Hopes & Goals

When I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds, I hope that my classroom shows fairness and is welcoming by representing equity.

One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field relating to diversity, equity, and social justice is that diversity moves from being stigmatized to being celebrated.

I would like to thank my colleagues for adding to my knowledge growth this semester. I have appreciated reading your thoughts and discoveries and I hope that I have taught you all a thing or two as well. Thanks for reading, and maybe we will hear from one another again soon!

Albania

       Our scenario this week is that a family has emigrated from Albania, a country I know nothing about, and their young daughter will soon join my class. Being culturally responsive is incredibly important for first impressions as well as continuing relationships with the child in my class and her family.
       One way that I could prepare myself and my class for her arrival is to gather children's books positively representing the Albanian culture. If no books are available we can make plans to include the child and possibly the family in create books to represent their culture realistically and positively.
       A second way would be to include activities or games that are common in Albania that the child may know or may be familiar with. The child could help teach the game or can talk about the atmosphere when the activity is done.
       A third way to be culturally responsive to this family is to read up on current events that may be relevant to them. It will give a common ground to begin discussions and events can be compared to similar occurrences locally.
       A fourth way that the other children and staff can also be involved in is learning a friendly greeting in their home language. This gives the other children the opportunity to learn something new and exciting and helps the family and child feel welcome when they first arrive.
       A fifth way to become culturally responsive would be to seek out a family that has emigrated from Albania and is settled. This family could be a resource for the newly emigrated family, or they could teach you about things you may not read in a book. They are experts of their culture so this is a great source to obtain information and valuable knowledge.
       Other ideas for being culturally responsive to this family would be to learn about popular literature, music, art, and theater from this country. These topics could open doors to common interests and create open dialogue.

       These preparations will definitely benefit me on a personal and professional level by learning deeply about a culture other than my own. It will also benefit my students to learn appropriate information that I learn and share with them. The resources we gain can also be used to learn about other cultures of interest in the future. The family, hopefully, will benefit by being welcomed into an educational setting that is prepared for their arrival and excited to begin a new journey with them. I hope that they feel at home in our classroom and that we help them feel comfortable enough to come to us with any issues they have or obtaining any resources they need. 

Oppression in GoT

            For this blog post I decided to discuss oppression in the book series, Game of Thrones. In this world women are generally greatly oppressed by men and women of higher status. Arya is a tomboy; she is excellent at the bow and arrow and wants to learn the sword. Her mother and nurse/nanny make her do women's work instead like stitching and etiquette. Sansa is okay with the women's work expected of her but she is also oppressed by being forced to almost marry King Geoffrey and later being forced to marry the Kings' Hand and dwarf, Tyrion.

            Equity is about having choice, about having the same ability as all others to make decisions for yourself and regarding yourself. In this world boys have a say in some degree to what they are raised or trained to be; Arya does not have a choice, her life is planned for her. For Sansa, men usually have a say in whom they will marry (though in the case of Tyrion he also did not want to marry the young girl for complicated reasons). These examples of oppression still make me both angry and sad. It is hard for me to believe that an entire society can be so non-understanding that people are people regardless of any other factor.

            I think that in order for these situations to change the society's (fictional) view of girls and women would have to evolve significantly from where it is now. Men are knights, women are child bearer's and are for meeting their husbands' needs. The series is still being written and published and the society is actually heading in a positive direction. If the right changes occur in the sharing of power, resources, and assistance these situations could be lessened by society finally viewing women differently.  

Microaggressions

            I was at Wegman's (grocery store) on Tuesday this week and I was waiting in line at the checkout. There were two sets of people in front of me and one more behind me. The first set of people was a Black woman and her three children ranging in age from 5-11. The second set of people was an older gentleman and the set behind me was a husband and wife, both of Asian descent. The three children were acting out because they were told they could not have any candy. The Asian woman behind me said to her husband, not at all quietly, "Do you really expect anything more from them?"

