Microaggressions

I work for a Child Care Quality Rating program. One of my colleagues and I were speaking about some of the child care centers we work with. I told her about a particular center that was awarded 3 Stars in the quality rating program. Her response was, "really!, they should be proud considering who they are". I then asked her, "who are they?" She said, "well you know, they are a black center in a bad area of town." I immediately responded, "No they should be proud, period".  The location of the center or the race of the people who own the center has nothing to do with the quality of the care they provide to their children and families.

She did not say this to the child care provider but she said it to me and I felt offended for them. I have seen the work they have done to improve their quality of care and that is what I am proud of them for. My colleague was implying that it was amazing that a black center in a bad area of town could be a 3 star rated center. I felt the hurt and disappointment as a result of this microaggression and it was not even projected at me. I'm just glad the child care owner did not have to hear it.

During the week, I was at a child care center and the Director was telling me about this program she was involved in with the local school system. They send out Specialists to help with "at risk" children. However the Director stated that as she obtained more information about the program she decided not to take part in it. She said that they considered all children on Child Care Assistance subsidies as "at risk". She tried to argue that there are some very intelligent children from very good homes with involved parents who are just receiving subsidies for income purposes only. This program was implying that all lower income children were "at risk".

 I was glad that the child care provider decided not to take part in the program for "at risk" children. This type of stereotyping would have harmed these children's self-image and self-esteem. As  a parent I would have felt so ashamed that my child was being considered "at risk" because I was receiving some funding for their child care. I am also glad that I stood up to my colleague about stereotyping quality rated centers.

I am sure these types of situations happen all the time but this week they seemed to jump out at me. I have learned that awareness is key. This week I was very sensitive to all the "isms" in society that cause so much hurt and harm.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I had a meeting with all my co-workers this past Thursday at the state office so this was a great opportunity to get them to help with this assignment. We work out in regions of our state so not only are we diverse because of race, we are also very diverse in our family cultures and cultures of the areas in which we live.

Two ladies I spoke with were my co-workers and the other was a neighbor. The responses from my co-workers for the definition of culture reflected that of surface culture. They referred to culture as the language, ethnicity, food, and lifestyle. My co-workers and I often talk about lifestyle differences in our state. North Louisiana appears to be another state when compared to the culture of South Louisiana. One of my friends is from New Orleans so the culture of a city is very different than that of my southern small town. My neighbor had deeper cultural answers than my friends. She is Vietnamese and she defined culture more in terms of values and beliefs. She spoke more about treatment of the elderly. Her definition was more abstract and less about the obvious. No one used religion as a defining characteristic I think because here in Louisiana most people are Catholic and  do not think of religion as culture.

My co-workers who all work with me in the field of early childhood immediately defined diversity in terms of special needs or varying abilities of children in the classroom. When I asked them to think more about diversity and asked them about our department that we work in. I asked if they thought we were a diverse group of workers. One of the responses was surprising. One of the ladies said no that we were not diverse because we all really respected and liked each other. I then began to feel like I was educating her on diversity. I think her response says a lot about diversity. Automatically people think if you are different from someone, then you must not like them. My neighbor understood more about diversity and to my surprise she said that they do not speak Vietnamese in their home. She speaks the language to her parents but does not force her children to do the same. She says she wants them to become a part of the Western world. She says the United States has been very good to she and her husband and she wants her children to respect the lifestyle they have been given.

Talking to these people made me realize how much I have learned about culture and diversity as a whole as well as my own culture. I had not noticed over the past year how much Walden had changed my perspective of culture and diversity until I spoke with these people this past week. I definitely have a different outlook on both issues.

My family culture

I cannot even image having to evacuate to another country. However if that situation would arise I would take with me my personal recipe box with cajun recipes from other family members and friends. I would also take a small box of pictures of my whole family on vacations or celebrating holidays. Lastly and most importantly I would take a rosary.

Food is always an important part of any culture and although I may not be able to get the same ingredients in another country, I could still try to duplicate our meals we shared at home. My children and the events we shared with them are a huge part of who we are as a family. When the children were growing up, we went on two to three trips a year to the beaches of Florida. For the past 16 years, we have spent Thanksgiving in the mountains of Arkansas. These are treasured memories that have played a huge role in who we have all become. A rosary would always be a reminder and symbol of our faith. A true foundational symbol of our family.

I would be devastated if I was not allowed to keep all three items. After giving this situation some thought, I realized that I could give up the recipe box because I could still cook many dishes from memory. The rosary is simply a symbol and all of my family can pray the rosary whether we have the tangible item or not. I would probably keep the small box of pictures. I feel like reliving these moments would sustain us through the difficult times reminding us that we have each other.

This assignment made me think harder than some others. I even got my adult children involved in this assignment. My second son thought of the recipes. (he would be one to think of food). I thought about the pictures immediately and my youngest (daughter) thought of the rosary. It warmed my heart to think that they could think of things that defined us as a family as well as our family culture. I learned how important our family culture is to my children and I felt proud that they could easily define the important items in that culture. As early childhood educators, we need to respect and appreciate how important some of these cultures are to the children we teach. 

Reflection on Research course

Insights

Coming into this course, I knew that I did not have much knowledge of research. However after diving into the content of this course, I soon realized I knew very little and faced many challenges along the way. I soon learned how much thought has to go into creating just the right research question and that every detail must be planned out before beginning a research project. I now have a better understanding of how to read articles on studies and how to skim through the details that are above my knowledge base and focus on the conclusions and discussions. Learning how to read these articles is going to be very helpful in the future because reading research on early childhood education is a necessity in our field. I now realize how much time is spent in creating a study.

