Saturday, December 20, 2014

Professional Hopes and Goals

·         One hope that you have when you think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds (any format and any length)

The one hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse background is to value their culture and become culturally sensitive as well.  It is very important to get to know much as possible about children and families’ culture background, living style, language and where they came from. As an educator, I believe it is helpful and valuable to implement various lessons/activities that support diversity within classroom. Gonzalez-Mena (2011) states, it is so important that diversity is a benefit, whereas children learn new things and take on new languages, new ideas, new perspectives, which should be in addition to what they have at home. I believe many people are labeled and talked about because of lack of understanding of how they live, where they come from and about their culture as a whole. I believe child who is being exposed to various cultures will become sensitive and acceptable of other children who are different from them.  

·         One goal you would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice (any format and any length)

The one goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is to create a rich learning environment that is welcoming for all children and their families’ culture is supported without biases, prejudices and discrimination. In spite of children and families cultural differences it is essential to allow them to bring what they have to the classroom, where children are able to learn about other cultures. Gonzalez-Mena (2008) believes the way culture is learned is from people around you. This will eliminate any negative behavior or feeling toward a particular child who are different in language, cultural background, values and beliefs.

·         A brief note of thanks to your colleagues

I would like to say “thanks a million” to all my colleagues for their support, encouragements, knowledge and wisdom that was shared with me throughout the duration of this course. It has been a pleasure to work together as we learn about the perspective diversity and equity among children and their families. I look forward to future courses together where we can all continue to share our understanding and knowledge about the early childhood field through discussions and blogs assignments.

References:

Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2008).  Perceiving and responding to differences.  In Diversity in
Early Care and Education (5th ed., pp. 8-13).  Boston, MA: McGraw Hill
Laureate Education (Producer).  (2011). Culture and diversity (video file).  Retrieved
            from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_

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1 comment:

  1. LaYTonya,
    Thank you for all your input in this course. It has been a pleasure to learn about others perspective with the same goals of promoting diversity, equity and social justice. It is important for early childhood educators to have a positive mindset to promote equity and diversity in the classroom. When children feel validated from the learning environment and educated with anti-bias curriculum, it will help reduce bias toward others who are different than them. Children learn through experience, therefore, staffs should also role model equity toward others. Nice post!

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