What I have Learned

The one hope I have while working with children and families who come from a diverse background is to be able to relate to them and to bridge any gaps in communication. I would like each and every person to feel comfortable in my classroom and with me.

One goal I would set for myself in relation to the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity and social justice is to teach children to love themselves and to respect other people that might be different than them.  I would like to teach children to detect stereotypes and biases and how to deal with such issues when confronted with them.

I would like to thank all of my colleagues for their participation is this course because I have been able to experience different viewpoints and have learned from each of you.  I wish you well in your future endeavors and hope that many of you are taking the same class that starts June 25^th.

Week 7 Blog

Poem

Children’s Childhood is a time of innocence while they play and discover.

There are so many things that interfere with this wonderful time of growth that hinder and destroy children’s fragile beings.

Stereotypes and biases are absorbed from adults that don’t know any better that destroys the healthy development of our young citizens.

Children find themselves in circumstances that are devastating to their very survival.

What can we do to make a change so that children grow to be fair and just toward one another?

What can we do to change the traumatic situations that children face in the world today?

What can we do to change the circumstances of learning for children?

We as adults can search inside and remember our childhoods and find what injustices we experienced and witnessed and try and cleanse ourselves free of them.

We as a society can make the change to remove the difficulties that are faced by our children today.  

Then we will be in a better place to interact and teach the youth of today.

 We can teach the young to stand up against racism, sexism and all the” isms” that exist today making our world a better place.

If everyone would take a stand for social justice today we can restore to the children their innocence for tomorrow.

I will start with ME today.

Start Seeing Diversity Blog: We Don't Say Those Words in Class

One day I was in Walmart in the check-out line there was a mother and her two children in front of me.  The two children were laughing and pointing at the woman that was in front of their mother.  She was obese and was wearing a pair of shorts.  Their mother noticed them laughing and pointing and said to them to be quiet and stop it and shot them a very stern look.  The children stopped. 

I am quite sure the children realized that they should not laugh at people in public due to the way their mother responded to them.  I don’t know if she later sat down and had a conversation with them about the woman.  If I were their mother I would have talked to them about other people’s feelings and that giggling and pointing at someone could cause them to feel sad or it might make them cry.

If I were these children’s teacher I would have discussed with them about people having different body types and that each of us is different from each other. I would also have the children look in books and magazines and have them find people that are skinny, tall, short, big, etc.  I would have them identify their own body type and the body types of their family so that they are familiar with what body types mean.   I would have discussed treating everyone with respect because everyone deserves to be treated this way.  I would have discussed how the other person might have felt when they realized they were being laughed at.

Week 3 - Gender, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation

My response to those who believe that early childhood centers should avoid the inclusion of books depicting gay or lesbian individuals such as same-sex partnered families?  This subject is very new to me I have never encountered a same-sex family and have some reservations about how I would interact with such a family.  I would say since such families do exist children should be made aware of them as a family type.  I do believe that all families should be respected and valued in an early childhood setting.  If children feel their family is excluded this interferes with their success in a program.  I feel that same-sex families should be displayed through books and pictures so that young children accept them as a reality of society.

 Any other related situation, thoughts, concerns, questions, and/or areas of discomfort you would like to share related to children, gender and sexual orientation?

As an Early Head Start teacher I try to minimize any type of inequity in my classroom.  I encourage children to experience different roles in their dramatic play such as boy caring for a doll or a girl building with blocks.  I realize how important it is that children feel equal and not stigmatized by stereotypes.  But I do feel some discomfort with presenting same-sex relationships to young children.  As I stated above I do feel as though children should be aware of same-sex families, but I wonder if I am condoning this type of life style for children to adopt in their own lives.  I am Christian and homosexuality has always been a life style that was not condoned for me.  I accept homosexuals in the workplace, but am uncomfortable with the lifestyle.  I guess this is an area of bias for me and need to consider working on to better be able to service children in an equitable way.

