Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds; are how to be culturally competent and respect different cultures and their ways of living. I want to have an ability to understand and to honor those differences. This has to be an everyday practice for educators to demonstrate an ongoing commitment, to developing their own cultural competence and in the process with families and communities. Educators have to view families as a central unit to children’s sense of being and belonging in order to be a success in lifelong learning. As educators of children we need to help children to learn about and how to except others from different cultures as well.

One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice; are for all children and families to have a sense of belonging, experience and affirmation of their identities and cultural ways of being. All children must have access to participate in the education they need to become successful and contributing members of society (Derman-Sparks, & Edwards, 2010).

To Dr. Snider,

Thank you for a very soul searching and amazing course. In racism we all think we know about the content of this subject but, I have found I needed to learn so much more on the issues of diversity, equity, and social justice. This course explained it better.

To my colleagues, I have chatted with for 8 weeks and have learned how dedicated we all are to love teaching children of all cultures. I thank you for your support and hope to see you all again in future classes

.Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Welcoming Families From Around the World

The name of “my” family’s country of origin is Uganda.

The five ways in which I will prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family are:

 (1. to respect and honor their culture and traditions.

(2. to try and learn the language to help them feel safe.

 (3.I would want them to keep their own religion to keep them grounded in their culture.

(4. I will find foods and incorporate them when cooking

(5. to create a school environment that accepts their children for who they are and where they come from.

 I hope that these preparations will benefit both the family and myself because; I understand that culture and family traditions are important for anyone’s identity. By creating a positive and caring environment, respecting each other’s cultural background in any way is the most important thing to do. If you are strong about own culture, then you will be better listening to others talk about theirs. Knowing how prejudice and discrimination has affected me, has made me more aware of how it has affected others.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

In what way(s) did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in this incident diminish equity?   Well, I have a friend, who works at a plant making doors. It’s owned by a white family. He is always telling of the racist things that are said to him. I decided to ask him if he had an incident at his job that was something he could tell me specifically on bias, prejudice and/or oppression in an incident that would diminish equity. He began to tell me something that to this day, even though it was about twenty years ago, he would never forget it. He asked one day whether they were off on Martin Luther King’s birthday and the white guy said I’ll be back to let you.

A foreign guy who did not know English very well brought him a rope, and said this was his answer to the question Of King’s birthday; it was tied like a rope you would hang someone with. This foreign guy did not understand how degrading the incident was, which was why they put him up to do it. The article Inverting Racism’s Distortions states; that while racism is readily identifiable in its more extreme manifestations, hate crimes and other forms of physical violence, explicit discrimination comes in the form of education and employment settings, etc.,

( MARGLES, & MARGLES, 2010).

The feelings he had from this incident was at first to get angry, then he realized that racism was not going to ever change and he worked for the kind of people that allowed this to happen and thought nothing about it. Even after over 20 years this incident is still embedded in his mind.

What and/or who would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity would be first, the change of the dominant culture. Simply, because the dominant culture is the one that controls what society thinks and feel. As long as they feel superior, it may not ever change. This article explains that no one is born racist. Racism is taught and the lives of whites would go better if racism didn’t exist. Racism hurts us all. It is in the interest of the oppressor group and the group targeted that will end racism. Our full intellect, capacities and human bond are all at risk

 ( MARGLES, & MARGLES, 2010).

MARGLES, S., & MARGLES, R. (2010). Inverting Racism's Distortions. Our Schools / Our Selves, 19(3), 137-149.