Week 8: Professional Hopes and Goals

Perspectives on Diversity and Equity EDUC 6164 is wrapping up this week...It has been an interesting and revealing 8 weeks!

One hope that I have when I think of working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that they know that I care about learning about them as people and their significance as members of our community. I hope that they recognize that I am not “just another” social service worker, but a stakeholder in their success as well as in my own journey as a professional in the child welfare system.

I challenge the field of early childhood/child welfare  to be more welcoming and encouraging to male professionals. So many children and families I have observed and worked with over the years would benefit from positive, male role models. Additionally, I think that in this field, because it is predominantly a female profession, the male perspectives regarding working with children and families is lacking. Concerning diversity, equity, and social justice men have significant points of view and they should be incorporated into the good, necessary work we do.

I would like to thank my colleagues and fellow classmates for stimulating my mind when it comes to offering their perspectives on diversity, equity, and social justice. Additionally, thank you for your comments to my posts and hope that you have enjoyed reading my point of view as I have yours!

Good luck to us all as we continue our Walden University journey!

Week 7: Diversity as Opportunity

The following is our blog assignment for this week:

Imagine the following scenario:

You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.

In order to complete this assignment, first choose a country you know nothing about as this family’s country of origin.
Post the following:

• The name of “your” family’s country of origin
• At least five ways in which you will prepare yourself to be culturally responsive towards this family
• A brief statement describing in what ways you hope that these preparations will benefit both you and the family.
This hypothetical family is from Cuba. Even though I live in Florida and geographically, this country is close, I know very little about it, much less about what a family would experience emigrating to the US from there. In order to prepare myself to welcome them to my services in a culturally sensitive and responsive way I would:
1. Learn about the history and current situation of the nation. This will be beneficial in working with the child and family, as I will have some initial insight on their perspectives.
2. I would find out and seek resources in my community that could be of professional assistance to me in my education about the cultural issues that are relevant. I would also invest in a Spanish/English dictionary and become familiar with useful words/phrases for the initial conversations with the family.
3.  Setting up a time to meet with the child and family when we are able to discuss their expectations of me as a service provider as well as to establish rapport. Working with the child and family will be more effective if they know my own cultural background, and may help them feel more comfortable educating me on their unique family structure.
4. Because music is very important to me, and a part of most cultures, I would start listening to Cuban music. Though I would not be able to understand the lyrics, one can get a sense of the cultural perspectives of a people this way. Looking up translated lyrics would be a good way of assimilating to working with the family as well as a possible discussion starter when beginning services.
5. One other activity I would engage in to prepare working with a Cuban family would be to obtain the knowledge and experience from colleagues. I would be interested in knowing what some of the common issues are for them in emigrating to the US so that I may be prepared if these are present in my case.
With the availability of the internet and so much information about the world available to us, as professionals in the early childhood field, I believe that we can agree that preparation is half the battle often times in working with children and their families. In my experience in child welfare, clients know when you are not prepared or do not have adequate knowledge about something. I find that I am a much more confident professional if I have a well-rounded knowledge about certain aspects of my job. Of course, working with children and families can also be unpredictable, and therefore, gaining unexpected knowledge about the cultural needs and perspectives of those we serve makes work exciting and rewarding.

Week 6: Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression - A Children's Example

The blog assignment this week in Perspectives on Diversity and Equity includes the following questions for reflection:

• What memory do you have of an incident when you experienced bias, prejudice, and/or oppression, or witnessed someone else as the target of bias, prejudice, and/or oppression? Keep in mind that one can encounter such incidents in real contexts, including online environments, as well as in fictional ones, such as movies, books, television shows, and the like.
• In what way(s) did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity?
• What feelings did this incident bring up for you?
• What and/or who would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity?

This week I am going to Disney World and so as I read this question, I thought about the fictional children’s movie character, Dumbo the Elephant. Dumbo had extremely large ears for his size and was discriminated against, and exploited. I remember when Dumbo lost his mother and was made to perform as an act in the circus. He was ridiculed, ostracized, and exploited because he was different, leaving him sad, isolated, and insignificant. I believe that when children and families are subjected to the same, they feel similarly. I know I do.

So, in their early childhood’s, children are learning about diversity, oppression, prejudice, and discrimination. Fortunately, a positive lesson that differences can be challenging, but positive are also conveyed to children in the media. As parents, early childhood professionals, and adults, we have a responsibility to keep that message present during their kids’ upbringings.

By the end of the movie, Dumbo’s extra large ears were recognized as special, beneficial, and beautiful once their capabilities were recognized and respected. I believe that though it is unfair, the differences in people must in essence prove themselves before earning the common courtesy, respect they deserve!

Quotation from the movie:

Timothy Q. Mouse: You all oughta be ashamed of yourselves. A bunch of big guys like you, pickin' on a poor little orphan like him. Suppose you was torn away from your mother when you was just a baby. Nobody to tuck you in at nights. No warm, soft, caressin' trunk to snuggle inta. How would you like being left out alone, in a cold, cruel, heartless woild? And why? I ask ya, why? Just because he's got those big ears, they call him a freak. The laughing stock of the coicus. And when his mother tried to protect him, they threw her into the clink. And on top of that, they made him a clown! Socially he's washed up! Aw, but what's the use of talkin' to you cold-hearted boids? Go ahead! Have your fun! Laugh at him! Kick him now that he's down! Go on! We don't care.