Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

 

I remember detecting a microaggression a time in my life. This particular microggression happened to be a gender microaggression. One day, I was in a store and I noticed one of my old friends that I grew up in my neighborhood with that I hadn’t seen in over ten years. As we had a brief conversation, I noticed he had on a uniform shirt that read a logo, “Greenville fire dpt.” And blue khaki pants. I asked him of his occupation as a fire fighter and if his company were currently hiring for new trainees, and he bluntly stated, “You don’t want to do this type of work, this is a man’s job. You should be sitting behind a desk in an office instead.” After hearing this comment, I was instantly caught in a “catch 22” phase. I was so caught by surprise that I did not know how to respond to such a comment from my old friend. Therefore I quickly changed the subject and spoke no more of it. Although my old friend’s intentions may have been good with no intent to harm, I felt that he thinks women can’t complete any tasks that men can and that women are made for inside a more feminine jobs only.

After experiencing this kind of gender microaggression, my perception of discrimination, and stereotypes have been affected because the encounter that I had with my old friend was one of the many examples of how women are discriminated against in society. There are companies that will not hire a woman simply because she is a woman. Women tend to be stereotyped as feminine individuals who are unable to work as hard as a man. My opinion on this stereotype is that I feel that this stereotype is more of an ego and pride issue. Men do not want women to be seen as tough as them. We are usually expected to be dependent on man, when there are some things in society that we actually do better than a man and is done on a regular basis this day in age.



          For this assignment, I chose to contact three people that I have close relationships with, who I believe, in some ways, are culturally different from me. I chose my neighbor, Robert who is a wheelchair bound male, my old male co-worker, Abdul, who is Jewish and one of my undergrad college classmates, Cassie, who is Caucasian. I asked these three individual their definitions of culture and their definition of diversity. Their responses follow:

Definition of Culture:

Robert: “Culture, to me is our way of life and the way we do and view certain things.” (Robert 2016)

Abdul: “Culture is how we as a people acknowledge our traditions, customs and beliefs. And we must follow them” (Abdul 2016)

Cassie: “Culture is how we adapt to the world around us on a daily basis and take advantages of the resources we are provided with.” (Cassie 2016)

Definitions of Diversity:

Robert: “Diversity governs the difference in people, regarding race, gender, abilities and many more.” (Robert 2016)

Abdul: “The difference of all people” (Abdul 2016)

Cassie: “What separates the differences from the similarities in us” (Cassie 2016)

 

        The answers that I received displayed quite a few aspects of what I have learned in this course. For example, Abdul explained that culture has ties with traditions, customs and beliefs, in which he leaned toward defining culture as in what he shares with his family and others of the same ethnicity as him.

        Robert mentioned abilities as part of his definition of diversity. By Robert being a wheelchair-bound individual, his abilities are slightly shortened. This difference, which I would rather say uniqueness, is one of his characteristic that makes him diverse in his own way.

        I did not notice any aspects that I felt were omitted in the definitions, although it is possible that I may have missed some. If anything, it has broadened my thinking.

        Thinking about the definitions I were provided with by these individuals has influenced my thinking about culture and diversity by allowing me to realize that culture does not always have to be a particular method followed by a group of people to considered as a culture, nor is it a requirement. Individuals are allowed to follow their own culture freely. I now understand that culture and diversity go hand in hand. Some of the cultures that an individual chooses to possess and follow could possibly make them diverse in some form

My Family Culture

A major catastrophe has hit the U.S. and my immediate family and I are among the survivors. We are being relocated to a new country to take refuge, and I am not able to make any decisions about the evacuation plan or the final destination.  I have no details on the final destination in which I will be placed and I may be forced to stay there permanently. I can only bring one change of clothes and three small personal items.

          Along with my change of clothes, I would also take with me a copy of my Birth certificate, my college diploma and a copy of the photos of my relatives.
          
           I would explain to others the significance of these items by informing them how important it is to be able to prove my identity and my homeland from where I am originally from, regardless of where I am replaced, the proof of the education I received and the remembrance of family members that did not survive or were located in a different place from. All of these items are able to help symbolize my personal identity and family culture.
     
           I would be very devastated if told I could only keep one of the three items upon arrival. It would be a tough decision to make, because all three of those items help to define who I am, where I come from and one of the most important accomplishments that I completed. Being that I would be in a totally new environment, with new people and not having a single person who knows me personally, besides my own family would be very frightening for me and for my family. I would think about the possibilities of being separated from my family that I evacuated with, being given a new identity and losing my own culture and being forced to practice new beliefs. And most importantly, having lost all visual memories of my relatives, whom I may never see again.

This exercise has given me new insights on what it is like to lose everything and be forced to move from an area that you have lived practically all of your life and that is all you know. Throughout the course of completing this exercise, I could not help but to think of those refugees and immigrant that I have actually faced this exact kind of adversity and I became very emotional. It is one thing to see and hear about these kinds of situations on the news, but actually experiencing these are so much different. I pray that America is never put in this kind of situation and that we as a people are able keep our homeland, freedom and rights and to never have to be forced to give up who we are.   

When I Think of Research...

I have gained many new insights from taking this course in these eight weeks that we were given. In the beginning of this course, I was introduced to studying and analyzing scholarly research articles, searching for my own and developing a research topic of my interest and breaking that main topic down into three sub-topics and choosing only one specific subtopic of interest from there. Although this was just the forefront in conducting research, I feel that becoming aware of the potential risks and ethics to be aware of were very beneficial insights to me. My ideas about the nature of doing research have drastically changed after learning of proper protocol and procedures to follow before attempting to conduct a research study. From the choosing of participants, sampling and choices of collecting data are all vital and must be properly thought through before beginning. Permission must first be allowed from participants, along with mentioning all possible risks.

  I learned that the process of conducting a research design first begins with suggesting a topic of interest for research. This topic would generally be one that makes a point to a specific idea of interest and can be studied for further investigation to retrieve results that reflect the design. The second step in conducting a research design is figuring out exactly how the design will be conducted and what will be the focus of the design. “Research cannot be well designed unless what is to be researched is clear.” (Naughton et al 2010 p105). Next is refining the topic and breaking that one topic into a series of several sub-topics, placing them in the order that is similar to the order of processing and determining whether these topics are considered observational or experimental and whether they lend themselves to be formulated into a hypothesis (the ability to make an educated guess on the topic). Next is the careful review of the time the study and who is to participate, in means of the past, present and future and the ages of the participants. The selection of participants for the study and understanding whether random sampling is necessary or not is vital in the process of collecting data and analysis. Once the data is collected, which is often very little means of resources, pilot testing is performed to determine whether the implementation of the designed has the ability to be successful or not

Some of the challenges I encountered were Processing and analyzing data and selecting persons to participate. Although processing and analyzing data seemed as a tedious task, I was quite relieved to find that all research is not mandatory to be correct and can also be a defect cause from the design or hypothesis of the intended question of the research. Incorrect data can sometimes lead to the findings of new information that one had no knowledge of before. I have gained a better outlook on this process.

  I would believe that it takes choosing participants that fit the description of the intended purpose of a design, but had a difficult time understanding exactly how the concept of sampling for some designs could still conduct accurate researching and results. I did not agree with the process of stratified random sampling at first after understanding that these designs were performed using uneven amounts of participants. But after understanding that the use of sampling of uneven participants always used the greater number of participants for the groups of participants that were the primary focus of the design, and  ensuring that those groups were both still equally represented and considered as a random sample helped me to understand more.

My perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified throughout this course due to the fact that I am now fully aware that studies are able to be conducted to enhance the betterment of classrooms and education in the early childhood field. With results and findings of these successfully conducted studies could have a major positive impact on students, families, teachers and administrators in the early childhood education field.

Research Around the World

A U S T R A L I A

For my week 5 Blog assignment, “Research around the World”, I chose to explore: Early childhood Australia: http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

Some of the current international research topics on the early childhood in Australia website are

-State of Early Learning in Australia Report 2016 – This report provides information on the quality, participation, and affordability of early childhood education and care currently in Australia

-Productivity Commission Inquiry into the Education Evidence Base- looking at national approaches to collecting and using data for early childhood education and care to improve outcomes.

-National Quality Framework Review – Looking at the efficient and effective ways Australia is improving quality education and care.

-Reform of the Federation White paper – Documentation of government spending to improve transparency

 

 

    This website as a whole consists of: Learning modules, Social media channels, Early Childhood Magazine, ECA Voice News Letter Everyday Learning series, Research in Practice series, Australian Journal of Early Childhood Education and ECA WebWatch e-newsletter.

    There is also a parent section that provides important information and strategies on real topics affecting parents of young children, such as their health, nutrition, separation anxiety, sleeping, and transitions from early childhood to school. I would recommend this site to educators and parents of young children

 

 



Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

Positive Parent-Child Relationships

 

 

I have encountered and witnessed the positivity of relationships between children and parents on numerous occasions. Although I could share a story, I would rather share information on document I reviewed that discusses the benefits of  positive parent-child relationships. The National Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement (NCPFCE) is an organization that has created a framework of research practices that focuses specifically on the outcomes of family engagement. The study, "Positive parent-child relationships" is one of the several studies performed and  is explained in the article, giving details of studies and interventions performed on families that have shown positive results. " Positive parent-child relationships provide the foundation for children’s learning. With parents’ sensitive, responsive, and predictable care, young children develop the skills they need to succeed in life. Early parent-child relationships have powerful effects on children’s emotional well-being" (Dawson & Ashman, 2000), Benefits such as increased child development and school readiness was predicted to be the ultimate result of parent-child relationships as well as attachment, which helps the child feel secure with the parent and more open to them. This act also causes benefits for the parents as well, being that children can be more manageable, which gives a positive vibe for both ends. There is some very good insights in this reading and I encourage you to consider reading.

 

(n.d.). Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center. Positive Parent-Child Relationships. Retrieved from http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/tta-system/family/docs/parent-child-relationships.pdf

 

Dawson, G., & Ashman, S. B. (2000). On the origins of a vulnerability to depression:
The influence of the early social environment on the development of psychobiological
systems related to risk for affective disorder. In The Effects of Adversity on
Neurobehavioral Development: Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology (Vol. 31,
pp. 245-278). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates.

 

 

 



Your Personal Research Journey

Research Simulation Topic

Hello Class!! Through the duration of this class, the topic of my research simulation will be: “How does changing demographics and diversity change teaching or instructional practice in the pre-school classroom?” I chose this particular topic because I have always been interested in multi-cultural education and diversity in the classroom and knowing that this topic is known to have a dramatic change on teaching and instruction, I decided to elaborate on this further. As an aspiring early childhood professional, I am sure that I will be faced with this same situation in the future. I found it quite challenging to find resources to reflect this topic, but I was able to retrieve articles that introduced some of the teaching styles and methods to include for the culturally diverse. I am currently doing fine for the moment for this process, but I am always willing to accept assistance. Therefore, I am open to take suggestions and any helpful tips that anyone has to offer for this process. The resources that I have chosen for my topic are listed below. Thank you and good luck to the rest of you all on your research topics

 

    Drake, D. D. (1993). Student Diversity: Implications for Classroom Teachers. Clearing House, 66(5), 264-266.

 

Kohnert, K., Dongsun, Y., Nett, K., Pui Fong, K., & Duran, L. (2005). Intervention with Linguistically Diverse Preschool Children: A Focus on Developing Home Language(s). Language, Speech & Hearing Services In Schools, 36(3), 251-263.

 Souto-Manning, M., & Mitchell, C. (2010). The Role of Action Research in Fostering Culturally-Responsive Practices in a Preschool Classroom. Early Childhood Education Journal, 37(4), 269-277. doi:10.1007/s10643-009-0345-9