Professional hopes and goals

 EDUC - 6164 : Perspectives in Diversity and Equity

My professional hopes and goals.

Children are unique individuals with their own identity developed from their culture either surface or deep, and from what they experience from their interactions. Our diversity – differences is not a disadvantage but an advantage if properly understood and utilized, as I found in this course. 

The past eight weeks have been life changing for me in respect to understanding diversity, equity and social justice.

 I hope to be a voice for these children who have been marginalized or being marginalized because of their race, ethnicity, gender, poverty or parental educational status.

I have gained a lot of insight into ‘isms’ and honestly they were baffling. I pray to be open minded to receive people from all classes and orientations despite my own faith and beliefs, because this is the essence of understanding diversity. Knowing now that disability is not lack of ability, and that if people have all the support they need their lives can be normal and productive, I hope to be involved in encouraging the establishment of classrooms that are inclusive and give every child opportunity to grow and develop in the mainstream without the fear of being looked down on as ‘disable’. 

I hope to be involved in teacher education whereby people who engage children in our classrooms are professionals who do personal assessment of themselves to establish first their own biases, stereotypes and prejudices, and secondly recognize the diversity of the families and children in their classroom, and thirdly be willing to learn about the home culture and values of the children and use such information.  They need to be educated in the knowledge of diversity, equity, and social justice, and understand its negative implications when it is viewed as a problem and be willing to create learning environment where all issues of racism, classism, gender discrimination, or sexual orientation does not determine the access of children to facilities and support any longer.

My dear colleagues have been wonderful. I realize that this is really a diversified class. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, your genuine responses and for motivating me by your insightful contributions to my blog posts.  Thank you for your understanding and further encouragement in all our discussions. I really appreciate your determination to bring improvement to the early childhood field and your willingness to make the sacrifice that bringing such a big change will demand. With people like you, there is hope for the future of the children of the world.

I wish you success in your future courses and hope to see you again. Thank you, please keep the hope alive.

Welcoming New families from around the World

Welcoming families from around the world.

Receiving any family into a new and strange environment is unsettling for both parties – the family and the professional in the school setting, but more is expected from the professional to make the school responsive and warm for the family. From my knowledge of perspectives of diversity and equity, every family is unique and every individual is also unique with various identities.  I will likely do the following to respond and receive the new family appropriately.

I assume that my new family is coming in from ‘Malaysia’

1.      I will do a check on the website of their country of origin to understand their background, culture, music, food, festivals, family orientation and values. This will help me to familiarize myself with who they are, their customs, way of life and what their expectations might likely be.

2.      I will prepare some information package for them to receive on arrival which will provide basic information about the city, the school set up, including staff and curriculum and the attractions around town. Shopping information for groceries, security and police matters and where to find assistance, should anything go wrong.

3.      I will arrange for them to meet families from their country of origin as quickly as possible. If it is allowed, the family may meet them at the airport or soon after arrival, to make them feel comfortable in the new community.

4.      Language is powerful connection with people. I will pick some basic words of their Bahasa Malaysia language like – greetings, short conversations to be able to connect with them if they are not English speaking.

5.      I will plan a ‘new parents’ forum’. This will bring together other new families to share their experiences and connect with each other. At the forum, information about the school will be shared and invitations will be given out for parents to participate in the cultural fiesta of the school, where importance of individual culture is shared. They will be encouraged to bring along individual elements or emblems of their culture to share with the class

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I hope that with the level of preparation which is directed at meeting their specific family needs, they will feel welcomed and have a sense of belonging.

Our preparation will help their settling in very easy without any fear. They will know that their family is valued and their unique difference is accepted and celebrated. When they meet with other parents from other places, they will see that they are not alone.

Personal experience of bias, prejudice and oppression.

Personal experience of bias, prejudice and oppression

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        I have many experiences of bias and oppression to share. As a black woman who lived in Asia for about 5years, or in my religious identity as a pastor in my own country, or even as an online student in this course, in retrospect, there are many things that I can consider and state them as prejudice or bias.

I noticed that most of my classmates don’t respond to my discussion or contributions, a few may but generally, I feel isolated. I guess because of my names which immediately come across as somebody who lives outside of the U.S. and a black for that matter. I was very excited when one of my course mates showed interest and engaged me in some discussions about Nigeria, and it was my real pleasure to be of help to her daughter reading a book authored by a Nigerian. Our online classroom experience is really diverse; we have Chinese/Asians, white and black Americans and a black African. We all have different racial identity but the same identity of online student.

        The example I really want to share is that of my experience as a female pastor. I was  made to be in charge of a congregation and some men felt that they wouldn’t like to be under the supervision of a female pastor, this is a bias against my gender not my capability as a female spiritual leader.  Even though looking down on a woman’s ability is a way of saying that she is incompetent, this is lack of equity. 

I took that up as a challenge to sharpen my pastoral skills, leadership skills, communication and social skills so that I can effectively lead the church. I took some short biblical courses and I was really glad I did. I became good and skillful and the church loved it. Most of the men became satisfied and found out that their fears were not worth it in the first place, and what a man can do, a woman can do also. I do not consider this is a feminist movement thing; it is just that women too have brain and if given the same opportunity, they can thrive also. My attitude and response is the first to change. I needed to change the way I think and see myself so that I can decide how to progress in my self development to excel rather than compete with others.