Some of the ways you noticed that homophobia and heterosexism permeate the world of young children including books, movies, toys, stores, culture of early childhood centers and schools?

In the early childhood environment we exhibit pictures of families that are traditional, mother, father and children.  My classroom is guilty of this.  Pictures of men and women in traditional roles such as men as policemen and women as nurses are displayed in classrooms.  Books and movies almost always depict men as heroes or super-heroes and woman as victims.  The only show I can think of that depicted a woman as a super-hero was a show from the 80’s, Wonder woman.  Children are still given a doll for girls and a car or truck for a boy by family members.  In department stores toys are displayed in separate sections for boy’s toys and a separate section for girl’s toys.

Reference:

 "Start Seeing Diversity: Gender" (Approximate length: 6 minutes)

"Start Seeing Diversity: Sexual Orientation" (Approximate length: 6 minutes)

A Farewell and Thank You

I just wanted to thank everyone in our communication course.  I have learned a great deal
from each one of you and hope that you have learned from me as well. Since
beginning this communication course I have applied some of the learned
principals and believe that my communication skill are improving.

I hope each one of you does well in your future endeavors and look forward
to meeting you in a future course.

Adjourning Stage

When I think of the phase adjourning, I think of closure.  I have worked on several teams in my career in business, some ended with the adjournment phase some did not.  The ones that ended with the adjournment phase tended to be more formal type of team situation.  These formal type team situations encompassed more established norms and rules and tended to last for a longer period of time than the other team situations.  We really got to know each other as we bonded through our projects.  I can think of a project that I worked on with a group of people while at Hewlett Packard.  This project lasted only a week, but it was a formal situation where we used project management theories to complete the project.  Each of the members was from different offices in the Northeast.  We meet in Maryland.  When the project was over there was a big dinner at the hotel where the leader handed out awards and everyone got to speak about their experience working on the team.  It was nice, but hard to part because we really got to know each other and worked well together on the project.  I meet a woman from the Virginia office that I befriended we kept in touch even after the project was over.  We would discuss work and what new things she was working on while I share with her what I was up to.  Over all it was a good experience, because our project was a success, I learned a lot and got to meet a great group of people.  In my opinion the better the project turns out the harder it is to say good by to the group.

I think the adjourning is an essential stage of teamwork because this is when you have the opportunity to discuss the project, what went right and what needed work.  This is where you build on your skills.  It is a time to acknowledge team members for their contributions and talents.  I would hope that if my colleagues were to attend graduation we might get together for dinner to discuss our experiences working on our master's degree together.  If we don't meet at graduation, I guess we would send each other emails wishing each other well as we move on from Walden University.

Conflict Resolution

I can say that at this point in my life I don’t experience much conflict.  My husband and I might have a disagreement every so often, but nothing to really speak about.  In my work place I have not experienced much conflict.  In my capacity as teacher there is the occasional disagreement about how to handle a child or carry out an activity with the children, but I can’t think of any conflicts in the work place.

After this week’s resources I have learned a great deal about how to handle a conflict if one were to surface.  I think one of the strategies that I would use is the Win win approach, this is when you change from adversarial attack and defense to co-operation.  It is a powerful shift of attitude that alters the whole course of communication (Conflict Resolution Network, n.d.).  This approach helps everyone concerned to concentrate on the actual problem and facts in question without attacking or demeaning one another.  I would also enact an approach called Co-operative power, responding to resistance from others.  When faced with a statement that has potential to create conflict, ask open questions to refrain resistance.  Explore the difficulties and then re-direct discussion to focus on positive possibilities (Conflict Resolution Network, n.d.).  The most powerful strategy I learned about this week is the Cooperative Strategy this strategy benefits the relationship, serve mutual rather than individual goals, and strive to produce solutions that benefit both parties (O’Hair & Wiemann, 2009).

Reference:

O’Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2009). Real communication: An introduction. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Conflict Resolution Network. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.crnhq.org/pages.php?pID=12#skill_3