Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

Last week I witnessed a verbal racial microaggression at on of my enrollment Home Visits for Head Start. It was a microinsult against race and also occupation and environment. We went to the house to fill out all the paperwork for the child to start school. The parent had older children who were involved in Head Start years ago. The family was Caucasian and the home language was English. The mother told us her older child did not do well and fought a lot when he was in Head Start. She said it was because they only spoke Spanish in the class and did not speak any English. She said it was horrible and they were very frustrated, because she did not want her child to speak that language. I explained that is not how we function at our Head Start and we speak and teach in English and only use Spanish when needed.

I felt defensive when this microaggression was happening. I felt defensive because of my Spanish speaking population in the class and also the teachers. I also felt very defensive and upset because I work in a high quality Head Start program and I felt the mother put down our organization and I feel very proud of the work we do. I also felt saddened that this was her perception and she had these preconceived ideas about her daughters schooling experience.

My experiences this week made me think about the small microaggressions which are made without intent. Words are very powerful and can make an impact on people which scars. Many racial microaggressions are so subtle that neither target nor perpetrator may entirely understand what is happening. This is why it is so important to choose your words wisely without implication and be conscious about different cultures history and stereotypes.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

The first person I asked is one of my coworkers at Head Start. My family services teacher is a Hispanic woman who speaks both English and Spanish. She is 50 years old. We had a discussion about her definition of culture and diversity. She said culture is your background and diversity is what makes you different from one another.

I called my step-father who is male and 65 years old. I asked his definition of diversity and culture. He said culture is features shared by certain groups of people and diversity is how people are different.

I then asked my daughter Harley who is 11 her definitions of culture and diversity. She said culture is like your skin color and and diversity is differences.

The definitions of culture were mostly looking at the topic from a broad overview. surface culture such as foods, holidays, and traditions were not mentioned.

When I read over the definitions of culture and diversity I think the different people I interviewed touched on the deep meaning of both. It made me want to educate others on the many different aspects of both topics and how they influence our lives.

My Family Culture

Imagine the following:

A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of your country. The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees. You and your immediate family are among the survivors of this catastrophic event. However, you have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. You are told that your host country’s culture is completely different from your own, and that you might have to stay there permanently. You are further told that, in addition to one change of clothes, you can only take 3 small items with you. You decide to take three items that you hold dear and that represent your family culture.

The first item I would choose to take with me holds great significance. My mother passed away from cancer two years ago. My brother took some of her ashes and had them blown into a glass orb with speckles of gold all through it. Looking at it reminds me of the ocean and all the trips we took together to beautiful places where we could swim in the warm water. I hold this very dear and would want to bring it with me.
The second item is a drawing my husband did for me before we were married and was the first present he had ever given me. He is a wonderful artist and since then has painted and given me many more of his pieces. This one is especially dear because he did the whole drawing in black colored pen and it is in Day Of The Dead style. It makes me think back to all the great times we have had and how I felt when I was given the picture.

The third item I would take with me is a small glass cube which my daughters picture was etched into when they were the ages of 2 and 4. I love it because it reminds me of them at that age and how quickly time flies. It would be a way to bring a picture with me and to always have a memory of my younger children.

If I was told I could only keep one of the items upon arrival I would feel worse than if I never took them at all. I already had in my mind I got to keep the items and have them to remind me of my past. It also would be a very difficult decision on which two items to get rid of, and I would feel horrible throwing away things which mean so much.

I have learned about what type of things are important to me as a person. The small things I would take are connected to memories and a certain time. The orb with my mother’s ashes connects me to all the memories surrounding her. Most of all it made me reflect about the important people in my life and the time with them.

When I Think of Research.....

When I Think of Research........

The biggest insight I gained from this course is the planning and thought which goes into a research simulation.  I learned how to conduct research and all the different ways in which it can be approached.

My nature of doing research has changed because I actually feel like I understand the process and feel confident it is something I could try.  When coming into this course I remembered my undergrad Research Methods class and how the whole process seemed very foreign.  Now years later after working in the field and going through the course at Walden this class seemed much more pertinent and I was able to relate to the information much easier.

My biggest lesson about planning, designing, and conducting research in the field of early childhood was focusing on conducting a ethical research simulation.  There are so many aspects of ethics we have to think about as researchers and I wanted to make sure I conducted myself in a ethical fashion.  When I started planning my research I thought about a question I have been wondering about through the school year in relation to teaching social skills.  I know I could plan, design, and conduct the research all within Head Start.  Because I have a relationship with many of these teachers it would be easier for me to attain the information.

One of the greatest challenges I came across was when I interviewed the teachers.  I did not want to make anyone feel like they were not running their classroom correctly by not following a social skills curriculum.  I made it clear all teachers use different tools in their classrooms, and I was trying to find out if there was a correlation in social/emotional growth and teaching using a social skills curriculum.

