Professional Hopes & Goals

It is my hope that when I interact in my work with children and families that they feel welcomed and comfortable within the environment that they come into, whether it’s in a classroom, community center, or even right in their own homes on a home visit. Maintaining a positive relationship, being thoughtful about communication, and truly getting to know families aside from their stereotypical preconceived notions about their culture are all tools that can create strong connections regardless of the cultural differences. When people from different backgrounds come together beneficial contributions are too made as we all can learn to understand and appreciate cultural differences, and bring individual richness to each of our interactions with different social identities. I also hope that the through the welcoming environment that they know that they are valued and regarded not only as a people from a diverse background but as unique individuals who bring their own significant contributions to the classroom and society.

The goal I would like to set for the early childhood field is as followed; To impart the knowledge of strong diversity, equity, and social justice concepts on the young aspiring teachers who are still in the early stages of their schooling, in order to effectively institute change in the early childhood community. (If young teachers are able to learn the practices of incorporating diversity into their classrooms from early on the actual application of it will be less of a challenge for them. These concepts of self-identification towards an understanding of biases and prejudices are so beneficial to the teaching process and understanding how and why we interact with different cultures that it needs to be introduced in the beginning of a career when students have not yet been set in their ways.)

I would like to thank all of my colleagues and instructor Rosalie Parrish, for all of the awesome insight, work and feedback from all of the assignments throughout this course! I have truly learned so much knowledge and awareness from this course that I will take with me in all future endeavors both professional and personal. Good luck to everyone with the rest of their academic ventures towards a degree!

Welcoming Families from Around the World

Welcoming Families From Around the World

 

My family’s country of origin: Guyana

Five ways to be culturally responsive towards new family:

Create a school culture where parents are seen as important partners in the school’s efforts to increase student success

Value and acknowledge the strengths and gifts that parents from diverse backgrounds and languages can bring to the teaching and learning process

Implement varied approaches to engage parents from diverse linguistic and ethnic backgrounds meaningfully as partners in a community of learners

Find local resources to support engagement and promote the value of diversity.

Ensure ongoing communication and monitoring of engagement between parents to ensure a solid partnership.

Theses preparations will improve the quality of the teaching and learning process for generations to come, by promoting positive learning outcomes that cultivate classroom enrichment. Children can feel the respect and appreciation that is felt as educational programs value their family contributes to the educational environment, and will help them by co-constructing their family culture knowledge with new concepts.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice and Oppression

An incident that where I have witnessed someone being the target of prejudice was at my former place of employment at a head start in the inner city of Baltimore. That particular establishment’s staff was located in a poor area within the city and is always in need of teachers, along with also having an extremely high turnover of staff. One day a young Caucasian women came in for an interview for a lead teacher position, and seemed very young but eager to teach. After the interview I overheard the director and the education coordinator speaking stating they would never hire her because she wouldn’t be comfortable around the African American students and should go teach with her own people. The prejudicial assumptions that she would be incapable to understand or handle the kids based on her race was truly baffling to me. The fact that it is illegal to not hire someone based on their race, is awesome but often hard to prove that it was a barrier to getting hired so more often then not happens all of time. That particular incident diminished the equality that is supposed to be established in order to give everyone a fair chance at gaining employment, regardless of their race, ethnicity or any other social identity. I was shocked that that aspect of discrimination was even being discussed aloud, but it also made me angry the more I thought about it. How dare they assume that the young women was incompetent based on the color of her skin, and how many times had I myself been viewed in that light after an interview.

I think that the employer would have to evolve their philosophies and learn to focus on their applicants qualifications instead of their race, only then could this and other incidents like this be turned into a greater opportunity for equity.