Professional Hopes and Goals

The one hope that I have is that all children and families, no matter what their culture/background is will be treated equally and that they in turn will do the same. We must as educators understand the different cultures/customs that the families we work with and not be judgmental.  We must do this in order to provider these children and their families with the most effective and appropriate services they need without making them feel inferior or not want to ask for the assistance their child needs.  We must teach our young ones to respect each other, however, in order for this to succeed we as adults must show them the way and respect each other also.

One goal I have after this course is that all educators become educated in the issues related to diversity and to understand the different customs/traditions we will be working with.  We must stand up for the rights of these children and become advocates for them and make sure that we don't become judgmental when a child comes from a low economic status family.

I would like to thank my colleagues for providing the support in this course..  I realize that educational journeys become successful when we support each other and provide positive feedback.  A big THANK YOU for being the role models that I know I will continue to exercise in my professional and personal life.  I would also like to thank our instructor for always providing the positive feedback on our discussions and class work.  Hope to see some of you again in my next journey.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

The family I have chosen to learn more about is a family from Vietnam.  We have had families from this area, however I have never worked with them before and I would like to learn more about their culture in order to provide the appropriate services.

The first thing would be to learn more about this country, its traditions, religious beliefs, language  and the culture of the Vietnamese people.  This will insure that I don't do or say something inappropriate to the family.  After learning this, I would share the information with my co-workers and administrators just in case someone else has to step in and help with this case.  I belief that if we all work together and learn about each other's caseload it will make our program a success.  I would look into contracting with a language interpreter in order to provide the best and appropriate services to the family.  I would look at our present caseload and see if we are serving any families from Vietnam and maybe visit them to see if I can learn more about their customs and traditions.  The last step would be to set up  a visit with the family to learn more about their family structure and prepare them of what our program consists of in order to provide the appropriate services.

I belief that in preparing in this manner will assist me in providing the services to the child and family.  This will also help in teaching the family how they can also help their child after I am gone from the home.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

What memory do you have of an incident when you experienced bias, prejudice, and/or oppression, or witnessed someone else as the target of bias, prejudice, and/or oppression? Keep in mind that one can encounter such incidents in real contexts, including online environments, as well as in fictional ones, such as movies, books, television shows, and the like.

The memory that comes to mind is that of when my sisters and I were small (about 7 years of age) my parents took us shopping and just like little children we were just looking around the store.  One of the store clerks noticed us and started following us all throughout the store, not saying a word.  We started walking out the store and my Father noticed the clerk followed us and so he decided to approach her to ask if there was a problem, had his children taken something without paying.  Her answer was no, but because we were Hispanics she had to be double sure that we were not taking anything.

In what way(s) did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity?

The incident of prejudice diminished equity when the store clerk put all Hispanics in the same category of "if you are a Hispanic then you must be someone who steals from others". Without really knowing what type of persons we were, she put us in the same level as maybe someone else she had had a bad experience with.

What feelings did this incident bring up for you?

It brought feelings of being uncomfortable in the stores, however, my parents made sure they explained very carefully the reason the store clerk had done what she had done.  I guess because we were still young children it didn't affect us much and the way that my parents explained the situation also played a big part on how we developed as adults.

What and/or who would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity?

I think that how everyone in the community think and act would change this way of thinking. We must continue to educate everyone in this sort of topic.  

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

The microaggression I witnessed  was from a previous director at our program, she was originally from North Dakota and she would always say "is this how you all do things here in South Texas"?  It was always disturbing to hear her say that, however, no one ever confronted her about how she was stating things.  What made me think was how dare she stereotype the people from South Texas and ask if this was the way we do things here.

I think that this week has opened up my eyes a little more and has made me think more about how others  see the people from South Texas.  I felt discriminated by her remarks, but was not about to confront her because that might mean my job.  It is sad to realize that this sort of thinking still goes on.  Maybe if we were to move to another state we might see how the residents of that state do things and think the same way that my former director did.  However, we must work very hard to try and stop any prejudice feelings we may have towards other races.