Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope I have in working with children and families is that my classroom will be a safe place for them and they will feel accepted by me. I hope that not only will they learn from me but I will learn from them and about them.

One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity and social justice is that everyone in this field should take some sort of anti-bias course and refresher courses throughout their career. In so doing we would all be more aware of diversity and equitable practices.

I would like to thank all my colleagues for sharing their stories, encouragement, comments and advice. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.
In order to complete this assignment, first choose a country you know nothing about as this family’s country of origin.


My family’s country of origin is the Czech Republic.


I would be prepare myself to be culturally responsive by:


Reading up on the Czech Republic, finding out things like the national language, dish and traditions that most Czechs practice.


I would find out the family’s traditions and see if I could celebrate any of those traditions in my classroom.


I would learn the students names properly and the names of their family members.


I would put up things around the classroom that reflect aspects of the Czech culture.


I would also like to contact some Czechs in my area and see if they have any suggestions regarding how I can make the new student feel more welcome.


Hopefully these preparations will help me to learn things beyond the surface culture and help me to be responsive to the student and his or her family and help them to feel accepted and welcomed.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

Recently I was watching a show in which a deaf girl experienced `prejudice because of her deafness. Some children her age were mocking her by asking some stereotypical “deaf questions” and making fun of the way she spoke. By making fun of her the other children made the girl feel like an outsider, like she was not one of them and not on equal footing with them. This incident made me feel very sympathetic towards the girl and annoyed and disappointed in the other children. My first thought was “children can be so mean sometimes.” In order to turn this incident into one of greater equity the other children would have to make a real effort to know the girl and not just give in to deaf stereotypes. It might help for them to remember that people no matter their condition have feelings that can be hurt. The children would have to stop making fun of her and truly get to know her. In this way both parties could get to know each other and the girl could probably dispel some of the stereotypes that they harbored.