Professional Hopes and Goals

As this course draws to ta close, I reflect on my hope and goals as I continue to work with children and families from diverse backgrounds. My fervent hope is that I continue to provide an environment where they can come and feel safe and with my knowledge give an unbiased voice of reasoning, a listening ear and a supporter of their needs. I am constantly reminded that in providing accurate, authentic information about the differences among children - beliefs, attitudes, values and customs - that one encounters in the classroom every day is important to the process of exploring diversity with children.

One of my goals is to expand our current library with books that are more diverse, that show different family lifestyles  people of different ethnicity, different religions. I have begun my research and I am awaiting for the final approval  I can't express how excited I am for this next chapter.

Thank you for your continued support, I greatly admire and respect everyone's opinion each week. I wish you the best in your continued studies at Walden. Continue to strive to be the beacon of hope, change in your community and nation. This course only goes to show that we can do more, there is work to be done in the field that we know has its challenges and greatest rewards.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

Every moment of every day, teachers' personalities, preferences, judgments, values, and abilities are on display. Our classrooms are filled with children who possess unique personalities and capabilities, children who may be quite different from ourselves in many ways. 
Our challenge in today's current education climate is "to see each student as a growing, dynamic, developing, stretching being-a fellow human creature-with specific needs and demands and hopes and desires and potentials" (Ayers, 1995, p. 2). 
When a child emigrates from one country to another, the parents usually seek a school that is deemed as being the right "fit" for their child's needs.When a child moves from Sao-Paulo, Brazil to Japan, there are ways that I can be culturally responsive to that child's needs.

Early educators can play a paramount role as young children move through fluid identities and start recognizing and navigating within and across spaces of cultural differences—e.g., between home cultures and the socially-dominant school culture. Being mindful that I must support my child and the others children need, in order to address the multiplicity of cultures present in  the classroom:

the children could sample how the holidays were implemented across cultures (Souto-Manning,2010). One teacher writes about her experience, "During my week, the first day we talked about who Santa was and what countries he visited. We talked about how holidays are typically a time for giving. In addition, we discussed Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and the Chinese New Year. I recall one of the kids’ favorite parts of their experience that year was a parent coming in to help make ornaments with the class. That parent presented first-hand experience and shared stories while actively engaging the children."

Involving more parents and capitalizing on funds of knowledge. Funds of knowledge are cultural artifacts and knowledge present in households which underlie family practices, cultural resources that are important in familial networks.

Embodying the stance of an ethnographer, learning about the histories behind children’s cultural contexts and values.

Fostering and observing dialogues at varied times-sometimes it happens at circle time, during meals and snacks; sometimes with the entire class, or with a small group of children.

Challenging assumptions and start embracing and applying a true sense of diversity in the classroom. To put it very simply, for example, Christmas (often called winter holidays in the school context) takes place in the summer in Southern Hemisphere countries such as Brazil and Australia.

With these ways I would incorporate into my teaching, I hope that from learning about the cultural knowledge and practices a child experienced at home, it is integral to incorporate these way all year ling. From learning alongside with your students and their families will you be able to honor diversities. the more parents and families are involved the better, whether they come and read a book or simply talk about their cultural practices, it is important to always get as much involvement as possible because they have the first hand knowledge.

                                                      

References

Ayers, W. (1995). Introduction: Joining the ranks. In W. Ayers (Ed.), To become a teacher: Making a difference in children's lives (pp. 1-4). New York: Teachers College Press.Childhood Education, 87(5), 337-340. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/875892825?accountid=14872

Souto-manning, M., & Mitchell, C. H. (2010). The role of action research in fostering culturally-responsive practices in a preschool classroom. Early Childhood Education Journal, 37(4), 269-277. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10643-009-0345-9

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

I recently watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy where Dr. Bailey, one of the resident doctors had to deliver news to a patient that his cancer. Dr. Weber's new roommate, a racist old cancer patient named Gene, was steadfast against entering an assisted living facility. Gene, the cancer patient then pulled out a chess game and said "I'll play white and you'll play black because 'you know' ". Dr. Bailey happens to be a black Doctor. 





Equity is about fairness.  It represents a belief that there are some things which people should have, that there are basic needs that should be fulfilled. As I watched the show I immediately thought to myself, I can only imagine doctors who suffer prejudices everyday from people who judge them. But then, this possibly happens to every profession. We may see a woman CEO approaching the platform and we wonder if she is introducing the male guest speaker. Or the black doctor and we wonder, why isn't he a white man. These issues do exist in each professions.


Changes in the attitude of the society in terms of acceptance. The world is evolving  we need to evolve our thoughts, decisions, actions to go along with the evolution. Diversity is the making of a great nation, but minds not in the 21st century.