Professional Hopes and Goals

  
One hope that I have for working with children and families is that I am able to create a space in which I and my staff and families feel comfortable and safe to share challenges and struggles related to diversity and navigating relationships in relation to the education of children.

A goal that I have for the early childhood field is to seek out diverse staff and to make educating professionals on issues related to diversity a priority. As a person of color I recall seeing very few of my teachers who were anything other than a white female. It is important for children to see many different people in teaching positions including diversity in gender,sexual orientation, ethnicity, age and more.

As this course comes to a close I would like to thank my colleagues. Their honesty and openness in sharing personal experiences has helped immensely to broaden my understanding of diversity issues. I also appreciate the positive reception I received in sharing my personal stories. It helped me feel comfortable in sharing personal stories that I have yet to share with many. I wish all of you continue success in achieving your personal and professional goals. 

Welcoming Families From Around the World

For this assignment, I was asked to 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.

• 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

My family is from the Phillipines. To prepare myself to be culturally responsive I would start with a basic google search on the Phillipines country and culture. My next step would be to visit the closest Phillipines community center to see what I could learn from talking with others. Next, I would take stock of my own classroom and begin ensuring that there are things that will ease the transition for the child. This would include materials that represent her culture specifically. I would ensure that communication is not impacted by securing a translator and translation services for paper materials that go home. Once the family arrives I would arrange the initial meeting with an interpreter and ask about their school experiences and what they expect and want out of thier child's school experience. I would also ask the family about their family culture after explaining my reasoning for asking; to help ease the transition and respect their ethnic and family culture. Finally, I would ensure that they were aware of community resources including the communitiy center I visited as well as a means to contact and communicate with me via an intepreter using a telephone service that my school division uses. 

My hope is that through these preparations I learn about the culture to prepare myself, the students and my colleagues and the family sees and understands that we are there for them. Our goal is to support them and their child and they are in a safe place with people who are looking out for their overall well being. The goal is also to create open communication so that myself nor the family ever feel that we can't exchange important information. The benefits also include the opportunity for my self and my students to learn about a new culture and for the new family to have the opportunity to share their culture with us.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

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.

 My friends and I experienced prejudice during a stay at a well known hotel chain in downtown Washington D.C. A friend of mine rented out two rooms for us to use to help ring in the new year. The hotel was built with a large atrium with a skylight which created open hallways on every floor. We could see down to the lobby and across the building to rooms on the other side as well as every floor. While celebrating within the hour before and after midnight our group was harassed and threats were made that we would be thrown out due to the noise level. We were extremely upset as we were not the only ones celebrating with children running around the large circular halls and people shouting congratulations throughut the building. We of course knew this for a fact as we could see and hear it occurring due tot he building's design. The only difference is that we were young twenty something black adults and everyone else was white.
 
In what way(s) did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity?

 Equity was diminished when we no longer received the same treatment as everyone else in the building. The manager never approached any other rooms or even asked the children who ran past him where their parents were. After the incident we decided to take our celebration out of he building and try going to a bar. This was upsetting because we purposefully tried to have a safe new year's by celebrating at the hotel rather than being out.We were watched the entire time the group made its way out to the street with a security guard following us out and watching as we stood outside the entrance and planned where to go.
 
What feelings did this incident bring up for you?

 This incident reminded me that even in my hometown that is one of the most diverse cities in teh world and has been for a while now, I am not safe from bias and prejudice. I felt like a criminal as we were watched and followed out the door the hotel we had paid a premium price to stay in during he holiday weekend. I felt less than others.
 
What and/or who would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity?
 
 This is an extremely difficult question as it would require a change in societal perception and action to make this an opportunity for greater equity. It is not clear where the complaint intially came from weather it was another patron of the hotel or the management itself, however both would need to change. If a noise complaint was made then the management should have treated everyone fairly and either approached each room in a calm,respectful and professional manner and asked every guest to return to their rooms and to keep their volume down. If this had occured my friends and I would not have minded the request and would have quickly complied. Instead we weren't given a warning and were essentially verbally attacked by the management as though we were criminals rather than paying guests.