PROFESSIONAL HOPES & GOALS

When I think about working with children and families from diverse backgrounds I hope that I my knowledge, awareness, and consideration for cultural diversity among children and their families is at a significant increase in comparison to its level prior to the start of this course. Knowledge, awareness, and consideration are essential factors to posses when working in direct contact with culturally diverse children and their families. With possession of these factors I anticipate effective communication and interaction between myself, children, and families; establishing a foundation for respect and trust in the children and parents for my positions and responsibilities as an early childhood professional, as well as respect and trust within myself for the family’s culture deeply rooted within the children.

When I reflect on the early childhood field and issues that arise with regards to diversity, equity, and social justice, I would love to set a goal to increase education among children, families, and early childhood professions with regards to these issues. Presenting education on these issues through mandatory employee trainings, classroom curriculums, and PTA meetings would help to breakdown stereotypical barriers often deeply engrained into a person’s values and beliefs. The early childhood field is representative of the infamous quote “it takes a village to raise a child”. Parents, adult family members, and early childhood professionals are symbolic of individuals within a “village”; therefore the more aware these individuals become of cultural diversity and the need for equity and social justice, the more educated our children will become regarding these issues.

Throughout this course I have gained wonderful insight into my colleague’s opinions, beliefs, and experiences reading diversity and equity. I have truly enjoyed reading my colleague’s weekly Blog Post and sharing my perspectives and experiences. I wish everyone the best of luck in their future endeavors.

Good Luck!!!

WELCOMING FAMILIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Family Country of Origin: India

Five ways in which I will prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family:

1.     Become educated about Indian culture, values, and family traditions

2.     Familiarize myself with the family’s primary language in an effort to increase communication

3.     Encourage open communication between myself and the family regarding my responsibilities as an early childhood professional within a childcare center and their expectations as customers receiving services.

4.     Develop an understanding for specific fears/concerns of the family with regards to their immigration journey

5.     Incorporate cultural diversity into my classroom curriculum reflective of the various cultures represented among the children within my classroom.

I anticipate that these preparations will serve as a total benefit to myself as an early childhood professional and the family as new members to the United States by increasing my education and awareness regarding cultural diversity, while creating a sense of comfort and security for the family during their transition and settlement into their new country,

THE PERSONAL SIDE OF BIAS, PREJUDICE & OPPRESSION

I experienced ongoing bias specifically age discrimination, from a preschool teacher employed at the previous daycare to which my son attended. Of all the parents with children enrolled in that daycare, I believe I was the youngest non-married mother. This raised many issues and concerns regarding comments made by his teacher with regards to my son’s feeding schedule. I enrolled my son into this particular daycare at the age of nine weeks in anticipation of my return to work. At the time my son was exclusively breast-fed and typically nursed every 1-2 hours. My choice to exclusively nurse my son was a decision that I took extreme pride in due to its health and mother/infant bonding benefits. I made the daycare fully aware that my son was excursively breast-fed and should be fed “on demand” or every 1-2 hours, whichever came first.

About 1 month after my son’s start date with the daycare, I experienced an incident with my son’s lead teacher in which she felt that it was necessary to make the recommendation that my son should not be fed every 1-2 hours but instead should be introduced to a pacifier as she believed he is most often in need of satisfying his sucking reflexes rather than being in need of milk. When the comment was relayed to me by the center’s director, I felt that his teacher undermined me as a mother and disregarded my personal choices for my son. I kindly advised the director that I made the request for my son to be fed “on-demand” or every 1-2 hours as this is the feeding schedule that my son has become accustomed to since birth. More importantly I advised the director that my son does not take a pacifier as I prefer to not introduce them to him.

The undermining and complete disregard exhibited by the teacher in this incident along with other occurrences appeared to be blatant signs of age discrimination. To my knowledge this type of behavior was only generated towards me, which lead me to believe that I was placed in the stereotypical category as a “young inexperienced mother in need adult guidance”. Although I was a first time mother  and benefited from some advice given by older or more experience adults, decisions such a my son’s feedings and choice to not provided him with a pacifier were ones that I was more than capable of making; after all in most circumstances the mother tends to know their child’s feeding schedule the best.

To turn this incident from an occurrence of age discrimination into an opportunity for greater equity, I believe the teacher would need to self-reflect on her own biases and work towards counteracting them. The teacher may very well hold the stereotypical view of young unmarried mother’s that we are all uneducated, work low-paying jobs, receive government assistance, and incompetent to raise children. If this is true, the teacher need to acknowledge that every young unmarried mother does not fall into this stereotypical category, and suggesting that everyone does may cause some young mothers to become extremely offended. Although I am a young mother, I am proud to day that I am educated, have a career, strive daily to provide my son a good quality of life while laying a foundation for the success of his future.