Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is to integrate the community (families and children) in the school setting and make them feel welcomed, as well as creating a reliable environment for them to help each other or let me help them.

One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is to create more opportunities for children and their families to talk about the specific issues in the community and find solutions for them as a whole.

The course has been difficult for me because I had a lot of work and some personal problems as well. I thank all my colleagues and the instructor because I have learned a lot of things about myself and sharing some of my experience has helped understand diversity better. I also have learned from my colleagues experiences and I appreciate everybody for sharing some of the deepest situations.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

The country of the family that I chose is Russia. Five ways in which I prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards the Russian newcomers are:

•          First of all I would ask the admissions office to see what information can be useful from the student’s file.
•          I will buy a book about Russian culture to try to understand their culture.
•          Look up at information at the Russian embassy.
•          I would look up at special holidays and celebrations and integrate in to my lesson planning in order to mention it for other children to know.
•     Ask another coworker if she had experience with treating with a Russian family, and how was her experience.
•     Look up at information at the Russian embassy.
•     Make an interview with the parents to understand their expectations and needs regarding education. It will also be a good opportunity to learn more about their culture and specifics of my new student.

These preparations will help me understand the family’s needs and expectations better, as well as to make them feel welcome.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

I haven’t experience any incidents where I was the target of bias, prejudice and/or oppression. I have seen in several movies acts of oppression and biases specially directed to black people, but I think the one that impressed me the most was the treatment that HIV positive people got in public hospital in Mexico. I saw a play that talked about this subject and they represented how this people were treated in the past. They were in the dungeon of the hospital, and the food was left on the floor for them.

This incident diminishes equity because people should be treated equal and they should be able to have the same access to health care, as well as a dignify treatment. I felt bad for the people that have suffered these injustices and I think most of it happened because of ignorance and lack of tolerance towards others.

I think that today we have a better understanding of the HIV disease and how to treat it. Although there are still some people who prejudice towards HIV positive people, I think that thanks to a better knowledge of the disease nowadays people don’t treat HIV positive people as bad as the used to. In this case, what changed was the understanding of the disease and the awareness built up to treat patients with dignity.