            I was embarrassed for all involved because the mother of the three children heard the comment, as well as the oldest child. The other two children were scolded one last time by the mother and they started to behave. I thought it was very rude for an outsider to interject and she made it worse by making it a racial issue.

            As I observed and watched for different microaggressions this week I realized that every act of racism or discrimination hurts somebody, often times many people present in the group. Acts like this in public are beyond inappropriate and I hope that as our society becomes more educated we can move past these hateful, foolish acts against one another. 

Diversity & Culture

I spoke to three people this week and asked them to share their definitions of diversity and culture.

Person #1 defined diversity as involving race and ethnicity. They defined culture as the way people live based on their beliefs and values.

Person #2 defined diversity as a good sampling of extremes of characteristics of people. They defined culture as way of life that is usually share by a group that incorporates certain aspects.

Person #3 defined diversity as a random group of people. They defined culture as what your family believes in.

We have talked about a few of the topics that these three people mentioned, including race and ethnicity. We have also discussed how our outward appearances can attribute to our diversity. We have also talked about our beliefs and value systems and their play in diversity.

However, these three all mention surface culture topics, not as much deep culture. Deep culture is embedded in everyday life and includes books, music,  and daily habits. I think culture is a well-understood term for these three but they may not realize how complex of a concept it is.

As I think about what others have said to me about diversity and culture, I wonder if I would have been able to come up with definitions as quickly as they did. All three were very comfortable with the topics and were more than willing to be involved. The way person #2 discussed culture being a shared way of life was insightful;  a culture cannot become that way from just one person, but the different social identities that build us up make us unique within those shared cultures.  

Three Valuable Things

            Three items that I would take with me if I had to leave my home permanently would be my camera, our SD card or flash drive with all of our pictures on them, and our scrapbook. Our scrapbook contains a fast-forward version of our lives up until our daughter was born, and will someday hold photos and memento's of our children's lives too.

            If I were to explain to others what these things mean to me I would have to try to explain love, the fear of losing memories, loss, and hope for change. The photos of my daughter and family on the SD card would tell a story for themselves of a family revolving around each other. We have all had too much sadness in our lives, so we just try to be happy and relax when we can. Our scrapbook, I hope, will show future generations the types of choices and lifestyles we lived. And hopefully future generations will look at this to help guide their own choices or maybe they will make completely different decisions because they will learn from our mistakes.

            I would be heartbroken, if upon arrival we were told we could only keep one item. I would probably choose to keep our SD card. I would much rather have our daughter have pictures to show her children of herself when she was a child and have to recreate the memories lost in the scrapbook than have to lose the beautiful images of our daughter growing up.

            As I have spent time thinking about what items to bring and what items to leave behind, I realized what little emphasis I put on 'things'. I think this comes from the fact that my husband and his family are on the verge of being considered hoarders. They keep every gift box and bag, keep every packaging box of electronics, appliances, and many toys, and they all have a problem with keepings things picked up (they are generally clean but very cluttered). I have been living with my husband (we moved in together long before we were married, oops) for almost 7 years and I think that the overabundance of 'things' has turned me against keeping objects of value around, I would rather just not have any objects. I do hope that as my family grows we can begin new traditions and gather new things that we hold in value, but for now the highest valued item in my life is my daughter and she is not a thing.

  

Thanks for reading, I look forward to hearing what everyone else considers valuable in their lives!

EDUC 6164-2

Diversity & Equity

"Different roads sometimes lead to the same castle"

~George R. R. Martin

I would like to say hello to all my fellow Walden students. This is my sixth/seventh course at Walden, I am attempting two at the moment, though right now it is feeling like a terrible decision! I am a stay-at-home mom of a beautiful little thirteen month old. She is my sun and moon, my ice and fire. And she amazes me with her brilliance everyday. I look forward to exploring diversity and equity with you all, and I hope we all get to learn some new and exciting things! Happy learning :)