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
Catlin,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your statement that we need to be made more aware of different cultures and diversity. I am surprised that it has taken us working at the Master’s level to find out about some of these resources and have been made aware of these issues.