My hope is that we can all live and work together in harmony.  My hope is for peace, love, and understanding.  World peace is not too much to hope for, right?!  When I work with families from diverse backgrounds, my hope is that I am able to express how much I respect them and how much I truly want what is best for them.  My hope is that I can do my part to help families without causing offense in any way.  My hope is that one day every single baby in this world can be born on equal ground with every other  human in this world.
     My goal for the early childhood field would be that every family is taught their importance in their child's education.  It is true that parents/family are the most important person in a child's education.  As educators, we can be so much more effective with the engagement of families.  I feel that if families are truly engaged and truly see their importance, then they can bring so much more to the field to educate us on their cultures and make us even more aware of each unique family dynamic.  This would really go a long way to helping us to understand and promote equity, social justice, and support for diversity.
     Thanks so much to each of my classmates and to Dr. Davis for a wonderful learning experience this course.  I have learned so much from each of you and the things that I have learned I will carry with me for my entire life.  Go spread the message, my friends!

 

 

 

Albania

 

 

 

I chose Albania as the country that my new family would be coming from as they entered into my program.  I just pulled up a list of all countries and it was the first to catch my eye!  I had several ideas as to what I would do to prepare myself and my program for the family that would be coming from Albania.  I think that the first would be to set about educating myself and my staff.  We would need to find out as much as we could about Albania, like the government, history, capital, politics, ethnicities, educational programs, languages, and other cultural features.  I feel like it would be a great idea to contact the previous program in Albania and talk to the staff there about a typical day in their program, to get a good idea of what the child is used to.  I also think that it would be a good idea to meet with the family before the start date and ask them to share with us things about living in Albania.  We could also have the family meet with staff and our current families and even answer questions if they are open to that idea.  These things would help us to learn as much as possible about this family before we started to try to provide services to them.  I would then take everything that we learned and try to integrate the same types of things into our current program.  I would try to find way to include pictures, objects, toys, foods, languages, and music from Albania in order to try to make the family feel at ease and to teach everyone in our program about our new family from Albania!

I think that these preparations will educated us in such a manner as to be able to provide the best services possible to this family.  I also think that it would teach us about how important it is to discover these things about all of our families... not just those from another country.  Just imagine if we worked this hard to find out these types of things about our current families!

     When I think of my life and instances in which I have experienced bias, oppression, discrimination, and other things of this nature, I automatically think of my childhood.  It seems like once I entered the school system, I became the target of these things, mainly because of the fact that I lived in extreme poverty.  Children always laughed at my clothing and would say that I probably didn't take baths.  They would make fun of my hand-me-down clothing and say things about me probably being on food stamps and welfare (which I was).  Adults were always giving me "the look" and I could always tell that they would prefer that their child never ask to have me over.  They wanted their child to be nice to me, but prayed that their child would never want to be my friend.  If everything ever came up missing, it was assumed that I took it (because I was poor).  These types of things were daily occurrences.
     Then I tried to think about times that I was discriminated against that had nothing to do with my socioeconomic status and I was reminded of an event that occurred when I was in the fifth or sixth grade.  I had been invited to a church event by a friend.  We were in the pastor's home waiting on his daughter, who was the youth group leader, to get ready.  We were sitting in the living room and had made a game of putting our feet up on their coffee table.  Any time that I would put my feet up on the table, one of the other girls would kick my feet off.  It started to get rough and a bit tense and finally one of the girls said, "you can't put your feet on this table unless you are a Christian."  I had never even heard of the word and really didn't understand what was going on... just that I was not included in this group of girls for some reason beyond my control.
   When I think of instances like this, I try to recall the feeling that I had during those times.  I felt embarrassed and ashamed, like I had done something wrong, but I really didn't know what it was.  I felt angry that I was mistreated for things that I had no control over.  I desperately wanted to belong, but just couldn't figure out what these other children wanted me to change in order to be part of their group.  I felt powerless.  I felt like the world was so unfair.
     I think that the only way to change these types of incidents is to change attitudes, assumptions, and values.  Children are socialized into treating others this way.  They are taught (whether intentionally or not) who belongs in the "in" groups and who does not.  In order to create greater equity for everyone, we have to change how we treat others and we have to change the messages that we send to our children about how others are to be treated.

