Welcome

My new family enrolled in the child care center from Mexico.

How can I prepare to receive this new family?

1.        Send a welcome letter to the family with their native language and English on the back. 

2.       Include in the letter a getting to know you questionnaire. 

3.       I would have a welcome package with school supply items (if accepting gifts is ok with the culture).

4.       Make sure the classroom environment is labeled and reflects the different cultures of the class.

5.       I would help the class and myself learn familiar words and phrases

6.       Most of all ask the family what is needed to support me in the transition. 

7.       Most of all to be culturally sensitive. Critical teaching requires teachers to admit that they do not know everything. We can learn from our students by listening to them. We need to document, respect, and learn about people from all over the world, particularly those who are dramatically different from us (Hyland, 2010).

I think strategies such as the ones above will help both the class and myself grow in my knowledge and awareness of different cultures.  It also helps in all our efforts to become more culturally sensitive. 

As an childhood professional what would you suggest?

Resource

Hyland, N. E. (2010). Social justice in early childhood classrooms: What the research tells us. YC: Young Children, 65(1), 82-87.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

Are there institutional prejudices or microaggression in early childhood settings?

·         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?

I worked in a leadership role for a large Early Childhood program.  I witnessed a couple of examples of biases toward men.  I worked at a location that had a male teacher.  A parent complained about him going to the restroom with the girls.  There was not a complaint related to ladies going with boys.  This was a form of microaggression in my opinion.  At that time I was not a manager in the organization, but a lead teacher.  The site administrator at the time just decided to let him take the boys and the co-teacher took the girls. She did not inform him of the parent complaint.  My second example involved a manager in our program who said she did not like working with men. She had gotten rid of two men on her team during my time there.  I was not sure why however her actions were not questioned.  

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·         In what way(s) did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity?

To me, in both cases, it diminished the equality for men to work in the early childhood field.  It is a field that already does not include many men.  The program I worked for was federally funded for low-income families.  In this program, positive male role models are needed and someone to relate to dads is critical. 

·         What feelings did this incident bring up for you?

The process made me feel a little angry.   I even talked to both the site manager and the supervisor to let them know I had a problem with it. 

·         What and/or who would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity?

Both the manager and the supervisor needed to change their own approach to the situations.  We have to face sometimes that we bring our own prejudices to situations that we may or may not have addressed or acknowledged

Microaggression

There are times when verbal behaviors create feelings of uncertainty, inferiority or marginalization even though no offense was consciously intended. Such behaviors are called microaggressions( Laureate Educaiton, 2011).  Sometimes behaviors that are non-verbal can also be considered offensive as well.  

These behaviors are all around us if we just take notice. I went to a store with my daughter this week.  A group of young African American girls walked in soon after.  The store clerk looked strange when they walked in and another clerk kept an eye on them closely.  I can only deduct that they were under the assumption that they may steal something. 

I also observed this week that for a new Hispanic family came to enroll their two-year-old.  The child arrived in footed PJs without shoes and a bottle.  The child also had a disability.  Without a thorough review or knowledge of the full case.  Some staff began to assume his swallowing issues were due to mom was still nursing and on a bottle.  His hearing issues were due to lack of proper health care.  I had to explain to get the complete picture and never begin to make assumptions.  And don’t draw a conclusion based on how we think a culture raises their children. 

I went to another store this week.  A bi-racial( white male/black woman) couple walked up to the counter to pay.  The clerk looked the woman with a displeased look and rolled her eyes.  The man did't even notice.  

In my observations, this week conclusions were drawn based on a superficial look of a person.  The  observations did not give the people involved a level chance.  The girls proceeded to shop and brought a lot of items.  The newly enrolled child will require additional observations to ensure him and the family is treated like all families. 

Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Microaggressions in everyday life [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu