Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions          

                Observing people around me at work this week with the intent of noticing microaggressions was interesting.     I honestly saw very little in terms of the interactions among my staff that could be categorized in that way until today.  I met with 3 supervisors to work on planning for the upcoming school year. In discussing placements, one of them made a comment about a family worker who is morbidly obese.  She complained about this person expecting others to do her work because she is so overweight and that she was just plain lazy.  She continued to insinuate that her obesity prevents her from doing what is required and that families wouldn’t want to work with her. Her comments were not founded. Finally, the other woman who  supervises the person that was the subject of the comments  spoke up and said many assumptions were being made about her job performance   that were not true .  I purposely did not comment initially.  I wanted to let the conversation continue to see where it would go and how many other things she would blame things she would blame on the woman’s obesity.   As I sat and listened, I realized that microaggressions can occur even among professionals.  It was not a good feeling to know that someone in a supervisory position could be so judgmental in such an inappropriate way. 

                My observation clearly pointed out that when there is insulting commentary based on a person’s appearance it can make everyone involved in the conversation very uncomfortable.  Taking it a step further, I observed a change in the interactions among the group even after the conversation moved on.  The body language of the supervisor who was listening to the derogatory comments about her staff person changed as did the amount of conversation being exchanged by the two.   Also, the supervisor whose staff person was the subject of the comments seemed to pull back from the conversation. This exercise has made me aware of how the tone of a group interaction can change when microaggression surfaces.

Other Perspectives on Diversity

                In seeking other perspectives on culture and diversity, I decided to be diverse in my choice of whom to interview!  The results were very interesting.  I spoke to my sister who is professional woman in her 50’s.  She works in the field of social work as a Family Therapist.  Her definitions of culture and diversity are as follows: “culture is the unique blend of traditions, rituals, customs, style, religion, belief systems, and family customs that encompass a particular group of people. Diversity involves the differences that make up the specific humanness of various cultures.”

                The second person I interviewed is a staff person in my Head Start Program who is a woman in her 40’s, bilingual and bicultural and originally from Puerto Rico. She defined culture and diversity as      “all the things you have learned from your family. It is how you think about things especially personal things.  It is about being Latino. It is what makes me different from some of the people I work with but more like many of the families I know from my work. Diversity is what I think about that makes us different.  It is what I see every day where I live and work.”

                The third person I interviewed was a male in his 30’s who works in special education. He defines culture and diversity as follows: “Culture involves whatever little subgroup you allow to define you. It could be your country of origin, the people you live with or whoever you spend your time with.  Diversity is a well-represented mix of cultures, ideas and customs in a certain defined area. “

In all answers, there was a common thread that culture is related to what we learn from our family throughout our lives. Some reference was in a more traditional sense while the third person seemed to be more open about what constitutes the group.  It includes our morals, traditions and is at the heart of who we are.   There were not any references to ethnicity from my sister or the male I interviewed.  My colleague on the other hand   made direct reference to being Latino.   

Reflecting on other people’s definitions has made me realize we sometimes make assumptions about people’s views on these topics even within our own families.   I also realized that age seems to be a factor in how we view things.  All very interesting……

My Family Culture

                What a thought provoking exercise!  As I pondered what I would take if I found myself faced with being evacuated from my home as described, the three things that came to mind were my Bible, a family photo album and a blank journal.  The Bible provides me with guidance through every aspect of my life.  Knowing myself, if I were faced with this predicament, I would be depressed and need encouragement to get through the situation. I would also need guidance.   I would find both of these things in my Bible.  I would take a family photo album so I could always be able to look at my family who is precious to me. The third thing I would take is a blank journal to write about my experiences   throughout the ordeal. 

                I would be extremely upset giving up any of the three items. My feelings would run the gamut of anger, extreme sadness and depression.  I would plead my case as to why they were so important to me and my need to keep them given the circumstances I was forced into.

                This exercise reinforced what I knew about myself going into it.  My faith is the foundation of my life no matter what the circumstance. Family is extremely important to me as well and as I have gotten older, I journal to keep a running record of the experiences I have. 

Moving on to More about Diversity

As I begin my sixth course toward my Master's degree, I am looking forward to learning more about views on diversity.  I think it is easy to come to conclusions about diversity that are somwewhat narrow.  As  I viewed the video Playing for Change on youtube, I was taken back by how that was put together.  I also viewed the clip Imagine.  I must admit, I am a huge Beatles/John Lennon fan so it caught my attention in the list.  I enjoyed watching it and was moved by it.  I am looking forward to what lies ahead.