Lessons Learned

There are many details and issues to address while planning and designing research. First you much choose which research design best suits your topic and the outcomes expected if any. Ethics must be considered as well as validity and reliability. Also a decision must be made on how data will be collected and will there be equity in the process. As soon as I thought I had a good grasp on an issue in research, then the next week there was some other issue that needed to be considered. It seemed to be never ending.

Challenges

I had many challenges in understanding the assignments some weeks. I found understanding the difference between quantitative and qualitative research to be challenging. In my opinion both seemed to overlap in many studies. My personality allows me to see questions answered as black or white. I have a hard time understanding gray areas. Dr. Shephard gave out links in our discussions to read further on a topic and that helped me in ways that the text didn't. I had to email Dr. Shephard a few times about assignments which is something I had never done in any of my other classes. I was definitely out of my comfort zone in this class.

Fortunately with the help of my colleagues, Dr. Shephard, and the additional readings, I seemed to have made it through this course. I now look at researchers in early childhood in admiration. They are doing the difficult work that we as early childhood educators need in order to make our classrooms better and our children more successful.

Thank You!!

A huge THANK YOU to my colleagues in Group 3. Reading your posts helped me to understand the topics better and getting responses from you allowed me to know if I was on the right path. Thank You to Dr. Shephard for having patience with our questions and concerns and for guiding us through this course. Good luck to everyone! 

Research around the World

I chose to look over the Early Childhood Australia website. Most of the research topics on this website were the same that we have here in the United States. There is research and resources on topics such as:
1.brain development
2.quality standards
3.inclusion
4.parent engagement
5.compensation of early childhood professionals

This list is just a few of the many issues being discussed and researched. There is a huge parent engagement toolkit that has been put out as a resource to begin letting parents know how important their role is in the beginning of their child's life. There was a survey online in order to give feedback on the toolkit.

What surprised me the most was how advanced Australia is in terms of their early childhood initiatives. They are celebrating 75 years of The Australian Association of Pre-School Child Development’. They are so much more advanced in their research and work with early childhood care and education than here in the United States. About a year ago, National early learning standards were developed and implemented in the child care centers. The terminology of early childhood education came about in the past decade in the United States and is just beginning to be acknowledged by our National government in the past few years.

Australia's newest initiative is the Respect, Connect, Enact reconciliation plan. This plan calls "

For Early Childhood Australia, Reconciliation between

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the

broader Australian community is about transformation—

transformation that moves us from ignorance and racism

to respect, from inequity and prejudice to justice, and

from inaction and fear to hope. It is in this transformation,

both personal and organisational, that the promise of a

strong future for every Australian child is realised. Within Australia, there are cultural issues that need to be addressed in order to advance the well-being of all children. I was extremely impressed with this website and the work of the Australian government and organizations in improving the lives of young children.

Positive research

Whenever I think of positive research, I cannot help but think of St. Jude's Hospital for children. I have donated to this hospital and even did a fundraiser for years at my child care center. Everyone at the hospital is so appreciative of any amount of money we were able to raise at my small center.

Unfortunately I have known quite a few children who have gone to this hospital for various kinds of cancer. I went to www.stjude.org to look up more details. They do many studies and scientific studies comparing genes of healthy children and those children with cancer. Currently they are working on the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project. The scientists are discovering gene mutations linked to childhood cancers.

Over the years, the results of this research has helped treat children and save lives. Children are treated regardless of the income of the family. In this particular situation there are not many options for parents when they find out they have a child with cancer. Most parents I know have been happy to be part of clinical trials if it may help their child as well as others. The only other option in the case with cancer is death. As stated on the website, "Using clinical trials and medical research, tremendous advances have been made in the treatment of childhood cancer." (St. Jude, 2013)

St. Jude has a bench-to-bedside approach to treatment so that children can benefit from the latest research. "St. Jude’s major treatment programs are so successful because the physicians and basic scientists in our laboratories work closely together and rapidly introduce promising therapies to the clinical setting."(St. Jude, 2013)

I cannot think of any more positive research than St. Jude Hospital and the tremendous work they do in saving children's lives.

Personal Research Journey

For my research topic I chose psychological abuse. This term can come under many other titles such as emotional abuse or verbal abuse. Any term chosen has the same end result in the harm done on children. Parents and families have the most influence on children when they are young. They look at themselves and develop pride and self-esteem based on how their family views them. When children are humiliated, criticized, and spoken harshly to on a regular basis, they will begin to feel as though there is something wrong with them. Over the years these constant feelings of inadequacy lead to a low self-esteem and emotional issues.

I was the last of four girls in my family and was born much later than the rest of my siblings. My parents often criticized me for being different, humiliated me for things that I was not good at, and allowed my siblings to do the same. I am in no way asking for pity. I am a grown woman and have taken charge of my own life. I think the reason there is not much information on this topic is because it can be hidden, as in my case, behind a nice house, middle income, and material possessions. I would like to dig deeper and expose the harm this kind of abuse can do to a child.

This research class as a whole is hard for me to wrap my head around. In previous courses, I could talk about early childhood and be able to grasp new concepts based on my background knowledge. However, I am afraid that I can be of no help to anyone in this class. This is my first research class and I have no previous experience in research.

Does anyone have any suggestions in beginning research or any hints on how to make it less overwhelming? I am ready to listen to advice.