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.

AWARENESS OF MICROAGGRESSIONS

I experienced an example of microaggression within my office at work during an office meeting. I am currently employed as an Enforcement Office for Domestic Relations which requires me to monitor, enforce, modify, and terminate child support orders established within the county in which I am employed. Due to the nature of the work conducted within my office, new procedures and system modifications are constantly created by the state to be implemented within each county.

Approximately three months ago the assistant director of my office scheduled an afternoon meeting with the Enforcement Unit to discuss a new procedure created by the state to be implemented within our county and other counties within the state. The state created a new procedure to the establishment and enforcement of child support orders in which a “payment score” would be used during the initial establishment of a child support order. The assistant director of my office described the “payment score” as a system used to evaluate and record a non-custodial parent’s ability to comply with his/her established child support order. The factor used to determine one’s payment score and likelihood to comply with his/her child support order was the individual’s residential address recorded during the initial establishment conference. Individuals with a residential located in middle to upper class cities received a higher payment score than individuals with a residential from lower class cities.

Myself and fellow colleagues felt that this new procedure was a clear example of stereotyping, unethical, and completely unnecessary. There is no possible way that one can determine an individual’s likelihood to comply with his/her child support order based solely on the location of their residential address. In fact once the procedure was implemented and utilized, it proved to be inaccurate as there are cases within our office in which the non-custodial parent and person paying support has a residential address located in a upper class location but fails to comply with his/her support order. Likewise we there are cases within our office in which the non-custodial parent and person paying support has a residential address located in a lower class location but maintains compliance with his/her support order.

I perceived this procedure as a form of microaggression, discrimination, and stereotyping. I was disappointed with the state’s creation and implantation of this procedure as it is a clear example of discrimination and stereotyping against non-custodial parents based on the social class and/or the social class of the location of their residential address.  I would like to believe that we as a society have come a long way since the days of blatant discrimination and stereotyping against other individuals, but procedures such the “payment score” and others to the like have reaffirmed the fact that discrimination, stereotyping, and prejudice are still very much alive and present in our every day life.

PERSPECTIVES ON DIVERSITY AND CULTURE

Definitions of Culture & Diversity:

Individual #1: “Culture is the race by which one identifies themselves with such as Caucasian, African American, or Asian. Diversity is differences that are present among individuals with regards to abilities, socioeconomic status, or race”.

Individual #2: Culture is shared norms, values or traditions held by an individual and/or group of individuals. Diversity is cultural differences among individuals within our society”.

Individual #3: Culture is traditions established and maintained within individual families. Diversity is personal characteristic differences present among individuals”.

The aspects of culture studied in this course which are present in the answers I received  is that of “cultural group” and the definition of culture described in the course text “Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves”. Cultural group is defined as one’s ethnicity which reflects the place of origin and cultural background of the person’s ancestors. As individual #1 stated “culture is the race by which one identifies themselves with such as Caucasian, African American, or Asian”. Derman-Sparks and Edwards defined culture as the manner by which particular groups of people live. Individual #2 stated “culture is shared norms, values, or traditions held by an individual and/or group of individuals”. Individual #3 stated “culture is traditions established and maintained within individual families”.

The aspect of diversity studied in this course which is present in the answers I received is “clash of culture” discussed in the article “Beyond “Culture Clash” Understandings of Immigrant Experiences”. Bic Ngo describes “clash of culture” in terms of immigrants and immigrant youth being torn between two worlds such as two generations. The “clash of culture” idea correlates with individual #2 and individual #3 responses as the cultural differences and personal characteristic differences may be presented among individuals of different generations creating the “clash of culture”.

The aspect of diversity omitted within the answers I received is that of family diversity. None of the three individuals appeared to view family structure as a form of diversity as each person defined diversity in reference to cultural or personal differences among individuals. Family structure is a form of diversity as family households can be married, single mother, single father, widowed, or divorced.

Reviewing the three individual definitions of diversity and culture influence my thoughts about these terms and what these terms mean to me. When I reflect on the term diversity I define this term as differences in individual characteristics with regard to race, familial status, socioeconomic status, education, profession, and personal abilities. I define culture as family traditions, norms, values, and beliefs shared within an individual family and/or a group of individuals of the same race.

MY FAMILY CULTURE

Three items to be taken to my new home country:

1.       Picture of my son and I

2.       My son’s newborn keepsake box filled with memorable items from my pregnancy and my son’s birth

3.       Picture of my immediate family including mother, father, sister, and nephews

Explanation of Items Chosen:

Item 1#- Picture of my son and I is important to be as is symbolizes the shared connection and bond between my son and I. This picture represents the unconditional love, support, and protection that I have for my son.

Item#2- My son’s newborn keepsake box filled with memorable items from my pregnancy and my son’s birth represents the amazing and most rewarding experience that occurred in my life. My son’s keepsake box is filled with many memorable items including information received during my 1^st child birthing class, hospital admission bracelets for my son and I, and my son’s birth card which detailed his weight, length, date and time of birth. This keepsake box represents the unforgettable experience that I had during my pregnancy and delivery of my son.

Item#3- Picture of my family including mother, father, sister, and nephews symbolizes my sources of support and love. Each person within my family picture serves as a supportive individual whom which I have an overwhelming amount of love and support.

Personal Feelings:

If I were told upon my arrival to my new home country that I could only keep one personal item and had to give up the other two items that I brought with me, I would feel extremely upset and a loss of connection to the personal items that have the most significance within my life. The two items that I would most likely give up would be the picture of my son and I, and the picture of my family. These items would be the least difficult to separate from due to the fact that my son and immediate family would be traveling and settling with me in my new home country. My son’s newborn keepsake box cannot be replaced, whereas pictures can be retaken.

Insights Gained:

This exercise has enabled me to see what is most important to me in reference to family culture. Reflecting on the three items that I chose to take to my new home country, I found it interesting that two of the three items reflected the significance of my relationship with my son. When I know reflect on the term “family” I now realized that I establish myself and my son as my 1^st immediate family with my mother, father, sister, and nephews as my 2^nd family.