Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

I don't get out much these days and I guess I keep to myself most of the time so I have not heard or witnessed much microaggression lately.  The most recent microaggression I have been a part of was when my ex-husband came to my home on the pretense of visiting with our daughter.  He asked if she was here and I told him she was at soccer practice and he would have to go to the school to see her.  He then started to ask me questions about a guy that I had started seeing a few months earlier.  He had heard many untruths about this person and was trying to find out more information.  He asked what his name was and when I would not give him more than a first name he headed to his vehicle to leave.  I shut the door and locked it and began to walk away when he called me a whore.  I was shocked and very upset to have this man call me a name like that.  I met him at 17 and was with him and only him for almost 25years.  Until this point, we had a very good relationship and could talk, I even helped him purchase the home he now shares with his new wife!  We are still not on the best terms, but there is a little more that he is upset about, but I keep trying and I am always polite and pleasant whenever we are around one another.  I asked my daughter about microaggressions and we talked about what they were and she remembered going out with friends and everyone expecting that her friend Kervis could dance just because he was African American.  I also watch the show 30Rock and it is full of microaggression, or at least it points out stereotypes that we are exposed to.  I would guess this is one of the ways that bias is passed on to our children. 

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I asked three friends what their definition of culture and what their definition of diversity is...

1.  Culture - has to do with a person's ethnicity, family values, & beliefs
     Diversity - are the unique differences of individuals in regards to race, norms, & beliefs

2.  Culture - traditions, hand-me downs of your people, what you grow up with; religion, government, environment, social standing.  Where you live also shapes your culture.
     Diversity - reaching outside your culture, circle, and yourself to experience other cultures, traditions, and other peoples ways

3.  Culture - It is where you come from, your traditions and beliefs
     Diversity - what makes us different

I think that each person I interviews understands that we all have a culture that makes us who we are.  We have shared traditions and also we have traditions that are unique to our family and/or community.  My friend Sharon (2) has been in early childhood education for over 30 years and understands that everything around us shapes our culture.  My friend Sandra (1) is African American and will be taking this class in the near future.  I think she will deepen her understanding even more about what culture and diversity are.  And my dad (3) seems to get it, but I may need to deepen his understanding.  No one mentioned diversity as including differing abilities, I know that Sharon and Sandra, as early childhood professionals are aware of this, they did not mention it when we were talking.  They also did not mention gender and how that shapes our culture and is also a part of diversity.  By asking others to talk about culture and diversity, I can see that it can mean a variety of things to other people.  We all seem to understand that culture makes us who we are and that we need to embrace diversity.  It also gives me a better understanding that we all see things differently and yet very similarly. 

My Family Culture

Imagine the following:
A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of your country. The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees. You and your immediate family are among the survivors of this catastrophic event. However, you have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. You are told that your host country’s culture is completely different from your own, and that you might have to stay there permanently. You are further told that, in addition to one change of clothes, you can only take 3 small items with you. You decide to take three items that you hold dear and that represent your family culture.

Trying to decide what three small items I would want to take that would represent my family culture was quite difficult.  I would want to take my family photo album as this item holds so many memories and shows our family story in a way that we can see.  It shows how we celebrate birthdays and holidays and the births of each of my children.  It has pictures of family members that have left this life so that I can always see them and remember the good times we shared.  It also shows us being silly and just being a family!  After that, what else to bring is quite hard, at least for me.  I would probably bring my box of recipes because it holds the recipes to the foods that we enjoy most and makes me think of the happy times baking cookies and being together.  I would also like to bring my box of home movies to watch and remember my children growing up.  Most of all I would just be happy that my children would be with me and we would be able to take our memories with us and find new ways to be a family. 

If I had to give up all but one item, that would be alright, as long as I could keep my photo album.  The other items are just not as important and recipes can be replaced and as many times as they have been used, I could probably rewrite them!  The home movies would be a significant loss, but we still have our memories.  Even if I had to give up everything, knowing that my family is safe and together would mean so much more.  Having to start over in a country that is so drastically different would be very difficult, but together we can accomplish so much more. 

I learned that my family culture isn't something that is easily tangible.  It is in how we are with each other and the traditions we have created together.  It's more about the relationships we have and how we relate to other people.  I also spent time thinking about how difficult it could be to be thrown into another culture that you are so unfamiliar with.  That would be very challenging.  I would hope to have a good support system and be able to make life in this other country the best it could be! 

