Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that I can use what I have learned these last eight weeks to make a difference in my classroom and in the lives of every child I come in contact with including my own children. I have learned that we must respect others and individuality. I will work to collaborate with families and make sure that I am respecting their culture and ideals while being conscious of microaggressions and –isms.

One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice would be that all professionals would embrace the anti-bias education approach and work to advocate for all children and their families.

I would like to thank my colleagues for opening themselves up and sharing their stories of sadness as well as your triumphs. I also appreciate your feedback and words of encouragement and support. I wish you all the best and look forward to collaborating and working with you in the future. 

Welcoming Families From Around the World

Country: Finland

Scenario: I am working in a child care center and receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from Finland will be joining my class. I have no prior knowledge about Finland but want to prepare myself to welcome the child and her family.  The five ways in which I would prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family are:

1    1..    Know the primary language of Finland. I would try to learn a few basic phrases or words in Finnish.
2.       Finland’s ideas about education
3.       The role of children in Finland
4.       Gender Roles in Finland – how men and women are seen or valued
5.       Primary religious beliefs of the people of Finland.

I believe that taking these preparations will allow me to be prepared to welcome the child into the classroom. It would help to ease any uncertainty or apprehension that I may have about adding a new child to the learning environment and will also equip me with the tools I need to help make their transition smooth.  Knowing beforehand how the child’s previous county viewed education, the roles of children and gender roles will help me to know how to approach certain conversations or topics with the family as I work with them.  I do not want to offend them or make them feel as if they are not welcomed or understood. 

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

The memory that I will share involving bias, prejudice and/or oppression will be a story that I was told by mother.  My mother was working as a consultant providing home training services to parents who needed additional strategies to help their children at home and school. My mother made contact with a woman regarding her son over the phone. My mother informed her of who she was and what she would be coming to the home to do. When my mother arrived at the home she introduced herself as Dr. Johnson and asked to come into the home. The mother looked at my mother as if she was surprised to see her and that my mother was not the person she was expecting to see. While my mother was at the home providing information to the mother the father arrived home. The mother and father then began having a conversation in the other room and then the mother came out and said they would not be needed the home services. The next day the mother called back to the office and requested services again asking would the person coming out be white or black. A white person was sent out to the home and the mother accepted the home services. 

I believe this incident diminishes equity as I feel the mother and father were saying that a black person was not capable of providing services to the family because they were black. My mother has worked very hard to obtain her doctorate and was more qualified to provide the services but was denied the opportunity to help the child and their family just because of the color of her skin.

The feelings that this incident brings up for me are anger and frustration. I am upset that my mother was treated in this manner but I am also upset that a parent would turn down services that could benefit their child because of the race of the person trying to assist them.

The people that would need to change in this incident would be the mother and father as well as the company that my mother was working for at the time. Once the company found out that the parents were requesting a different consultant of a specific race they should have informed that parents that they would not be sending another person if race was the only reason to request another person in their home. I feel the parents were being told that it is okay to discriminate by the company when their request was granted.