Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have when working with children and their families in correlation with those particular families who come from diverse backgrounds is simply the education of their diversity.

I don't believe that there is enough education within the early childhood field on culturally different families and their struggles. I believe people have a generalized idea of the basic struggles that culturally indifferent families face, but I don't believe they fully understand the patience and assistance that is necessary for these families.

I would like to have the early childhood field go in more depth with the understanding of diversity and culturally different families. The problem with this is that there is so much more education that needs to be explained to the field.

To my colleagues, it has been a definite pleasure being able to view your thoughts and insights on all of our topics during this course. Good luck in your continuing education!

Welcoming Families From Around the World

The country of origin I chose was: Uganda

Five ways for preparation towards this family:

• Research their country and their cultural beliefs
• Familiarize myself with their cultural understandings 
• Learn basic phrases to prevent a language barrier
• Understand their family functions with their culture 
• Educate myself on their cultural mannerisms 

I'm hoping with the five ways of preparation listed above, both myself and the family will find common ground to help one another understand ways to communicate effectively. 

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

The memory's I have of an incident regarding prejudice always comes to particular workplace memories. There always seems to be oppression on women in leadership roles. 

I work as an Assistant Director in a childcare environment and there are definitely comments made about being a woman in control. 

I don't seem to understand the differences between men and women in leadership roles, although I can definitely understand the sexist comments, the logic behind the comments are what intrigues me the most. I believe there are definite points of consideration with women and leadership roles that people have yet to understand. 

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

The most common form of microaggression is racial, in my opinion. 

The only time I can depict an accurate time is when I had a friend whom was African-American and her family or other friends would tell her that because she was educated and spoke English well rather than in slang, she was acting "white," as they described it. 

This depiction obviously shocked me in a sense that someone can act "white," or act any particular race. I didn't think it was necessary to describe her actions as a part of the stereotype associated with white people or with people who are educated. 

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I think overall, diversity is a very broad term and there are millions of different ways to classify people and their cultural background.

I have some Hispanic and other Pacific Islander (Hawaiian, Filipino) friends and family that share the same cultural guideline as Guamanian culture.

Hispanics have influenced the Guamanian culture in terms of the language as the number system is all Spanish.

Filipino's share a strong similarity with the line of respect and partying that comes with Guamanian culture. We have a strong belief in elderly respect as well as strong family ties.

Thinking about other people and their culture, I tend to find some similarities as well as some differences in comparison to my own and even other culture's that I am familiar with.

I am incredibly interested in the dynamics of culture in the Middle East.

Culture as a broad topic is incredibly diverse and there are similarities across the line for some cultures, but there are also strong differences with others and that's what makes the idea of culture and diversity as interesting as it is.