is lessened. 
I trust that the these preparations will provide a sense of cultural continuity. I also hope that it would help to establish and foster respectful relationships with the child and his family. Most importantly, that the child transitions smoothly into his new environment. 

  Prejudice: My Personal Experience

·         What memory do you have of an incident when you experienced bias, prejudice, and/or oppression, or witnessed someone else as the target of bias, prejudice, and/or oppression? Keep in mind that one can encounter such incidents in real contexts, including online environments, as well as in fictional ones, such as movies, books, television shows, and the like.

·     In what way(s) did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity?

·     What feelings did this incident bring up for you?

·     What and/or who would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity?

       One incident of prejudice that keeps recurring in most of the African made movies are stereotypes of black women. These movies are mostly made in Nigeria. I like looking at them because I find the plot and themes very interesting. They are also similar to the Caribbean culture and easy to relate to. However, in many of these movies women are portrayed  as dishonest cheats, gold diggers, lazy, and other demeaning characters. I believe that specific biases portrayed in these movies diminish equity by placing the woman at a lesser status than men. The men in my community who look at these movies describe women as untrustworthy, cheats, no good and excreta when the sit around to chat about women. It also sends a wrong message to other young black women that they need to prostitute, rob or deceive men to survive or achieve things in life. Every time I see women portraying these characters I am appalled and embarrassed. I think the actresses need to demand that the writers produce scripts that are positive about the roles of women and how much they can achieve through hard work and by asserting their independence.   

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        Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

     Since learning about microaggressions, my awareness of it seemed to have been heightened. I am realizing that microagressions occur everyday and many times go unnoticed. This evening  I attended one of my friend's baby shower. She is of African descent and is very dark in complexion. Her husband is of mixed races and is very fair in complexion and has soft wavy hair. One of the games that we played is ' Guess what your baby looks like' . One of the attendees drew her representation of the baby with a black crayon, which indicated that she believed that the baby will be dark skinned like its mother. My friend's husband's mother and sister were upset by this. They said that the baby should look like its father because dark babies are not as attractive as fair ones. Well the game broke into an argument between those who disagreed and those who agreed with the statement.  Though it was done in friendly chatter I observed and wondered how the mother of the unborn child felt about the comments. I wondered if she was suffering from the Catch 22 dilemma. I asked the group if they did not think it was disrespectful to put down people of dark complexion while elevating persons of  a fairer complexion. I asked them to think about the psychological damage that could occur over a period of time to someone being told that he/she is not good enough because of the colour of their skin. They said that they were only referring to babies and that I was getting too philosophical and therefore spoiling the mood of the party.
     I continued to observe the mother to be after the discussion ended to see if there were any observable traits of pain but, I found non. I guess she has learnt how to cover the hurt felt from those microagressions  over time.  My observation experiences this week on microaggressions has caused me to realize that people can be insensitive. We hold prejudices and discriminate, sometimes totally unaware of how much pain we cause others.

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Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

Common in all of the definitions  of culture that I have heard in the responses  is that culture refers to our way of life, our values our traditions and practices and food. These definitions of culture all signal that the persons that I spoke with have some idea about what culture involves. However, I realize that the complexity of culture is not fully understood. I would have probably defined culture similarly a few weeks earlier. As I listened to the definitions of diversity I realized that they had some insight into what diversity is about. Many of the responses included: differences in race, differences in culture, gender, wealth, attitudes and excreta.
 During this course I have learnt that culture involves everything that we do, from the way we stand to the way we walk or talk, etc. The definitions that were shared limited the concept of culture. Culture is wider and entails the finer details of our lives that we may not even pay attention to. What was ommited from definitions shared is the concept of deep culture. Deep culture goes beyond surface culture to highlight the intricate details about culture. I have learnt that one would never truly understand culture by focusing only on surface culture. One needs to go deeper. Deep culture provides a true and clearer understanding of culture. After listening to the definitions shared I have concluded that knowledge on vastness of culture is limited. More work needs to be done at all levels to have persons understand the complexity of culture because it affects all aspects of our lives.


  

 My Family Culture

Imagine the following:

A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of your country. The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees. You and your immediate family are among the survivors of this catastrophic event. However, you have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. You are told that your host country’s culture is completely different from your own, and that you might have to stay there permanently. You are further told that, in addition to one change of clothes, you can only take 3 small items with you. You decide to take three items that you hold dear and that represent your family culture.

:A description of the three items I would choose 

 I would take take my family's photo album - This is a album of photos of relatives dating back to my fourth and fifth generations.

Grandma's Quilt. A beautifully woven  quilt that was made by my great grand mother.

My Bible- A holy book that Christians read for spiritual development and connection to God.

How would I explain to others what each of these items means to me

I value the photo album of my family because it holds the images of my dearest relatives, some whom I have never met, but have heard their stories about how they contributed to the growth and development of my family. I would also take the album because it may carry the only physical images of those relatives that have lost their lives in the catastrophic event. 

Grandma's Quilt- This quilt has sentimental value. It was a gift from my great grandmother to my mother, her eldest grand daughter, when she had me. She has given it to me and I hope to pass it to my daughter or grand daughter some day. It has the names of four generations of the Lewis women woven into it. 

I would take my bible because I am a Christian. Christianity has been the religion that my family has practised for generations. Each generation was taught to love and respect God by the elders. When I grew to the age where I could choose, I chose to continue serving God because I had built a personal relationship with God   I believe in such a situation I would need to keep closest to God to maintain my sanity. As I read the holy scriptures, I will be inspired to live on despite the catastrophe.  

My feelings if, upon arrival, I was told that I could only keep one personal item and have to give up the other two items I brought with me.

After losing everything then being asked to get rid of two of the three precious items I have kept will be devastating. However, I will choose to keep my bible. When everything is lost I have learnt to depend on God who is my source of strength. My faith teaches that God is the restorer of all things so I believe that once I have faith in God, then I have or will have all that I need to continue along. 

Insights I gained about myself, my family culture, diversity, and/or cultural differ that in general, as a result of this exercise.

I realize that my family and faith are very important to me. As I reflected on the value system, struggles  and successes that helped to create my family culture I am proud to be a member of this family.  Our family culture is wonderful. My appreciation for my family culture has grown through this activity.