Welcoming Families From Around the World

In this week's blog assignment I will discuss a family that is moving to my community and they are not familiar with the culture in the community and they will have children attending the preschool I currently direct.

The family is from Poland.

Ways I will prepare myself to be culturally responsive includes:
Researching the Polish Culture
Gaining knowledge on the greeting style and customs
I would find out about their proficiency on the English language and make accommodations if needed.
Find resources that can accommodate their values and needs.
I would research their educational practices.

I hope that these preparations would benefit the family because I want to make sure that the transition is less stressful and comforting. I want to make sure these preparations benefit me because it will show the family that I am culturally diverse and non bias of people who are different from me, as well as show that I am an effective leader and I am passionate about making a difference in the lives of others.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

The Trayvon Martin case in Sanford Florida was an uproar when it came to getting justice for the murder and a fair trial against George Zimmerman.  Travyon Martin is a 17 year old African American male that was walking home from the store after buying candy and because he had on a black hoodie he was racially profiled as if he was going to be a threat since he was walking in a suburb neighborhood.  George Zimmerman who is in his mid 30's who is Caucasian and Hispanic. He is also the leader in the neighborhood watch in the area he lives in.  He spotted Trayvon walking home and he called 911 to let them know he was suspect of an African American wearing a black hoodie because it looked like he didn't belong in that area.  While Zimmerman was on the phone with the 911 dispatcher, he said he was going to follow him and the dispatcher told him not to follow him. Because Zimmerman didn't listen to the 911 dispatcher he did follow Trayvon and it turned for the worst.  Zimmerman and Martin ended up in a fight which left Martin dead, and Zimmerman claiming it was self defense.

To make a very long story short Trayvon Martin's family didn't feel like justice was served when Zimmerman was not charged for Trayvon Martin's murder. The jury were 5 white women and 1 hispanic woman and no African American women which made the jury selection seem unfair. The social media comments, and opinions went viral because of the injustice. There were a lot of people who supported Zimmerman because of the "Stand your ground Law" in Florida. There were lots of negative and racial comments made about Trayvon Martin, and basically saying that he deserved to die. Many African American people felt that racism was very alive and still existing because if it were a black person killing anyone they would be in prison for life and if it's a white person possibly the death penalty, whereas if a white person killed a black  person or a person of a different race the penalty is not that crucial. This case proved that there isn't any racial equality here in the U.S. for example Troy Davis and african american man who was on death row and falsely accused of killing a white police officer was still sentenced to death in 2011 after the jury said they don't believe he killed the police officer.  On July 20, 2012, James Holmes (white male) open fire and kills many people in a movie theatre and instead of him getting a life sentence in prison, he is trying to plead insanity.

Referring back to the Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman case I felt that justice wasn't served. I believe that whether or not George Zimmerman was convicted life for him inside a prison or outside would not be a great experience for him and everyday of his life he will constantly be reminded of the bad decision he made. However, the comments that were made on social media sites made me wonder about the world we live in and the example we are supposed to be setting for our children who will be our leaders of tomorrow.

I feel that in order for greater equity amongst the different races in our society I believe that not only just educating our children about right and wrong and focus on the whole child. I believe that our government and justice system could do a better job when it comes to providing justice for deserving people no matter their race.

Practicing Awareness of Microagressions

When I was a teenager, I attended an FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) Camp in Black Mountain, North Carolina. This camp was amazing because I met girls from different parts of the U.S. and they were all of different cultural backgrounds. I experienced my first microagression and I didn’t even know it. A white girl that stayed in my dorm room asked me if I knew how to braid hair in corn rows, and when I told her no I didn’t she was upset and she mentioned that I should know how to braid hair in corn rows because that’s what my people do. When she made the comment, I didn’t think anything of it, I just ignored her and went on my way. Now, that I think about it, I feel like I should have been upset because she assumes that because I am an African American that I know how to braid hair. Her comment to me was very hurtful and I could have reacted in a way to where I could have said something to insult her culture but I didn’t. Being targeted of a microagression is a learning experience and I know what I should think before I speak so I wouldn’t offend anyone.  As an educator, I believe it’s important for me to educate not only just children and families, but my own family on the awareness of microagressions so these experiences don’t happen much.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

This week I asked my friends and family about their definition of culture and diversity. It's interesting to hear how the definitions are similar and different. Below I summarized their definitions.

