Professional Hopes and Goals

This class has been amazing, and I have learned so much about others, as well as myself. The one hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is too always make my environment welcoming and as non-bias as I can. I want the children and families I work with to feel that their diverse backgrounds add to my life and to the educational process both personally and in the classroom.

 One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field as it relates to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is that children and families can embrace differences in the same ways they embraces similarities. I want learning about culture and diversity to be a rich experience that I can showcase in the lessons I plan for the children, and that my efforts are noticed by others. If I can give at least one person/family/colleague inspiration to not pass judgment or to help others to be anti-bias learners and/or educators, then I feel that my job is going to be a little bit easier.

I thank my colleagues for all of their powerful insights, advice, and experiences. We learn best from one another, and I learned so much about each and every one of you. We have all been through some sort of bias in our lives, but learning how to teach children and families to be anti-bias learners, and for us to be anti-bias educators, we are going to make a world of difference. I thank you all for pushing me to look deep inside myself to make and inspire change, and I hope that I have helped someone along my academic journey.

Welcoming families from around the world

The country I chose for my family to have immigrated from is Chile. The five ways I will try to prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this new family I have in my classroom is to:

·         Make sure that I am not using in personalized biases towards the family.

·         I would also want to be aware of the language barriers that may be present, and to understand the use of “safe words” to make the child feel more comfortable in school and the family to feel at ease when their child is in my classroom.

·         I would want the post a family photo and put some facts about the family and the family culture in the classroom for others to see to bring awareness.

·         I would do research on how individuals from Chile interact with others and learn more about what is important to them about education.

·         I would also treat them respectfully at all times, and treat them individually and not as a group.

I would hope that the family would appreciate my efforts to understand their culture and what factors are important to them when it comes to education, family, and life in general.  I want my Chilean family to feel comfortable and welcomed in my classroom. They need to know that this is an environment free of bias, prejudice and discrimination. The classroom is a place of peace and acceptance of diversity and culture, and the more we know, the more we can grow.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

I have a fairly recent memory that I experienced of bias and prejudice. I recently started a new job as an early preschool teacher about a month ago, and I really loved it. We had four children transition from the toddler room to our class, and all of the children did well except for one little girl. I always made sure to keep the parent informed of her daughter’s day and that she always had great normal days, just a little bit of a rough time during morning drop offs. The parent complained to the office about me and said I was not nurturing enough, which is false, but what hurt is that my job I loved so much let me go because the parent did not accept me for me. Come to find out, the parent did not like me because of my size, and that made me feel oppressed, sadness, and unfairness.

The school had no real grounds to let me go but that of a parent who did accept me. The director said I left on great terms, which was crazy to me because I felt that the director did not stand up for me, and did not tell the parent the truth about how great her daughter was doing in our class. The parent even pulled the child and insisted that she stay in the classroom she just transitioned from. The parent felt I wasn’t capable of being a good teacher because of my size. The diminished equity because this was not fair and equal treatment, and this incident was questionable with ethical and moral concerns, and no one took the time to way them out before making the decision to let me go. I felt so bad when this happened. It made me feel as if I am not a human being because of my size, and that I cannot be extraordinary in any form if I am bigger than what society feels is normal.

The director of the school needs to change, as well as the viewpoints of the parent because this incident is going to fester into my psyche, and I will be a victim of internalized oppression. Also, this incident is not allowing for an educational environment where differences are accepted and being taught to the children. It is allowing them to not get the anti-biased learning environment that they are entitled to. Greater equity would be established with making sure that all facts are presented; truth of character and actions brought forth, as well as moral and ethical concerns when making a decision to let employees go, as well as allowing a parent to make accusations on another teacher or person.