Communicating Differently with Different Groups

I do find myself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures. I tend to speak a little slower and upbeat. I try not to use a lot of non-verbal gestures and try to listen and ask as much questions as I can to make sure there is not miscommunication in our conversation. When speaking to people who have disabilities, I try to give them eye contact and not look at their disability. I do this because I do not want them to feel I am being disrespectful. I am most confident when I am in a conversation and the subject at hand is something I know very well. If I do not know the subject well, I tend to let others take the lead and chime in as needed. I do always try to be respectful when talking to all groups of people, and more conscious of what I do and say. It can be hard sometimes to communicate with different groups and cultures because you are not sure what is correct or too much, or not enough. I feel as long as I am being respectful, empathetic, and an active listener, then I am doing my part as an effective communicator.

Effective Communication

The person I felt spoke very well and was an effective, competent communicator was my Mother. She was an active listener, who always made sure she fully listened to what the other had to say before responding. She also had great eye contact, as well as had respectful body language. My Mother always made it easy to talk to her. She always made sure that you were comfortable, and gave the best advice for the situation addressed. She would always be accountable for her actions and.or mistakes. She was very honorable in that way, and communicating with her was always reassuring. My Mother was very kind, and you could feel that when speaking to her. She was not judgmental, made you feel like important and human.

I would want to take her kindness and accountability into my communication style; which I have, but I want to continue to do so because this helps put people at ease when communicating. This is so important in the early childhood field, and I want to be able to effectively communicate to my children and families, and vice versa. It starts with me, and I want to exude competent communication with all I come into contact with.

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.

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

This was a very interesting week for me. I learned a new term, called microaggression. I felt this term, but did not know it had a specific name until listing and watching Dr. Sue. An example of a microaggression I experienced in the past happened when I was working as a teacher in a school in a part of town where there were mostly Caucasian people. I worked as a teacher, and I was in school for my undergraduate degree. Other teachers who were Caucasian were in school as well, but when in a conversation with parents, and they would say or reference school, parents automatically asked them what’s their major, and expected graduation date, and tell them how great it was for them to be going to school, and how brave they were for going to school and working. I knew a particular parent in my classroom had a child in another classroom, and I witnessed a conversation as I described where the parent took a great interest in the teacher’s attempt to better themselves. One day, I received a racial microagression two different ways within the same conversation. The parent and I were conversing, and I mentioned school, the parent looked shocked, and said, “you’re in school?!” as if I was not supposed to be in school. I said “yes, I am”. The parent proceeded to say “I didn’t know you were in school; it never crossed my mind”. I replied, that most of the ladies there were in college, and she replied, “yes, but I would have never guessed you were in school”. It made me feel invisible, and made me feel like since I am black, that I shouldn’t even think or want to go to college; I am not good enough to attend college. It hurt my feelings. To top it off, the parent went on talking, not asking me about school as I witnessed her as other teachers, she said “you do speak well; you are a very articulate girl!” she said it in a way that was complimentary, but also shocking to her that I was able to speak well, and not as like the stereotypes that are portrayed for black people. I was younger, and felt like the parent was being racist/prejudice. She was a nice woman, very sweet, but did not see how bad she made me feel. I had to brush it off, and not make it seem as if I was being too sensitive, or over thinking the situation, but I know what I felt and what the under tone of the conversation was.

The effects of discrimination, prejudice and stereotypes on people is very damaging. Dr. Sue talks about the long term affects these behaviors have on the targeted individuals. People are made to feel inferior, and try not to succeed due to this intended/non-intended microagressions. This is something that will continue, unless everyone takes responsibility on how they interact with other groups, and try not to portray and feed into the stereotypes given by society. This also made me aware of my own biases that I have, and to really take a look at how I understand stereotypes, and how not to allow those misrepresentations to keep me and others feeling oppressed.

Perspectives on Culture and Diversity

Culture and diversity is one of those terms that have different meaning to different people. This was such a great way to gain other perspectives from other people. I ask my best female friend who is African American, My Co-Teacher, who is Cuban, and my brother what culture and diversity means to them. My brothers stated that culture relates to some form of identity; this could be race, class, and political views. My best friend stated that culture is different ethnicities that come together and shape the community. Music, food, traditions, how people communicate with one another are all apart of culture. Diversity is how people deal with differences in sexuality, ethnicity, religion, and opinions on varies subjects, like politics, and how people deal with differences in general. My Co-Teacher stated that culture and diversity are the same because they show how groups of people come together and share and celebrate what makes them different. This can be food, ideals, family traditions, race relations, language, and theories of life.

The people I asked about culture and diversity hit a lot of the material that we have covered thus far. All of the people I asked said that culture involve differences in people, their views, status, race, and how they overall identify themselves through traditions. The aspects that have been omitted by my brother and best friend were stating that language is a huge part of culture. My brother and co-worker did not elaborate as much on the differences in communication styles, music, sexual orientation, and ethnicity and religion like my best friend did. I think my best friend had very accurate definitions about culture and diversity that we learned about this week. With that being said, they all hit what we have discussed over the last few weeks about diversity; it is a unique identifier of who and what we are. Listening to other’s definitions about culture and diversity makes me more aware of how this means almost the same thing to most, but still has a different definition from different people, and we have to understand and respect that. I know that culture and diversity is a big part of everyone, but it is always interesting to hear other people describe what they feel and their ideals and perspectives on culture and diversity.