Effective Communicators

The individual that I selected as being an effective communicator is my Mom. Although retired, my mother still coordinates events on a voluntary or free-lance basis. There are several behaviors that my Mom exhibits that allow her to be an effective communicator is this setting. Not only does she listen to others comments and feedback, she also organizes her thoughts prior to speaking, speaks clearly, and provides instruction that is direct and easy to follow. Some additional behavior that my Mom exhibits in the communication process is patience, compassion, and positive non-verbal communications.

Naturally, I do want to model some of my communication behaviors after my Mom. One reason for this is because children always have a natural tendency to imitate a parent that they admire. A second reason is that my most is a skilled communicator and I have observed the effectiveness of her behaviors inside and outside of the family. 

Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have when I think about working with children and families from diverse backgrounds if that they would give me an opportunity to know more about their culture and backgrounds so I can incorporate any challenges or relevant factors into the social stories that I create for them.

What goal that I would like to set for the field of early childhood in regards to diversity, equity, and social justice is for professionals to make a more earnest effort to eliminate microaggresisms from the curriculum and to overcome the barriers that can be created as a result of “isms”.

Finally, I would like to say “Thank You” to everyone in their group for their excellent blog posts, their willingness to share their personal and professional experiences, and the thoughtful comments that I have received on my blog.

  

Welcoming Families from Around My World

Welcoming Families from Around My World

The family’s country of origin is Switzerland.  Because I know nothing about this country, I must prepare myself to be culturally responsive to the child as well as its families. This can be achieved in the following ways.

1.     Conducting research on the country via https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sz.html.

2.     Learning more about the cultural values and traditions of Switzerland.

3.     Attempt to connect with other individuals from the country in person or via the Internet in order to gain first-hand experience about the country.

4.     Learn key phrases in language spoken in the country.

5.     Hold a non-formal meeting the family of the child to learn more.

I believe that these strategies will provide myself and the family with many benefits. Not only will I make them feel welcome and appreciated by learning some of their language and more about the culture, I will better understand the cultural background that the child and the family comes from. In the end, this will eliminate cultural barriers, increase communication, and ensure that the needs of the child and the family are being met. 

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

One incident that I witnessed the acts of bias or prejudice is when a Caucasian employee only waited on or answered the questions of other Caucasian customers. As a result of these actions equity was diminished. For example, we as customers were no longer equal. Instead, the minority customers were oppressed and the Caucasian customers were awarded with privilege.  This incident brought up many feelings. Although I was happy to get waited on, I was almost disgusted that this individual believed that they were that superior that they did not have to wait on minority customers. I also felt a little guilty and sympathetic for the minority customers.  There are two entities that would have to change for this situation to be corrected: the employee and the workplace. Simply, the employee would need to overcome his bias and prejudice in order to realize that all customers are approachable and should be treated equally. The workplace and its managers would also need to recognize the biases and prejudices that its employees possess and ensure that all employees overcome these issues and are appropriately trained in diversity. 

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

I observed my actions this week as well as others around me. As luck would have it, I did not experience any examples of microagressions.  Therefore, I have to share a previous example of a microagreesion that I experienced. This microagression would be considered to be a racial microagression and took place when I was working at a radio station in Southwestern Michigan. We were a pretty tight night group and everyone got along great. In fact, we were all friends with each other and knew everything about each other inside and outside of the workplace. One day, a visiting operations manager from another station owned by our radio group was paying a visit. He was getting ready to go to lunch and needed some input on where to eat and where to find good ribs. Without thinking he asked my friend and co-worker Tiffany if she knew where he could find good ribs in the area. Why Tiffany you ask and no one else? I am assuming it is because she was African American. With a disgusted and ticked-off look on her face, Tiffany responded in a very professional way “I am sorry Sir, I have no idea. I wish I could help”. Not only was this individual insulting my friend and co-worker without thinking, he also neglected to get to know her well enough to find out that she was a vegetarian.

Through this exercise this week, I have discovered that what we say intentionally and unintentionally always has the potential to hurt or demean an individual. It was also discovered that our internal biases, stereotypes, and prejudices are more apparent than we think through our words and actions. The scenarios presented in our discussion this week are prime example of this occurrence. Although I believe that this factors will always be present in most individuals to some degree, it is critical that we as early childhood professionals continually think before we think or act.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

For this assignment I spoke with my sister-in-law Renae. Although Renae is a Caucasian female, she is legally deaf. As a result of this disability, she is often perceived as being different and falls victim to many negative stereotypes. 

According to Renae, culture is part of an individuals personality which is reflected through their beliefs, environment, experiences, and customs. Renae defines diversity as being being different from other individuals within a group, community, are environment. Being deaf, this is something that Renae knows a lot about. 

After reviewing Renae’s responses, I believe that there are a couple aspects of diversity and culture that coincide with the information being discussed so far in the course. The first aspect is having one’s culture embedded in their behaviors and personality. For examples, one’s beliefs and values, traditions, religion, and ethnic/racial background, etc. collectively make up one’s culture. The second aspect is diversity being compromised one individual and collective differences. In addition to gender, race/ethnicity, abilities/disabilities, etc. can influence diversity. 

There is a one thing that is omitted from Renae’s definition of diversity. That is that diversity can only be experienced when individuals encompass characteristics that are not accepted within a dominant population. For example, there is little diversity in a group of 4 Hispanic males that are considered to be Republican. However, if there was a Hispanic, female, democrat in the mix, there would be some degree of diversity. 

There are a couple ways that thinking about other people’s definitions of culture and diversity have influenced my understanding of the topic. The first way is that no matter one’s educational or cultural background, everyone tends to have similar definitions of these two terms.  The second way is that although similar, individual definitions are influenced by their perceptions and experiences. 

My Family Culture

If I were to leave the United States, there are three items that I would bring with me that I believe best represents my family culture. The first item would be photo albums of all of the pictures that have been taken of my family and the special events that we have experienced. The second would be a cookbook of all of my family’s favorite recipes. The final items would be the knitted and hand-made gifts that we have made each other in our family.

There are a few different ways that I would explain to others what these items mean to me. One way is to tell stories about these items and directly explain to these individuals the personal meaning that they hold. The second way is to demonstrate or share these items to these individuals. The final ways is to always keep these items close to me and keep them in a safe location.

If upon my arrival, I would be told that I could only keep one item and give up the other two I would be heartbroken and devastated. This is mostly because these items have sentimental value to me and are the only items that I could keep with me that would remind me of my family and our family culture.

After participating in this exercise I have gained insight about myself and my family culture. That is, the things that I hold most dear about my family and our culture is the events that we participate in and the things that we create together and for each other. At the same time, it can be argued that our family culture is centered around togetherness and our creativities.