Professional Hopes and Goals

The aspiration that I have for myself as an early childhood professional is to offer my children, their parents and staff the opportunity to immerse themselves in other cultures besides their own. Celebrating diversity is something that I would love to promote as an early child care professional. A goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field would consist of establishing a date of the year that all early childhood professionals make an effort to promote social justice, equity and diversity on a level that children at various ages could interpret and benefit from.

I would like to thank each member of this cohort for sharing your thoughts, experiences and interpretation of the areas of social justice, diversity and equity. I believe that this course has offered me the opportunity to deepened my understanding of the area of diversity and how it relates to the field of early childhood education in general.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

After imaging myself preparing for a family from China with a preschool aged child, I find that I would make an effort to prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards the family by completing the following task: (1) Research information about the Chinese culture, specific to their background/culture, (2) Research how the USA school system may differ from the schools in China, (3) Interview with the parents in order to gain insight about their desires/expectations of their child’s educational experience, (4) Staff the information I receive from the family with the child’s teacher, (5) Make an effort to learn a few phrases  in their language.

I believed that preparing myself to be culturally responsive towards this family will only further enhance my ability to establish a healthy and meaningful relationship with the family and their child. I also believe that making an earnest effort to understand the family’s culture will assist me as a Child Care Director in understanding the importance of being culturally sensitive to the families I work with in general.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

In the world renowned novel and letter movie The Color Purple.  I recall the character Celie Johnson played by Whoopi Goldberg had experienced a great deal of oppression from her husband, Albert, played by Danny Glover. In the same film the character, Sophia played by Oprah Winfrey expressed both act of racism and prejudice and oppression by the White women and men in the town. The film reveals that during the 1900s in the south the type of oppression Blacks expressed towards each other and received from the White people in the town’s film.  The film highlighted how women were viewed and treated as second class citizen.  I was afraid for the character Celie as she was physical abused and raped by her father and then married off to a much older man who also abused her repeatedly both verbal and physically. In order for the women to be treated fairly and equally the mindset of the men in the story would have to changed and be open to viewing women as equals. Similar racial equality would have to take precedent in order for the Black family culture to be restored and strengthen. There would be less tearing of each other down within the race if social pressures weren’t so dominate.