Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope I have in reference to working with children and families who come from a diverse background would be that I had a positive impact on their life.  For families who are diverse and particularly those who are not from this country for the most part have issues of trusting people, therefore, I hope to create a line of communication with the family and child to ensure that success takes place.  I always hope to strive to provide the families and children with the upmost respect and to stir away from stereotyping.

One goal I would like to set for early childhood related to issues of diversity, equality and social justice to also provide the families with equality and always provide them with respect.  I also pledge to avoid stereotyping and making assumptions related to their culture or diversity.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this class…it has been one of my favorite and it was a joy having some of the same colleagues in this class. I wish everyone the best of luck on their endeavors and professional dreams. Also thanks to Dr. Ferrari for providing such an interesting class and information.  I look forward to seeing some of you in the next class!

Country of Origin:  Ecuador

Five Ways in which I will prepare myself for their arrival:

1.   First of all as a Head Start Employee we must provide a translator, therefore, I would ensure that this is set up.

2.   Gather basic information regarding their country, culture and traditions. Learn about the culture, language and history of their family and not make assumptions.

3.  Prepare my current students for the upcoming arrival of a new student, who is culturally diverse.

4.  Take the time to visit a family that is possibly from the same country is available, search my resources and community contacts.

5.  Try and get supplies that are in the native language and also decorate the classroom with things are familiar to him or that respect his or her culture.

In preparation of the above steps I hope to ensure my sensitivity in learning about cultures, language, and history of the families. I also hope to not make assumptions about anything and provide information on the most basic things that we take for granted. I just hope doing the above steps will ensure a smooth transition.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

I have discussed my personal experience with prejudice growing up and being educated in school setting where my culture was not represented many times in discussions, journals and applications therefore, I will discuss an incident where I was the witness.

I work in a community that is predominately Caucasian; I suppose it’s about 95% white.  However, my assistant is African American, who was born, raised and educated in this county and as result of this statistic she and I share similar challenges during our childhood.

I have worked at this center for nine years and she has worked there for about 11 years. Needless to say that we have a classroom full of children who are predominately white and occasionally this becomes a problem for my assistant.  I work for a Head Start Agency who has five centers in four different counties; however, my center is just one classroom. Therefore, with me being a center manager and lead teacher I have to attend many trainings and meetings, so at least once a week I’m away from the center.  From time to time my parents often use microaggression remarks that are hurtful and she often thinks they are discriminating against her. It also puts me in an uncomfortable situation because she and I are very close and have a great working relationship.  Recently I had a parent say to my assistant, “I don’t think K likes it when Mrs. Lewis is away from the center, it seems like she has a bad day every time she is away”.  A few days later after my assistant tells me what the parent had said, I had the opportunity to mention the remark to the parent, who stated, “Yea K isn’t use to black people and I don’t think she likes Mrs.????.  I thought I would fall out of my chair, I couldn’t believe this parent was admitting this to her child’s teacher. I explained to the mother the importance of teaching our children about diversity and that we would in cooperate diversity into our curriculum throughout the year. However, I thought it was right think not to tell my assistant what the parent said. I thought it would only make matters worse.

This often causes my assistant to have hard feelings toward the parents who make these comments. In reference to how this diminished equity is that our schools are no longer segregated therefore, everyone should be treated equally and if your child is educated in public school you should leave all the microaggression at the door.  When I’m put in situations like this it makes me very uncomfortable and I immediately become defensive inside in protection of my friend/my assistant but have to keep my professional composure.

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

It very interesting that we are talking about micro-aggression this week and I experienced this in a very important meeting I attended this week.   We were attending a Policy Council meeting where there were key staff, parents, board members and community representatives present.  During this meeting individuals were elected for the five officers we have and all were Caucasian except for one individual.  At the end of the meeting a VERY key employee, who is African American instructed a staff member to take a picture for the local newspaper and the group proceeded to get together for the picture.  Well needless to say the one African American female was sorta on the side of the group and this KEY staff member stated “Now you know you need to get in the middle because you are a minority” to the African American female, who currently serves a community representative.  I immediately recognized the comment as being a micro-aggressiveness statement but didn’t comment to anyone about this.  However, I had my community representative and parent riding with me so as we made it back to our community they commented on how they were offended by the comment, both of whom are officers , included in picture and are Caucasian. Therefore, I had to explain to the individuals that I really didn’t feel that this was intentional and that the two of them are respected and appreciated. I feel that this experience just reiterate how important it is to be mindful of what we say because the two representatives from my community took a total offense to this comment and felt as though they were not appreciated. Therefore, again it’s so vital that we are cautious on the words that come out of our mouth, especially those of us who hold key management position, because these are leaders!