HOPE:

My new hope when working with children and their families on a cultural and diverse level, will be to not only attempt to incorporate solely my ideas and passion for cultural celebrations, but that I will also incorporate active listening to truly hear the needs, concerns, and desires of the children and families that I serve, so that I can create a safe zone for them to grow and thrive!


Goal:

One of my new goals is to start researching various cultural groups that are within the US and outside the US to find out what their needs and desires are in relation to their educational development. I want to then transition to speaking with children and their families about their overall expectations within the classroom as it relates to culture. I will then take that goal and implement it into designing my own program, rather than aiming for working at another particular facility.


To my Wonderful Colleagues:

You all have been extremely insightful and informative! I believe that this class demanded that we push harder and exercise our minds to think completely outside the box, and I believe that I can truly say that my mind has shape-shifted to think in a plethora of scenarios! Good Luck in all that you do, and let work to get to create a cultural blanket of comfort for each and every interaction we come into contact with on a daily basis!

Welcoming Families From Around the World

In this week's scenario, I have chosen that I am working within a childcare center that is seeking a quality education for their child within an environment that will respect their home culture, yet teach them about the cultural climate within the United States. Keeping in mind that culture pertains to the beliefs, artifacts values, languages, religions, music, and food of different people--it is important to incorporate a respect for the many layers of culture (Smidt, 2006). 

Family's Country of Origin: Sri Lanka  

To properly Prepare myself to be culturally responsive for the family I can:

• In lieu of the fact that children construct their identities from the different cultural experiences that they encounter within their lives, it is important to make sure that they [the children] are seeing themselves within that cultural climate within the classroom (Smidt, 2006). I would first perform some basic research to find out as much information I could about the families country. 
• I would next perform an intake interview, in order to learn as much as I could about the family and as much as I could about their cultural heritage (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).  Gaining an initial understanding will help the families to establish an initial line of communication.    
• I would then begin to construct a curriculum that had  activities and cultural to both educate and learn about the country where they are from, 
• Because language is extremely powerful and is needed to push forward through all communication lines, It thinks that learning about the child and their family's language will not only show inclusion but will also help the child to feel continued pride within his/her own heritage
• I would create an evaluation each month to find out if the needs are being met for the children and their families, that way any accommodations can be made if the families feel that something is needed to best incorporate their cultures and learning styles within the learning experience (Miranda, 2010).

I hope that these implementations will not only make a smooth transition for the family within the United States, but I also hope that it will show the child and their family that we welcome their culture within the classroom first and our culture second, so that they do not feel as if we forced our cultural ways upon their life!

References:

The Developing Child in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective on Child Development

Chapter 6, "The Child in Culture" (pp. 84--100)

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Miranda, E. (2010). Going global in Arlington, Virginia. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development 4(2), 219-226.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

This week in the course, our topic for consideration was more personal, as it related to bias, prejudice, and oppression. The earliest real memory that I can recall of prejudice or oppression, was in Middle School. My sister, who was younger than me in Elementary School, had a friend who was white, and the girl's brother was a known racist. One day I remember walking across the lawn from the Middle School to the playground that was on the Elementary School grounds (as I did every day to wait for my mother to pick my sister and me up from school), and the girl's brother drove past on his way to pick up his sister from school. He yelled out the window and called me a "nigger", and I remember feeling slightly afraid because I didn't know what he would do next. It surprised me more, to find out that the person in the truck was the brother to my sister's best friend. I couldn't understand how her brother was such a racist, yet my sister and she were best friends.

In a non-fictional book sense, I used to read a lot of books and watch a lot of shows that were really informative and insightful when I was a young lady. I remember the first time ever watching a documentary about  Emmett Till, and what actually happened to him as a young child. I could not, and still do not understand how a group of people could batter, and brutalize a mere child for a false accusation. The way that those grown white men dismembered his face, battered, bruised and threw him into the water, was an image that I never forgot to this day. The most disturbing part of the Emmett Till case that I read, and saw within that documentary, was the image of the Smiling white men and they're smiling wives, who came out of the courtroom after their case has been dismissed. It was as if they knew nothing would happen to them for committing such an atrocity, and they were sending a private message to other White Supremacists, that there were no repercussions for their actions. And that image haunts me to this day because the hunting and killing of Black men young and old-still go on in our current society. 

In this particular case, I believe that there is not a person or group that could step into this situation and make it better or correct.  Just as it was said in the media for this week by Dr. Benavides, when taking into consideration other groups, you have to also take in consideration yourself and your role within identity (Laureate Education, 2011). I say that to mean that group of people would also have to take a good look at themselves and ask themselves what they are really doing and why. If they continue as White Supremacists to feel empowered by making these decisions, then they may not change. But if they take a look inside and find out that they are doing the wrong thing--that is the point at which things will begin to make a change!

Resources:
Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). In her own voice: Julie Benavides [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu