Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have when working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that when they are in my presence or think of how I made them feel, I want it to be a positive memory. I want to have a positive effect on children from different backgrounds so that one day they can and will pass along the same gestures. I want to be the beginning of a positive change.

One goal I would like to set for the issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is bringing forth awareness that eventually will create change. I believe we as professionals are aware, but I don’t believe we all know how and where to begin the change at. I want to help with that evolution. I want to be the change our education system needs.

I want to say thank you to all of my colleagues for helping me grow and to begin understanding where my true purpose and calling. I am blessed to be able to take this journey with some amazing people. We are only half way done with our courses, and I can’t wait till we continue our growth over our last classes.

Welcoming Families

The origin of my family’s last name, Pittman,  is German. It means Peter-Mann. I definitely didn’t not know that my origin last name is German. I am very interested. How did they get the Pitt, from Peter. I now have so many questions.

I would prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family by learning more for beginners. After learning more about the origin of the family maybe looking into their culture by seeing their essential race, I would then ask them questions one on one how they feel about the transition to the school. After their transition, I would just pay close attention to the way the child acts in the classroom environment. If I am still unsure of how to respond to the particular family, I would ask my colleagues what kind of information they knew about this particular culture. Finally I would ask the family to come in for a conference type meeting, and just plain ask them what they expected from me as a professional and just evaluate their answers and learn from them what they want and need.

I think these ways will benefit me and the families  because it will establish a trust level. It will also focus on the equalization of power. I want the family to know that they have just as much invested into their child’s education that I do. We should become a partnership and that only works while creating a partnership.

The Personal Side

My personal experience of a bias happens more often than usual. Since I am heavy set, people always assume that I am heavy because all I do is eat food constantly. Yet if they really took the time to observe me and learn more, I am an athlete and the majority of my “fat” comes from muscles. I am an extremely picky eater and I sometimes only eat once or twice a day.

Equity is diminished because everyone wants to assume that people that are heavy are pure fat and they get that way because of what they eat. When in reality there can be all types of health conditions and genetic disorders that make them seem larger than everyone else. My biggest issue with the assumption of others is that not everyone is built the same and I believe that is for a reason beyond my control. This incident makes me upset for those that are ignorant to pass judgment on someone for situations they don’t know. I hope as an educator I can always obtain and remain clear minded about children and their family’s situations. I think society’s view on body types and images needs to change before this incident has an opportunity for greater equity. If society didn’t tell people that blonde hair blue eyes were the norm and beauty, then I believe people wouldn’t pass judgment on others so quickly.

Practicing Awareness

Early this week was the last day of classes at my elementary school. One of my duties was to help place children in their classes for next year. These children were placed based on good and bad combinations and great matches with teachers and etc. Then the next year teacher got the chance to view their new classes. One of the 4^th grade teachers viewed her class and automatically said why do I have to have so many of them in my class. I was so upset with this statement. First and foremost the school’s main demographic is African Americans. So when this teacher was speaking of “them” she was speaking of African Americans and it was rude and ignorant. If she doesn’t want to teach them she should probably choose to teach at a different school. I thought it was very unprofessional of her.

I was angry with her. I felt as though she was assaulting me as well. Her comment made me think twice of her abilities to care and educate children. If she was having a hard time looking past their color I can only imagine what other things she discriminates against.

This week’s observation affected my perception of the fellow professionals I hang out with in a contradiction manner. Although all of the teachers were sad to see their children leave for the summer and for their next classes, they were still very mean when it came to discussing these kids and how much of a chance they have to succeed. It makes me nervous about my own future in education. Will I eventually be in their shoes, loving the children while discriminating and categorizing them? Furthermore is that a normal thing, based on the teachers prior knowledge about these particular students are they merely examining their cultures and just preparing themselves?

Valuing Culture

My first coworker defined culture as beliefs and shared attitudes of a certain group of people and defined diversity as different interests.

My other coworker who I would consider from a different culture than me has spent 20 years in prison and is male and in his late 30s. He answered the difference between people for both questions.

I asked my mother what her definition for culture was and she responded beliefs, values and your particular group or set of rituals and her definition for diversity was being able to step out of the box and being aware of other peoples opinions, views and beliefs.

The aspects of culture and diversity that can be compared with between what I have learned and what I asked was that culture is related to a belief system. Their examples were shared attitudes relating to religion, rituals and groups of people with social forms. Their definition of diversity all had the word different in it. One example of a definition was having the ability to step out of the box and being aware of other opinions, views and beliefs.

It seems as though the things that were omitted was when it came to culture. None of the people I talked to mentioned the different types of culture besides religious beliefs. For example culture can also be gender, age, interests and so forth. It wasn’t until after I asked the definition did I explain to them the other types of culture and all of my participants shook their heads and were like of course.

Thinking about other people’s definition of culture and diversity help me to realize that before taking these courses I am sure that I was thinking about these subjects in a vague way as well. I am glad that I now have a better understanding of what being part of a culture is like.

My Family Culture

The three items I would take with me to my “host country” would be the Bible, our family picture, and a picture of President Obama and his family.

I would carry the Bible, to show that we have faith and know that as long as we continue to believe everything will be alright, He will make a way.

Our family picture is important because it shows how different we are on the outside, yet how we are still one heart. We may fight and argue but at the end of the day we are family and nothing can tear us down.

The picture of President Obama and his family represents the struggle we as a family has gone through and that there is still hope for a brighter day. Everything may not be perfect but if we continue to pray and hope, anything is possible.

If we were told upon arrival we had to give up two of the three things, the one thing I would keep would be my Bible. Even if the country has a different belief system, my believes in my God are very important to me and I would want to keep my faith strong by always reading and having my Bible nearby.

I realized that my family has its faults and we may always fight with each other, but when it comes down to us becoming whole for a greater cause, we don’t hesitate. I love my family and the many different things each person represents. I love my family even more the wholeness we always maintain.

When I Think of Research....

The insights I have learned from taking this course is that research is not as frightening as I thought. As long as you have good techniques and a basic understanding of what to look for, you can and will succeed.  The nature of doing research has changed for me in the aspect that I am no longer intimidated by just reading the word “research”. I know feel as though I can create a research worth reading.

I learned that planning is the basis for research. Without planning you really can’t provide research based information properly. The design is equally as important. There are so many different formats that you can use. Each design is unique and specific to the different types of research that can be conducted. When it comes to conducting research I learned that it can be a very case sensitive. There are several different outcomes that can occur while using a various number of variables. While conducting a research the researcher must stay neutral. The purpose of a research is not to express your opinion but to find out as much information about a topic and present that to everyone else.

I had a challenge of understanding the different designs and different types of equity. Although they are all different styles, I was finding similarities between them all and it made reading and understanding it confusing. I met these challenges by just continuing to read and taking the time to understand the differences.

My perceptions of the early childhood profession have been modified by this course because it has broadened my understanding of the world of research. I have gone from being nervous about the idea of doing and reading research to having a better idea of what to expect while conducting and reading research. I am truly glad that this course is part of my curriculum.