When I think of research.....

            As I reflect on the past eight weeks, I have come to realize I am in a different place than I was at the onset of this course. I began with many feelings of apprehension since my experience and education related to research of any sort was very limited.  The terminology, methods and principles all seemed so complex.  Each week as we added a new element to our simulation and read more to understand the terms and process, I gained a little more confidence.  

            My “fear” of studying research has been addressed somewhat.  I feel that I have gained knowledge in all areas including the terms, the process and how to be sure that any research I would consider conducting is done keeping in mind the importance being equitable.

I also learned about being conscious of the feasibility of a topic I would study. Initially, my question was too broad and had too many elements to consider investigating.  Through the weekly assignments, I learned to narrow the scope.  This was my biggest challenge as I thought about a question.  I knew what I wanted to accomplish but not exactly how to begin.   

            For me, the notion of equity was new to me as it is related to research. I continue to think about how important this is. Going forward, it will always be a consideration in my work. I will also consider using the process we learned to conduct actual research related to my various aspects of my work. I don’t think I would have considered this prior to taking this course.  All in all, it has been an interesting and worthwhile experience

Early Childhood Australia

Research around the World

I viewed the website Early Childhood Australia.  The information was easy to access and seemed very current. The site had a wealth of information on key early childhood research. The articles and books are not free to retrieve but a summary is provided on the website. I reviewed an article entitled ”Children’s Resilience: Working with the Early Years Learning Framework”. The article explained how work has been done to use the Early Years Learning Framework to help formulate strategies for enhancing children’s resilience.  It also provided information on the factors that contribute to a child’s resilience.  Another interesting article, “Greening Services-Practical Sustainability” provided strategies for helping children gain an understanding of the importance of recycling.  The final article I reviewed, “Young Children as Active Learners” supported children being self-directed in their learning.  It also discussed the importance of play.  I found it interesting that the current research in Australia is very similar to what is currently being studied in our country.

            I was surprised to find the research on promoting being green and our responsibility to sustain our earth on a preschool level.  The focus was on involving children in many ways.  It just seemed like much more than celebrating Earth Day one day per year as we do in our country. I also was surprised to see the similarities between Early Childhood Australia and our professional organization, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).  Many things aligned closely.

            I found the many videos especially interesting. They covered many different topics and provided many useful strategies. One video reviewed the types of care for children.  It referred to “long day care”.  This was a term I never heard before but watched the video and came to understand it as extended hours for working parents.

            All in all, I found the website well designed and easy to navigate.  I was somewhat surprised at the amount of similarity in the Code of Conduct as well as the many topics that supported best practice as we know it.

Reference

Early Childhood Australia- http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au

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Benefits of Research for Children Since I had no personal stories to share about the positive effects of research I decided to find an article that discussed positive research findings on a topic I am interested in. As I searched the Walden Library, I came across an article concerning an arts- integrated approach to emergent literacy and school readiness. I had thought about this and wondered if we under estimate the use of creative arts as a method of teaching academic areas but never had any reason to investigate it further. This article peaked my interest. My experience and formal education both support the notion that children learn best through multi-sensory approaches. The article reported out on a study that looked at the impact of using an arts-integrated approach to introduce emergent literacy skills. Often we tend to silo learning into specific domains. In early childhood education, experiences children have in the arts are often viewed as brief opportunities for creative expression and not real learning (Phillips, Gorton, Pinciotti, Sachsen, 2010). The goal of the research was to investigate the premise that young children acquire many of the skills that support emergent literacy in a variety of ways including experiences they have in the arts. The findings of the research were not definitive but did show there was a relationship between the skills gained through all forms of creative arts and emergent literacy. The conclusion the researchers came to was that young children gain knowledge in many ways that can than tie into many domains related to school readiness and also that additional research was necessary to more clearly define the specific details of what works best when integrating the arts into introducing the skills in the area of emergent literacy ( Phillips, et al, 2010). I found this especially interesting since I personally believe that young children are learning in all that they experience be it formal teacher led instructional experiences or completely child driven learning. it also aligned with my thinking in terms of children's learning being very individualized. By giving children as many multi-sensory experiences as possible and integrating different methods of introducing the knowledge, I feel there is a greater possibility for more children to be gain the knowledge and be successful. Reference Phillips,R., Gorton, R., Pinciotti, P., & Sachdev, A., (2010). Promising findings on preschooler's emergent literacy and school readiness in arts-integrated early childhood settings. Early Childhood Education, 38, 111-122. Retrieved from the Walden Library Education Research Complete database.