I understand now how early childhood professionals are putting out information all the time regarding change and new insights in this field.  I took my research simulation to the next level and ran the data from the different classrooms.  It was amazing when my hypothesis matched my results.  The children who were taught the social skills curriculum had a growth of 20.1% in social/emotional development, while the children who were not only had a growth of 13.5 %.  As a researcher this was exciting.  I feel overall I grew as an educator and researcher after completing this course.

Research Around the World

The website I chose to explore is Early Childhood Australia. The website is located at http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/. The international article I The Swedish National Curriculum: Play and learning with fundamental values in focus The school system in Sweden is goal-based with a high degree of local government responsibility. The overall national goals are set out by the Swedish Parliament and the Government, in the Education Act (Parliament), and the Curriculum (Government), respectively. The curriculum should be seen as a framework and guidelines that give direction to the work of early childhood settings. Democracy is the foundation for all activities. The aim of this article is to discuss and problematise current Swedish research from the early childhood education field with a focus on play and learning in relation to three fundamental values affirmed in the Swedish National Curriculum. These values are children’s rights, gender equity, and education for sustainable development. One of the insights I learned about is the national council. They establish the strategic direction of Early Childhood Australia. They develop and endorse the position statement which govern Early Childhood Australia's advocacy work and enable members to share and debate information about issues for children. The Early Childhood Australia National Council meets annually. All branches have an equal number of votes and may be represented by up to five delegates, one of whom is a member of the National Board of Directors. I also enjoyed the link to resource themes. The theme I found to be very helpful is School Readiness and Transitions. There are a great selection of links to fact sheets and websites. For caregivers to understand and support parents and children in getting ready to start school. There is also a link to the best-selling Early Childhood Australia parent resource a book Your Child’s First Year at School: A Book for Parents. I think this is a wonderful resource for parents who do not know what to expect from the first years of school. The other noteworthy information I found on this site was about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the original inhabitants of Australia. Early Childhood Australia (ECA) acknowledges recognises their culture as part of the cultural heritage of all Australians. They put out a statement of regret and commitment to these children and families.

Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

I am going to share the story of my eleven year old daughter Harley, who was involved in a desensitization study with peanut.  I heard about the study through my parents who saw it on the local news.  I knew about the studies being performed, but I was unaware it was available in my immediate area.  I am choosing to share this story because it was so influential in my own life.

Recent clinical studies in food allergy at research centers such as Duke University, University of Arkansas, Mt Sinai Medical Center and Johns Hopkins have shown that a procedure called oral immunotherapy can be performed safely and effectively in people with peanut, milk and egg allergy. This experimental therapy involves consuming gradually increasing amounts of these foods over weeks and months resulting in desensitizing allergic individual to these foods. The goal in desensitizing patients is so that accidental exposures should not result in clinical symptoms. This should result in reduced worry, fear, anxiety, and improved quality of life.
  
We found out my daughter had a severe peanut allergy at the age of one.  It was so severe I chose to home school her until she entered second grade.  At that time she understood how to take care of herself and we felt it would be a safe situation.  She sat at a peanut-free table and luckily went to a very small school where everyone was aware of the situation.  We started the study reluctantly and my daughter started getting 1/1000 of peanut protein in a liquid form.  She worked up to 16 peanut M&M’s a day.  The side effects were stomach ache, weekly trips to the doctor, and daily monitoring.  We felt this was all worth it for the quality of life increase and worrying less when she was out of our care.  It made her quality of life better and she could enjoy things she was not able to prior to the study. 

Your Personal Research Journey

I chose to focus on the subject of teaching social skills in early childhood classrooms. I believe social/ emotional health and processing is essential at this age. We need to learn these skills when we are young to build on for our future. One of the biggest challenges a teacher has is supporting children who have behavior issues beyond what would be considered normal at this age. Many times behavior will become problematic until the child learns the “rules” of the classroom and what is expected. The bigger challenge comes when a teacher needs to meet the needs of a child who does not respond to positive behavior management. In the classroom a teacher needs to have a plan in place that promotes social and emotional development of all children built on the premise of positive relationships. In my Head Start classroom we use a variety of social skills programs. We use Second Steps, Talking About Touching, and Tucker the Turtle. We also use PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention Strategies) and books such as Hands are Not for Hitting. Many of the children I work with do not learn coping techniques at home and come to school unaware of how to function in a social setting. I am very interested to learn more about what research has been done in regard to this topic in early childhood, and also find new ways to teach this subject to the children I work with. Through this course so far I have realized how important it is for research to be reliable and credible. In the information age it is easy to read something and take it as truth. I will be much more skeptical in my own studies and take the time to make sure I am getting accurate information. If any of my classmates have advice or knowledge to share on this subject please share.