Professional Hopes and Goals

Professional Hopes and Goals

As we come to the end of this course I must say when it comes to diversity, equity and social justice I have gained a new perspective of the challenges, issues and adversities we have encountered at some point in our lives. You all have shared your life experiences and so have I. I think the most important lesson I have learned from all of you is we are survivors and we have grown a stronger determination to make the lives of the children and families we work positive and successful.  My hope is to be the educator that embaces the diversity of families and to be a spokes people for the social justices of children and families.

 There will all ways be some type of “ism” the children, families we work with are faced with but we have a learned positive ways to address and support them through them. It may be as simple as encouraging them to come to their child’s school to share about the family, planning for the growth and development of the children using an anti-bias curriculum and activities that support the difference and the uniqueness of all families are including our very own.

 Thank you all for strengthening and empowering me by your comments on the discussion board and on my blog. I wish you much success in your future endeavors.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

Welcoming Families From Around the World

I have always been concerned about how to provide quality educational experiences for children and families from different countries. There are many diverse populations of people coming to the United States and the families want their children to get a high quality education. As an educator I have to prepare myself to be able to accomplish this goal. I know before I can achieve this I need to know about the families’ culture, beliefs and traditions.

The family I am focused on preparing for is from the country of Japan. I know from observe the families business ethnics children are kept close and the mother is the dominant educator of teaching and caring for the children.

To prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards the family I would do the following:

1.      Gain general knowledge about the cultural and their ethnicity to have sense of views about behavior, communication and learning styles. I will be careful not place any form of stereotypes.

 

2.      I will research the country’s parenting and discipline styles to ensure I am not disrespecting their families’ traditions. I would schedule a time to meet with the parents to learn about their culture beliefs on the topic.

3.      Research the country’s culture beliefs about education: Before I can provide a quality education I must know what children and families expectations are ways to ensure the transition to our culture is as smooth as possible. I need to know how and what types of curriculum has been implemented in their country and creates ways to a line it with ours programs.

 

4.       The language barrier between the family and I will be a challenge that I would have to work on strategies to help solve so I will be able to effectively communicate with the family. I have used the internet as a means for translating information to go home parents so I would use this resource as a way to communicate with the family.

 

5.      I would prepare my classroom environment to reflect their culture and of other diverse people. I want the family and child to feel we respect and embrace their culture but also we do the same for other cultures.

I hope the changes and preparations I plan to implement will help the family from Japan know we welcome them to our school and are excited about learning about their culture and teaching their children about ours. I want them to feel a sense of peace, support and respect as we embark on the education journey with their children and family.

Personal side of Bias, Prejudice and Oppression

Personal side of Bias, Prejudice and Oppression

 When I was young my family and I went to musical event for the community to enjoy good music, food and dancing. My uncle went with us and liked dancing and enjoy a cup of beer with his chicken wings and fries. He is an outgoing and has an active personality. I remember this incident like it was yesterday, he was dancing and accidental tripped on something in the street. I heard a white lady say, “oh my goodness that is ridiculous, he is so drunk he cannot stand up, it is because of their kind I don’t like to come to these events". There was a police officer passing by and heard her remark, he quickly came to my uncle and begin to push him to the sidewalk and saying to him you are about to be arrested for disorderly conduct and public drunkenness.

My uncle tried to tell the officer he tripped but the officer told him to be quite and my dad try to tell him what happen but it did not change the next action that took place. My uncle was handcuffed and taken off to jail. This was not right and to me it was a form of racial profiling and oppression because of the color of his skin. People of color have experienced these types of stereotyping for years and it seems in order for us to be accepted by the dominant power cultural we have to continuously act a certain way. 

I talked to a friend about the assignment and she told me about the following incident that happens in Ohio. After reading the article I thought back to that day my uncle was discriminated against in a similar situation I had to thank God he was taken off to jail.
There are always reports from the media that relate to the bias, prejudice and oppressive acts people of color experience every day. The society we live in today still treat people that are from other countries, races, gender and cultural background unjustly as they did years ago. This was no different in the news report of an incident that occurred in Ohio on January 20, 2014.

The topic of the report was:  Suit: Cops Left Hispanic Drunk Guy at Taco Bell which gave a detailed description that lead to the death of a 22 year old Hispanic man. The Ohio police received a call and responded to reports of a drunk driver who had pulled over on the side of the road. The officers noticed the man was Hispanic and instead of arresting him they took him to a “Taco Bell” and left him there, the tragedy occurred when the man woke up he started walking possibly back to his car and was killed by a car traveling on the road.

 The prejudice acts of the police officers also resulted in them making racial remarks about the young man Mexican roots and reported that officers were recorded laughing at the man's poor English and suggesting someone at Taco Bell would be able to speak with him. This was an awful stereotyping of the man cultural and race. The other point of this case was the authority’s in Ohio believed the young man was being given a break because he may have not been a legal citizen of th3e United States.

 Though this family will receive monetary imbursement their family member is dead due the racial profiling of law enforcement official that have taken an oath of protecting the safety of all people. Will this type of prejudices ever come to an end and all people can feel that will not be judged on the color of their skin or their cultural backgrounds. The ensure the equality of all people there has to be laws established for people in law enforcement and high authority to follow and if they do not there needs to be stiffer penalties on them. We all have a right to live in a world that is safe fair and without prejudices and unfairness.

