Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope I have for working with children and families who come from

 diverse backgrounds is that they will be treated with respect from people from any culture so that they may feel powerful, have high self-esteem, feel important, feel that they matter, and most importantly to feel they can overcome any unfortunate circumstance they may face.

One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is to raise awareness on different issues such as isms and microagressions to help promote equality and social justice for all people.

I would like to thank all my colleagues in this course for your feedback, your time, your new insights, and all your hard work. I really liked reading my blog and discussion comments from others it was really helpful. Thank you for your kindness when we shared personal stories as well. I truly felt you guys were sincere and nonjudgmental and that made it easier to share personal information. Thank you again and I wish all of you the absolute best and everything you do. –Tiffany  

Welcoming Families from around the world

The name of the country I chose was Chad, Africa and I chose to work in a child care center.

Five ways in which I will prepare myself to be culturally responsive is to research information about the country.  I will use my information to plan activities to get to know the family. I will also research the languages spoken in the country. Next I will make sure I have an interpreter to help me communicate effectively with the family. Finally I would make sure I have pictures of important items from the families culture present in the classroom.  

With these preparations I hope to empower the family to share information about their country and culture. I also hope to gain knowledge from the family. Most importantly I hope to create a positive relationship with the family and to help make their transition to the USA comfortable.

Personal Experience with Oppression

I remember being pregnant with my first daughter I was a junior in college. I had no job and relied on financial aid to help me pay my tuition. I applied for Medicaid for pregnant women to help with my prenatal care. When I applied I remember feeling like the white woman helping me did not look me in the eye when she talked to me, she was very short with her answers, and seemed to have an attitude. She even said things such as we will help you with transportation, we can assist you with child care for your other children, we will help you find a place to stay, and we will help you with employment.  The entire time in my head I’m saying I have a car, an apartment, no other children, and I can’t work until I’m done with school. It was at that moment that I told her mam I am a college student, this is my first child, I have a place to stay, and I am not currently looking for a job but I will when I graduate. She looked up at me and said you are the first young black girl to come in here with no kids and in college good for you.  I was furious. The woman assumed that because I was a young black girl that I had children, didn’t work, and wasn’t educated. She then tried to make me feel good by saying good for you. Reflecting back this is a form of oppression. If I could go back I would really explain to the lady how her comment made me feel and how she shouldn’t assume things about a race just because she works in a field that helps individuals in those situations.

Microaggressions

I remember a few months ago in Wal-Mart I witnessed a microagression. A white female customer walked up to a light skinned black female employee and said “hola I need some one who speaks English please”. The employee looked at her confused and asked her in English “how may I help you? The customer said “o great you speak good English”. The employee smiled and said “English is the only language I speak”. The customer laughed and said “great I thought you were Mexican”. I felt the customer was extremely rude for assuming the employee spoke Spanish and I felt she should have apologized to the employee. I feel the employee handled the customer in a professional manner however I knew she was upset by her facial expressions.

                                             

Dr. Sue video message had a profound impact on the way I view stereotypes. I now try my best to think about how I communicate with others so that I will not offend them. I also now know how individuals feel when they are the target of a microaggression. My observations this week has inspired me to raise awareness of micro aggressions in my community.