Our Hopes

When thinking about my hopes, I am faced with a struggle. I am very fortunate to truly enjoy working for the company I work with and to enjoy my co-workers presence. I hope that in my career working with children and families from diverse communities I am able to offer some support and education to parents and guardians about the importance of school readiness and provide the best rated childcare center in the capital district within the year.
One goal that I have set for myself is to include training for my staff members on issues of diversity, equity and social justice. This is to ensure a cultural  competent staff and accepting atmosphere. This goal is set on a one year plan.
I wanted to thank each of my colleagues throughout this course and program. We are fortunate to work and study in a field that works hard and strives to provide quality education for young children. Allowing our communities to strengthen through our work. Great job everyone!

Family Origin and Welcoming Different Family origins

Looking as a childcare provider/school worker a new family has arrived in the office. They came over from Pakistan.

The first thing I would do when learning of the new immigrant family would be to research their home country and city. Learning about the language and traditions of their country. I would also spend time learning about the climate, agriculture, and sports/music. The second thing I would do would be to learn a few simple phrases in their primary language to show them respect to their culture. I would try to line up a translator to ensure communication between myself and the family to ensure proper care for their child. I would try to prepare a welcome packet for the family of all important information so they have it in writing as well as take the time to explain the policies of the center. The last thing I would do would be to set up a meeting with the child's teacher and all over staff to ensure a cultural responsive atmosphere upon the child's arrival.

I would hope that this preparation would allow for the teachers to learn more about the family they will be working with and for the family to feel welcome and invited into the early learning community. Coming to a new country must be a bit scary and having a welcome environment for their children would put them at ease to immerse themselves into the community.

Microagressions

In my time as an educator I have been faced with many different cultures and situations. This week being a short week, I had less students and less things were happening. However, one major microagression that I saw was with two students. After the beginning of our program they spent some time arguing over some toy but as the fight continued name calling began. At this time one of the students was sent in to see me regarding what they said. I was a little confused, as an administrator I don't normally deal with name calling situations. This is when I found out the student called another student "White Girl." Now this other student is lighter skin but not white. The little boy didn't understand what he said wrong, he is 7. 

I was a little hurt by the comment, as he used the term as a form of negative name calling. He obviously heard someone say it but he didn't understand what he said wrong. 

My observations within programs is that parents perceive the program and staff in a certain way. Stereotyping their behaviors and actions. Most parents will walk into a situation in attack mode to counter any prejudice they perceive.