 Please read the article: http://www.newser.com/story/181004/suit-cops-left-hispanic-drunk-guy-at-taco-bell.html

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

 The microaggression I read about was an article online Professional Black Women Wrongly Accused of Prostitution event occurred in a New York at a Standard Hotel in Manhattan’s fashionable Meatpacking District. There were three professional African American ladies going to enjoy an evening drink and conversation. They were the only African American ladies in the restaurant.  They were approached at different times by several mean offering to buy them a drink. A security guard approached the group whispered something in the man’s ear and he walked away. Her then approached the ladies and replied to the ladies ‘Come on, ladies. You can buy a drink but you can’t be soliciting (Van Buren, 2014)

 

This is a clear example of racial microaggression because this was clearly discrimination, and stereotyping people for the race by the dominant power culture of the people associated with this establishment. The guard whispering something to one of the men that approached the ladies and him leaving only add fire of discrimination being experience by the three ladies.  The guard accusing them of prostitution and the responds from hotel manager over their treatment, and were met with indifference. They never received an apology but were offered a free meal and champagne. There was no true resolution to this horrible experience for three economical sufficient African American professionals. Situations like this case of racial microaggression has being experienced by people of different cultures for a longtime and until society learn to respect and become an anti-bias society we will have these challenges for time to come.

 You can read this article at: http://latest.com/2014/09/three-professional-black-women-wrongly-accused-prostitution/#!  

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I enjoyed talking with different people to get their thoughts on what is culture and diversity means to them. There were some similarities and there were differences in the responses I received from all three. The definition of culture all reflected what we have learned thus far in the course; live, their beliefs, what they eat, and their religious beliefs.

 One of the friends I talked with considers their family Jehovah Witnesses and they live and practice a different set of rules when it comes to celebrating holidays. They do not engage birthday celebrations, Easter or any other “normal “holiday. They are a very close net group of people that believe in working for their religious kingdom. They did not have any different set of rules when it came to what they eat such as different meats. But that was not so when I talked with a Muslin friend with several children attending public school.

 
Their culture clothing for everyday wears, inside and outside the house; and clothing required in specifically religious contexts. The attire was women and girls wore veils (hijab). The culture has strict rules on what they eat such no pork and some do not eat beef. The family studied the Qur'an (bible) and followed the guidance of the rules within the content of the Qur’an. The family celebrates two major religious observances each year, Ramadan and Hajj, and corresponding holidays connected with each one. During these celebrations the children are excused from school to participate in these events. The third friend I talked with was from Mexico and this was w very interesting conversation.

 I was familiar with the other two culture believes and family values but the beliefs of the Latino family gave me an insight on how to better serve the children from Mexico. I believed that people from Mexico shared the same culture “norms” and were all intertwined but this was far of being true.  My friend is from Mexico some of their culture values and traditions they stress the importance of close extended family relationships, the strict roles of males as respected providers and females as trustworthy abnegate mothers, and the need for children’s absolute obedience in exchange for parental love and protection. They are very religious beliefs are of the Catholic faith. They want their children to have the best education possible and learning English as a second language weighs heavily on the expectations of the children.

When I asked about their thoughts of diversity the answer were very similar they all believed people need to learning about the cultures of other people and respect the difference. They all really stressed the fact they want their children to be aware and respect the beliefs, values and traditions of others, but to never forget about their own families identity values and beliefs. The families understood the importance of knowing the culuture and divserty of other families provide children the richness and values of others. they also are lesrning about the people around them  as discussed in the video ""Culture Diversity".

I was pleased to learn I shared the same ideas the three groups of people I talked with. We need to hold on to our own cultural values and beliefs but be willing to embrace others for whom and what their families are so we can live a true diverse society.

My Family Culture

As I tried to choose the three small items I would take with family and me it was not as easy I people would think. I had to good deep in my soul to decide what those items would be. The three items I finally decide to take:

My family album       

My family album has pictures of my life and the many family’s memories of life together.

My deceased mother recipes

My mother would write her recipes in a notebook as we watched her cook the many wonderful meals we eat.

 



My Bible

My Bible because it was the gift my husband gave me when we got married and I have recorded the births and deaths of people in our families.   

If I were asked why I chose these three items my responds would be:
My family’s life is gathered in the pictures in our album. My parents started the album from the day they wed to the present day. We believe in family celebrating new life when a baby is born and the many family reunions we have had as the family brings food, fun and share memories of our family.

My mother recipes would go with me because going to an unfamiliar country we would want to share foods we are accustom to made with the loving heart and hands of my mother. The recipes were past from my ancestors to my grandmother who then in turned passed the notebook to my mother.

My Bible was a wedding gift from my husband and it has the important date’s record in the front such as our wedding date, our children’s birth and the family members that are  no long with us. It also is the source of my faith and strength. When I feel life is going to be overwhelming I can always go to my Bible to get an uplifting word.  is our source of strengthen and faith in time of trouble.

If I was told I could only keep one of the items this would be difficult because each items is a part of my cultural and represents who I am. I think I would choose the family album because it holds the most precious memories of my life. When I feel I am losing my identity I can always look at the album and empower my social self.  

This assignment helped me reflect on how strong our family bond is and that my family history is the glue that keeps me going and made me the woman I am today.