Professional Hopes and Goals

Over the past eight weeks I have really been exposed to a variety of topics and experiences in diversity. Our society is definitely growing in diversity so working as an educator in early childhood education will continue to bring new faces and cultures into my work with young children and their families. As I continue through my professional career in education, I hope to take with me my new awareness of how culture and diversity can affect people within a dominant culture different then their own. Looking at the community where I live, I do consider myself a member of the dominantly white area, but as I see more and more families enter our school. I think it's important to be opened minded about others and even though I may not fully understand every culture different than my own, I do want to continue to learn about how I can best work with individuals, taking into consideration their personal needs.
One goal that I would wish for the early childhood field in relation to diversity and equity would be that as we become more exposed to new cultures that our early childhood curricula standards also become more diverse to allow children to experience different cultures. I think that a positive exposure to diverse curriculum would help children to consider our society's differences in a positive light and hopefully learn to value and respect the differences we can share with each other as a culture.
Thank you to all my colleagues and Professor Kien for providing comments, responses, stories, and suggestions throughout the course. Best of luck to all!
Caitlin

Welcoming Families from Around the World

If I were working in an early childhood care facility and a family was immigrating to the United States from China and will be enrolling their young daughter at the facility, I would definitely need to prepare myself to learn about their family's culture and how to best welcome this young girl into a new environment.
In order to become more familiar with the Chinese culture, I would begin by taking time to read about the country through professional resources free of any biases, prejudices, or oppressive opinions. How families live, any traditional customs, and any other important factors about this country. I think that as a teacher to this young girl I would want to better understand how the education system and teacher-student relationships are conducted in China and incorporate those factors into my relationship with her. According to Chinese Culture, Social Work Education and Research the teacher-student relationship is hierarchically determined which makes learning and knowledge building more difficult, often times students do not receive adequate respect for their creativity or innovations, and because teachers are expected to have experience and wisdom, it is difficult for them to accept students’ ideas when they contradict their own (Chan & Chan, 2005). Experience is valued much more than creativity in China's education system, which is very different than what I have learned in the U.S. educational field (Chan & Chan, 2005). As a way of preparing the environment, I would bring in books and items for the other children in the class and myself to read together about her family's culture. One method of introducing this new student's culture into the classroom might be having her bring in just a few items from home that belong to her to share with the class. Although this is a hypothetical scenario, if language barriers come into play it would benefit both myself, the young student, and her family if I were to study about the Chinese language so that I could more adequately communicate with her and her family. One other stride I might take to help welcome this family would be to meet with them and talk about their expectations and needs for their daughter and provide any appropriate resources for their use at home to make their daughter's transition to the school smoother.
As we have discussed throughout this course, understanding diversity with respect to early childhood development can have so many beneficial aspects for growing children and their families. By becoming more culturally responsive in preparation for a young child moving from a different and unfamiliar culture would allow for more positive experiences for the child entering a new environment, more adequate communication between myself, the student, and the family, and would help to eliminate any preconceived biases or untrue assumptions about a new culture.
References
Chan, K.L. & Chan, C.L.W. (2005). Chinese Culture, Social Work Education and Research. International Social Work 48(4): 381–389. Retrieved using the Walden University Library SAGE Publications database.

Personal Experience with Bias, Prejudice, or Oppression

When I read through the blog assignment this week, one story that came to mind was one told to me and experienced by my husband's mother (my mother-in-law) who began an early childhood school 50 years ago, the same school that I work in today. Fifty years ago, she was working in the local public school district and saw that there were no facilities available for children to attend before the first grade level. She wanted to create a place for children to come during their early childhood years to help prepare students for their grammar school experiences as well as provide care for parents and families for their young children, being a single mother and widow in her mid-thirties. Although her intentions to open an early childhood school were more than admirable she was confronted and approached with criticism by some of the local public saying that she was stepping outside of the boundaries meant for women and providing a new method for women to leave the home and step into the workforce. All of the comments and disgust she received came from the male members of the community who, at the time, were biased against women working in a "man's" position, a time when the oppression of women was the dominant culture of society. Despite the confrontations she dealt with during the beginnings of her private school, she pursued her dream and developed a high quality and the most well known early childhood program in the area 50 years later. In this particular scenario, those people that would have to change would be those male members of the community who felt that women should remain as housewives rather than members of the workforce. Obviously times have changed dramatically as women have entered the workforce, opening business, and pursuing their personal employment goals.
Mentally placing myself in her shoes at that time, I can only imagine how difficult it would have been to follow a goal that it being outright put-down and frowned upon by other members of the community, her peers and colleagues. I think I would have felt suppression of my personal goals and desires to make a change in local education for the better. I can only hope that I'd find the same courage to step past the norm to do something that would bring a new idea and benefit to society.