                                Microaggressions
     Learning about Microaggressions this week has helped me to see that I have been doing this my entire life.  I do get into a cab and wonder where the driver is from, simply because he make look different or talk differently than I do.  I never even consider that the driver's family could possibly have been in the United States longer than my family.  I just automatically assume that the driver is from another country.  Listening to the speaker on the video this week made me realize how frustrating and offensive this would be.  Especially when you have to hear it over and over again from people with white skin and who speak English without any type of accent.  I would hate people looking at me and assuming that I don't belong in this country or that I am from another country, based purely on what they see.
   

 

 

 

 

I also think that I face microaggression, maybe in a reverse form.  I work in a position that is very white collar.  Most of the people that I meet with have come from well to do families and have degrees earned from fancy colleges.  Most of them have never known need.  We serve families that are in extreme poverty and face all of the hardships that are associated with spending generations in the cycle of poverty.  Unlike many of the people that we work with, there are a few of us that grew up in poverty.  We know some of the challenges faced by our families because we have faced them ourselves.  There are a few of us that know what it is like to be hungry and to be sick and in pain and not be able to afford to go to the doctor.  There are a few of us that earned our degrees by working two or three jobs while taking classes.  However, many of the upper management and administrative workers that I work with have never known what these things are like.  Everything that they know about poverty, they have learned in text books.  This causes them to lump everyone in poverty into a single category.  The believe that every one of our families have the same exact life, that is demonstrative of every stereotype associated with those in poverty.  Not only does this cause constant microaggressions at meetings when they refer to "these people", but also when they follow that up with a generalization that is just a stereotype of people in poverty.

While this is offensive and is an example of microaggressions, it is even more offensive that they assume that all of us in these meetings have come from the more affluent type of society that they have.  This is where I say that it is almost a reverse example of microaggressions.  These upper level management and administrator people are always trying to help us understand how "these people" live and how hard "these people" have it.  They assume when they look at me (an intelligent, white, educated woman in a business suit) that I have never experienced poverty.  They lecture about how we need to realize just what "these people" go through.  It is offensive to me that they assume that I don't know.  It is offensive to me that they feel like they can explain something to me that I have experienced since birth and they have never known anything other than having all of their needs met.  I may not be considered as a marginalized group (as a white, middle class, business woman) yet they are looking at me and assuming just by what they see that they know how I feel and what I think and believe.  I feel like this is a microaggression (even if a bit in reverse).

 

     I talked to two co-workers and also a homosexual friend about how they would define culture and diversity.  Although all three are different ethnicities and from different walks of life, they still had very similar answers.
     They defined culture as a person's ethnicity and their traditions, such as the foods they eat, clothes they wear, languages they speak, music they listen to, etc.  They all talked about diversity as all of these different cultures living together and accepting of each other's differences.
     In talking with each of these people, I realize that they are spitting out what they have been hearing in the last few years about culture and diversity.  They were giving the standard textbook, politically correct answers that we have all been taught over the past few years to say in order to be able to claim that we celebrate diversity and are multicultural competent people.  They are aware of the surface aspects only.  I was the same way before starting this course.  I realize that most people think that they show multicultural competence and that they promote diversity, but they are still above the surface.  I think that this course has taught me to examine more than just the culture that we can see with our eyes.  I have learned that there is so much to a person's culture that we would never even know about without getting to know that person.  I now realize that culture is so complex and makes a person who they are.  I think that all of the people that I talked to last week about culture and diversity are still on the surface.  They haven't been challenged to examine their own culture and haven't been enlightened to the fact that culture runs so much deeper than a persons color, language, etc.

