Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

One example of micro-aggression that I detected this week:

I was out at the mall and there were some people that were Burmese and the men were wearing what look like wrap around dresses.  I heard some people saying that if they are going to live here in America they should dress properly in pants.

This was a public place that everyone has the right to shop and wear what they feel comfortable in and if it is the way they always dressed than they have the right. It made me mad that those people were so closed minded. Everyone has the right to show pride in their culture and to keep it alive.

My observation of microaggression made me aware we need to be careful of how we are speaking to others because even the best intentions can be insensitive. We need to treat all people with respect to their ways. We are all different and that is what makes us special.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

The three people that I talked to all had about the same definition of culture and diversity. My son defined cultural has the beliefs that people have. Diversity he described is the way people are different about their cultural.

My brother-in-law said that culture is that of a person’s race, choice of religion, and how they live. He believes that diversity is what makes you different from others.

The last person I talked to was a friend who is a teacher and he says that culture is a quantity of the life people live. It includes morals, behavior and the principle that is handed down over generations. Diversity is the mixture of all different types of culture and how people live.

I agreed with them all but words that sounded very familiar were beliefs, way of life, action and everything about them.

 

I think that all the information that I received from the answers to the questions are things that I have studied in this class and others. Especially, when it came to the words of their beliefs, their way of life and how they lived and passed it on.

As educators, we need to put our prejudices to the side and focus on the children and families that we work with.  Another thing we need to do is make sure that we are respecting and honoring their background.

In any case regardless of where you are from you will always come in meet someone that comes from a different culture?  It is what makes a person who they are.  It is valuable to know how to interact with people that are different because that is what the world is made of.

 

My Family Culture

During this catastrophic event, I know that I would have to reevaluate my whole lifestyle.  In choosing three things that mean something important to me, I would pick my bible, photo album, and my tweety pillow. I would explain I pick the bible so that I can continue to worship and read the bible with my family. The photo album would be so we can continue to remember those that we have lost but still have one another. Has for the tweety pillow it was the last gift that I got from my husband before he died.

Arriving in a new place and only be able to keep one personal item it would be very hard to pick just one but I would keep the bible and put pictures that were important in it. It would still be counted has one item I hope because of the pictures being in the bible. I would still be heartbroken but having my family being with me would make the move and loss of the other items worth everything.

What I have gained is that I would be able to still continuing living and remembering my culture and where I came from because our family culture is a major part of our identities.

When I Think of Research

 

During this course I was a little uncertain about it because I wasn't really knowledgeable of what it was all about.  Having taken this course I truly have a new understanding of the structure of research and reporting the findings.  I believe that I have acquired a lot but I also know that I can learn a lot more and improve on the information that I have been presented with to.  I wasn't knowledgeable of the process and now that I am I will pay more attention to studies done and how each part is important to the others because it helps form the broader picture. 

 Designing a research study on a common topic isn't an easy task. As a researcher, it helps that you have obtained some other studies, articles, books or other resources to support what you are covering in your study. Because many times the support you find will help give the study credibility and show whether others are on the same page.  Creating a plan is a good and important ideal so that you know what it is you're investigating but really conducting is the hardest part because now this part has many other variables that can help make it or break it.  The conducting of the research is sometimes way more critical than the plan because as the research goes on the plan, method, process can change according to participation especially if your study needs others to contribute to get a clear and concise meaning.  

Some of the challenges I found were in writing my applications of part 2 papers.  I sometimes, forgot to put in the sources to support what I may have believed in, said or thought  I don’t believe that I was off course with my stated opinion but I didn't always strengthen my words with sources showing that someone else concurred or felt the same. I can say that I didn't always execute into it in each paper, but I did improve at finding sources with or without the resources given to show support. 

 

One thing that I can say is that early childhood professionals have their work cut out for them whether  inside or outside of the classroom.  Aiding and teaching others, especially children, is an overwhelming task but I am thankful to each and every one who has pledged to training, teaching or preparing us all too either is in the field of early childhood education or educating preschool children. It is gratifying either way because it is something much needed.  

I would like to say thank you to all of you for your feedback and through all of you I have learned so much. You made this class so much easier than I thought it would be. I want to wish you all of you good luck in the rest of your courses and I am hoping to see all or some of you in future classes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research Around the World

 

    While looking the website of Early Childhood Australia I found many resources in the early childhood field. The one thing I found was a publication tab and there is a section for their Research in Practice Series. In this area you can write, advertise or even subscribe to the Research in Practice Series.

  Also while exploring the website I found out what some of their current topics up for discussion along with some remarkable perceptions that help broaden my knowledge of  early childhood education Australia. They have a program called Kids Matter, and what this does it works with early childhood educators and other care services to help ensure and support mental health and welfare of young children and their families. By working together they instill prevention and early intervention framework.

  Some other topics that you can find in the ‘Research in Practice Series’ include quality of early childhood education, professional partnership, supporting literacy in the early years, and many more. I find it encouraging that Australia is researching some of the same topics to the ones that are being researched here, in the United States.

    Another noteworthy topic I discovered was their new Digital Business Kits for Early Childhood.  These kits have been created to equip early childhood managers, teachers, staff and families to becoming more educated on how to use technology to make a bigger impact in the sector of early childhood education through quality high speed broadband connection.  This will enable them to expand their knowledge and skills by being able to explore, learn and see from a global perspective.

 "Who will help shape children's lifelong technology habits if educators don't participate? Young children often seem more "tech savvy" than many adults but they are not yet tech mature.  They need parents, educators and leaders to make wise informed choices on their behalf" (Early Childhood Australia, 2015).

 http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

 

  

Research that Benefits Children and Families

I am very much interested in working with special needs children. So I am always looking for articles or anything that would help me to help them. So when I was looking up some information I found a website that would help me to set up an inclusion classroom to fit the different needs of a child. One thing I want to do is have special needs children with regular students and to teach them to work together. I work in a special ed. Classroom now and it is wonderful to see how excited they get when their partners come to work with them. I want to make sure that the special needs child does not feel left out.  One thing they mention is and this is something all teachers can use make sure to model appropriate behavior, make sure there is room for all children to move around, make sure the environment is set up for all sensory modalities, and that there is a program set up for social skills. I am really looking forward to teaching an EC classroom for all children with or without special needs and to help make it affordable for all.

Including Children with Special Needs: Are You and your Early Childhood Program Ready?

www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200903/BTJWatson.pdf

 

Your Personal Research Journey

My focus for this class is affordable childcare for children with disabilities. I have learned from personal experience that it is hard to find quality and affordable childcare for special needs children. My grandson is special needs and finding childcare that was affordable and could handle him was very hard. Because of his behavior he is only in school for an hour a day. If schools cannot handle him how will we be able to find quality childcare. We are not able to get a voucher to help pay and most places want more than we can afford. If we can get our government representatives to focus on this maybe help will come to all who need it. I am not saying it is only for children with special needs but even low or middle income families need it also.

I truly believe that there are trials and that they have existed for quite some time, but I also believe that change is on the up rise of things and we can make a difference if we don't lose hope.  A solid start has been made by many professional in this field to focus on the need for early childhood education but we must continue to keep plugging forward and know that we can have an abundant finish if we don't lose heart. We are all taking these classes because we about the children and we want to give them the best and quality childcare we can.