When I Think of Research...

From taking this course, I have learned how to read a research paper, what parts I can skip and what parts are going to hold the most information and where to find it.  I have also learned about how research is conducted and what goes into designing a research study.  It would take a great deal of planning and organization to conduct a research study!  As far as my ideas about the nature of doing research, I probably have a greater interest in research and if the opportunity to do research or to be a part of a research project was presented to me, I would be more apt to become a part of it.  I had mostly thought of research as quantitative when we began this class and I now know it can be very qualitative! 

Lessons about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood are many.  There is a lot to think about when planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood.  You have to consider who will participate, gather consent, perhaps present your research to an ethics committee, design surveys and questionaires.  There are also questions about ethics whether you will used mixed methods and if your research will be a case study, take place over time or not.  There is a lot to think about!  When this class started, I figured we would be doing research of some type, and I was grateful that we weren't, but I still feel as though I would be better prepared to do research after having this class.  Challenges were getting my research topic narrowed down and developing a hypothesis. 

Before this class I had not thought of an early childhood professional as being a researcher.  Now, I think that a lot of early childhood professionals are doing research daily.  All the observation we do in the classroom is a form of research.  I also had not thought of early childhood research as being a profession in itself, but I can see how this could be an important part of the early childhood profession. 

Research Around the World

I decided to check out the Early Childhood Australia site...http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/.  As I looked around, I found that they are discussing many of the same things that we are talking about here in America.  They want better compensation and training for teachers, they are focused on play based learning and intentional teaching, and there are also articles on literacy and numeracy.  I found a media release from May 1, 2012 that was noteworthy.  They were asking that the government end child detention.  My understanding is that immigrants are detained and children and families are not allowed access to education until their immigration status is approved.  I don't think we can imagine that happening here as we have immigrants that are not legal, but whose children attend Head Start programs and our public schools everyday.  I had no idea that something like that would happen anywhere.  I hope that they are able to make change happen so that children have access to school.  I also found that they have a code of ethics quite similar to NAEYC's Code of Ethical Conduct.  There were so many links to look at and articles to read.  This site has quite a wealth of information for Early Childhood Professionals! 

Research That Benefits Children and Families

If I could conduct research about any topic in the early childhood field, I would want to know more about the impact of the push down of curriculum on our youngest learners.  I would like to know what type of environment has the best outcomes for children; an environment that promotes academics, an environment that promotes play, or an environment that provides opportunities for both.  I would hope that my research would help teachers to know what type of an environment to provide for children and how to help children reach their full potential.  I would also hope that parents would understand the importance of play in the early childhood learning environment and how it promotes positive outcomes for children.  With this knowledge, I would also hope that families would not push for more academics, but push for more time for children to be creative and to make choices in the activities they choose.  This knowledge might also be handy for administrators and policy makers to understand the importance of play and to not push the academics quite so hard.  I think that young children are more capable than we may know, but I also believe that they need time to interact with their environment and to become creative thinkers and problem solvers. 

My Personal Research Journey

The general topic that I am interested in learning more about is the push down of curriculum.  I have chosen to focus on the social/emotional effects of this push down.  I understand that we want to prepare our young learners for the next steps in their education, but what about play?  We have been taught that we will need innovative thinkers in our ever changing world and strong problem solvers.  If we take play out of the classroom and limit their outdoor time, how will children learn to be creative and solve problems?  I also feel that if a child's social/emotional development isn't optimal, they probably are not going to be ready for the academics we are pushing.  I remember play being a big part of my kindergarten experience and that we had three recess's when I was in elementary school.  In most school's these days there is only one recess and it is during lunch time.  What happens to the last child in the lunch line?  Are they really getting any quality outside time?  I think I chose this topic because I believe strongly in play based learning and the positive effects of forming strong, trusting relationships with the children and families I serve. 

I think that this topic is very current in the early childhood field and so I am nervous about being able to find current research on this topic.  After looking at how to evaluate websites and articles on the internet, I am more confident that I will be able to decide if an article is of the standard to use in my research.  I am also confident that I will be able to use the information and skills from this class in my career as an early childhood professional.