My Big Fork and Spoon, My Recipe Binder, and a Memory Card of Pictures
  
     I think that many of us think often about things like this.  For me, it is if my house were to catch fire and burn to the ground.  What would I try to take?  I always tell myself that I would grab every picture off of the wall along my way out of the door and grab every picture album that I could get my hands on.  Even if I couldn't, my mom and others have pictures that I could always make copies of.  So, I have always just decided that I would just want my husband and kids out safe with me.  Everything else could burn to the ground.
     When considering if I were to become a refugee, displaced to a new country, my thoughts were exactly the same... I just wanted my husband and kids.  As long as I had that, then I could care less about any object.  I discussed this scenario with my teenage son, to see what objects he thought we should take that represent our family culture.  He said our tea pan!  It was so funny to me that this was the first thing that came to his mind.  We have an old, battered sauce pan that we use only to cook tea on the stove.  When my husband and I first got married, I didn't want to ruin any of my new pans by cooking tea in them.  My mom gave me her old tea pan, that had also been my grandmother's tea pan.  It is just a cheap, old pan.  It means nothing to me and I would never take it anywhere with me.  Yet it was the first thing that came to his mind.  The next thing that he chose would also be something that I would choose.  He brought up the big fork and spoon.
     The big fork and spoon have hung in my kitchen for many, many years and they have a funny story behind them.  It is a long story, but I will shorten it.  My husband and I loved watching Everybody Loves Raymond.  In one of our most favorite episodes, Frank and Marie had a huge fight over a large wooden fork and spoon that had hung in their kitchen for years.  We LOVED this episode.  Many years later, my husband's grandmother passed away and we had the task of clearing out her house.  We were the first humans up in her attic in 30 years or more.  It was dark, dirty, and scary!  In a corner of this attic, buried under a lifetime of clutter, we found this large, wooden fork and spoon.  It has been in our kitchen ever since.  It is an inside joke for my husband and I.  Most people see it hanging in our kitchen and probably question our sense of style.  It is special to my husband and I, though and will probably be with us until our dying day.
     The other thing that I would take would be a memory card with every single picture that I could fit on it.  I would be sad if I lost all of my pictures and the memories and feelings that looking at old pictures can evoke.  I sometimes forget what my children looked like when they were babies.  I sometimes forget funny ways that they pronounced words.  I forget little funny things that they did.  Looking at old pictures reminds me of these things and brings a special feeling, both sweet and bittersweet.  I would hate to forever loose those memories and feeling.  That is why I would want a memory card with all of my pictures on it. 
     I had a hard time coming up with my last item.  My son's girlfriend joked that I should say food.  We are huge foodies in our house.  We always put out a huge spread and every occasion revolves around food.  I didn't think that food would be a good answer, but still couldn't think of a good third object.  Late last night it occurred to me how to bring our love of food with us.  I have a binder with all of our favorite recipes.  We try new recipes all the time.  If it isn't great, I just throw the recipe away.  If it is wonderful, then we call it a "keeper" and I put the recipe in my binder.  My sons joke that "if" they ever move out, then I will have to make them a copy of my recipe binder to take with them, so that they will know how to make all of their favorites.  Our family culture centers a lot around food, meals shared, and treasured recipes.  This binder makes a perfect third item.  I would probably even take it over the large fork and spoon.
     If I showed up in this country that I had to take refuge in and was told that I could only take one of these items, I would be disappointed.  However, I would gladly give up all three items if it meant that my family could still be together and safe.  I would keep my pictures and give up the large fork and spoon and recipe binder.
     I really realized that in our family, we really treasure memories and making memories.  I often tell my husband that this is our time to be making memories.  We are also big on making and sharing food together.  However, nothing is more important in our family culture than being together.  As long as our family is safe and intact, nothing else matters.  We would all gladly give up any object in order to keep us all safe and together.  That is our family culture.

When I Think of Research...
    Everyone that knows me also knows that I love to read, refer to, and quote research.  I love to read about different research and about the results.  I am always forwarding interesting research articles to my spouse and friends (I am pretty sure they do not read them).  However, the idea of performing the research is a different story.  I want someone else to do all of the work and then just fill me in on what they find out.  I am a curious person with a lot of questions and research helps me to look up and read about the subject to get my answers.  Although I learned a lot in this class, I find that I am still very much on the side of loving research, but not wanting to be involved in the process of performing said research.  The final result interests me very much, but I just do not have any interested in the process of it.
     The biggest insight that I gained was that one study does not have to answer the big question.  I think that research makes many people nervous because they feel like they have to be able to have earth shattering results that will change the world.  Most of us want that.  My insight was that this is just not realistic.  The answers to the really big questions actually come from breaking that big question down into several smaller questions and tackling it a little at a time.  It may take hundreds of studies to answer one question.  We have to learn to accept this and even embrace it because tackling it a little at a time can actually enlighten us to a new avenue or show us that we need to be looking in a different direction.
  In fact, this enlightenment also changed my ideas of the nature of research and about planning, designing, and conducting research.  It also showed me my biggest challenge and how to encounter it.  For me it was all about learning that research is not about one study that answers it all.  It is about many, many smaller studies all working off of each other... like peeling an onion one layer at a time until the big picture is revealed.
     As an early childhood professional, I have learned that in order to find my answer, I must be able to define what I am looking for.  I can't just research which kinds of teachers are more effective; I have to be able to define what an effective teacher is.  I can't ask which children will be more successful; I have to be able to define what successful is.