Professional Hopes and Goals

Equity is the one hope that I have when working with children and families who are diverse.  One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to the issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is to advocate for children and families. 

To My Colleagues:

I would like to thank all of you for insights and support throughout this course.  I appreciate all your help.  I wish all of you the best of luck throughout your journey.  

 

Welcoming Families From Around the World

The origin of the family I am welcoming is from India. To prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family, I will ensure that I am warm, welcoming, and understanding to the families needs.  I will also do some research on their culture to gain a deeper understanding of this family.  Labeling the classroom with this families language will help me prepare to welcome this new family.  Being considerate of the families diverse needs, I will also provide a wide-selection of literature for them.  Last but not least, I will share with the other children and families about our new family that will soon be joining us.  I will do this by sharing stories, pictures, music, food, and short videos. 

I hope these preparations will benefit both the family and myself.  By being compassionate towards this family, I hope to build a strong and meaningful relationship with them.  By preparing the environment, I hope to make the new family feel at welcomed and comfortable.  By sharing the culture of the new family, I hope that all families will be caring and supportive of the new family. 

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

A memory I have of prejudice and bias is from when I was in high school.  There was a group of kids that claimed they were skinheads.  They would make racial comments against others that were different from themselves.  Always making negative and hateful comments and jokes about other cultures.  Their attitudes and feeling towards people who were not white were treated unjust and unfairly.   

This specific incident of bias and prejudice diminished equity.  These kids in my high school were racist, they were demeaning, disrespectful, and destructive of the culture of others.  This incident brought up feelings of confusion and curiosity.  I did not understand why these kids did not like others who were different than them.  Because of this, I wanted to understand why and how people became racist.  For this opportunity to become equitable, these racist and bias high schoolers would have to gain new insights on individuals and groups of people different from thier culture.  This could be very challenging for these high school kids.  Maybe they grew up in a home that was bias and prejudice and did not know any different.  Or may they were trying to fit in with a certain group of kids and they were doing what they thought they should do to fit in.  Either way, having a clear grasp of racism, bias, and prejudice is not easy when you are a child growing up.  It would take much knowledge, opportunities, and experiences for these kids to change and provide opportunities for greater equity.