      

 Their definition of culture

Culture:  Is the combination of things you value, things related to your identity, things that make you part of a group of people. It doesn’t have to be isolated.

        Their definition of diversity

Diversity: Accepting the uniqueness of others and embracing it.

   

 Then reflect on the answers you received and ask yourself:

        Which aspects of culture and diversity that I have studied in this course are included in the answers I received—and what are some examples?

The aspect of feeling accepted within a group and values are what’s included in the responses I got.

        Which aspects have been omitted—and what are some examples of such omission?

Religion, Traditions and Socioeconomic Status are some of the things that were omitted from the responses. These aspects play a major role in culture and diversity because it’s what people in different groups relate to and it’s something they value.

        In what ways has thinking about other people’s definitions of culture and diversity influenced my own thinking about these topics?

Listening to the definitions of others didn’t have much influence on me I pretty much learned that their views are somewhat similar to mine.

My Family Culture

Imagine the following:

A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of your country. The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees. You and your immediate family are among the survivors of this catastrophic event. However, you have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. You are told that your host country’s culture is completely different from your own, and that you might have to stay there permanently. You are further told that, in addition to one change of clothes, you can only take 3 small items with you. You decide to take three items that you hold dear and that represent your family culture.

• A description of the three items you would choose
• The three I items I would choose would be my family portrait, my rings from my grandfather's sister, and my bible.
• How you would explain to others what each of these items means to you
• These items mean a lot to me because my family is how I became the person I am today and I will never forget that. My rings from my grandfather's sister are important to me because I never met her and it's great to have a piece of my family history that I hold to my heart. My bible means a lot to me because my family always taught me the importance of keeping my faith in God and knowledgeable of his word.
• Your feelings if, upon arrival, you were told that you could only keep one personal item and have to give up the other two items you brought with you
•  I would be really upset if I was told that I could keep only one item because all 3  items mean a lot to me.
• Any insights you gained about yourself, your family culture, diversity, and/or cultural differences in general, as a result of this exercise,
• As a result of this exercise I found it interesting. I will admit it is very challenging because I have a lot of things that are very important to me and only picking 3 items is a challenge. 

When I think of Research

When I think of Research I think of  what goes into the development of a research study. From choosing a topic of interest, formulating a research question and stating a hypothesis is just one of the many things that a researcher has to come up with in order to get the research study approved by the IRB and actually begin data collection.  I have gained many insights throughout this course about research as it relays to the field of early childhood. My insights include going in depth about qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research. 
 In this course my application assignments have really helped me break my research simulation project down to where I could aim my study in one area and focus on that area. I did face challenges in my simulation as to where I wanted to focus but I chose to focus on Professional Development, another challenge I had was determining what research design I would use to collect my data and how I would collect my data. I overcame my challenges by seeing which research design would best fit my study as well as which method would be best for me to collect data.

My perceptions as an Early Childhood professional from taking this course is to continue my research on studies that has impacted the field of early childhood.

Research Around the World

This week I am going to discuss research in Early Childhood around the world.  I am going to discuss my findings on Early Childhood research in Australia.  I went on the Australian website http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au  

I found many different articles on topics such as children's aggression, learning through play, and enriching everyday practice. As I was exploring the website I found a lot of useful information but I also found something that was a new insight is the Children's News Section. I found this section to be new insight because it discusses what's going with early childhood in Australia for example I was reading June 2013 I was reading about committing to advocate for young children in Australia. 

I believe that all of the information about early childhood in Australia is very noteworthy because it's interesting to see that a lot of the issues Australia face are very similar to the U.S. and other countries.