My Family from Chad

I have to think of 5 ways to prepare myself to be culturally responsive to my family from Chad.  The first thing I would do is conduct some research on the internet and at the library on the country of Chad.    Since there are so many websites, I will need to be careful which ones I really pay attention to. 

Once I have found out about the country, I would then look into finding out about the culture and how families tend to work in Chad.  I would also find out how the family structure works, so when I talk to the family, I will not disrespect anyone.

Once I have educated myself, I will then put pictures up of the country in the classroom, that way the students will also be a little familiar with the country and be more open to the new student.  Once the family arrives, I will then ask to have a meeting with the family in order to get to know them.  I will have a sheet for them to fill out, and if they do not yet speak English, if I am not able to find out the words I need, I will look at getting a translator.  

Educating myself on their culture and their country, and putting pictures around the classroom and talking to the students about Chad will not only help me to feel more comfortable around the family, it will also help to hopefully show the family that I care about them, which will then in turn open more doors of communication.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107403.html

Prejudice

Of course, when I need to come up with an example, my mind goes blank.  I  know I have seen instances where someone has been prejudice against someone because of their color or background, such as Asians or the elderly driving.  I have been with people who constantly mention someone's race or ethnicity when they are telling a story, and it makes me wonder why they had to mention it, because it had nothing to do with the story.

In all these instances, equity was diminished when a situation was based off someone's race rather than just that specific person.  I have caught myself in the past judging someone's actions based off their ethnicity or age.  I am more aware of myself doing that now, especially since I have had my son, so that he doesn't get into those same "habits" of judging.  Now, whenever I hear someone mentioning someone's race or ethnicity when telling a story, instead of listening to the story, I wonder why the person's background was even important, and depending on the person, I will ask them that.

I think in order to turn incidents of this type around into an opportunity of greater equity, first we need to educate that race or ethnicity doesn't matter, and to ask people to try and really get to know somebody before judging, or to watch what they say when they are telling about an things that have happened or that they have seen.

Microaggressions

I had noticed this week at work that a couple of my co-workers, whenever he talked about people, would mention their race.  If something happened at work, they would notice that one person would be treated differently, and this was automatically because of race.  Since I didn't know either of them that well, I just listened, but it made me wonder why when we talk about people in general, why race has to be mentioned?

I wonder if for some people it is just a natural part of their conversation, to mention someone's race, as if the other person would understand what they were saying better.  Whether or not we mean to say something, or mention a person's race during a conversation, we need to keep in mind the damage this may do to somebody, especially a child.

Definitions of Culture & Diversity

Some of the definitions of culture I received:  ideas, experiences, music, art, philosophy, etc, that are important to a group of people; shared unique customs, foods, music, etc that differentiate a group from another; can cross racial, ethnic and gender lines; it is learned and helps you to fit in with/belong to a certain group of people.


Definitions of diversity:  the variables that make us all uniquely different from one another; differences among individuals that could encompass, race, gender, religious preference, culture, customs, age, economic status etc., the opposite of segregation. if a group is diverse, there is more interest as each person can bring something different to the table.


Some of the culture definitions from my friends were similar to what the book stated, such as ideas, experiences, music, art, etc.  It is hard to say exactly what was left out, because culture encompasses us as a whole person.


As for diversity, the idea that what makes us each different is what makes us diverse was right on point.  I was pleasantly surprised at the definitions my friends had given; they actually had more ideas about culture than I did when I first started!

If I had to leave the country...

If my family and I were the only survivors of a catastrophe that hit the states, and we had to move to another country, only allowed to take 3 things that would represent our culture, I would take music, books and art.  The reason for this is because all 3 of these things can represent who my son and I are.  I would take some CD's (or my iPod, I guess), because that contains a variety of music that makes us feel good, laugh, and represents our religion.  Books and journals can tell our history, which is why this would be the one thing I would keep, if I had to get rid of the other two.  Finally, art can represent so much of who we are, that which we can't express in words.

This was a hard exercise, because it is hard to really narrow it down to just a few things.  It made me realize that I may know plenty about what I like to do, but as far as history and my background, I don't know really anything, which means my son will not know anything either.

Building Research Competencies

This class has definitely been a challenge, but in a good way.  I didn't realize how much really went into planning, designing and executing research.  There are so many things to be careful about, and it is very important to remember that you working with people, not just subjects.  Planning research takes a lot of time, effort and ethics. 

One challenge I had with doing my research simulation was keeping in mind that this was just research, and not the answer to what my research question was.  In my end state at first, I was trying to teach the parents who were not spending enough quality time with their children what to do, rather than just keeping in mind that this is just research.  So that was a little difficult.

I enjoyed the class, and I thank everyone for their comments on everything that we did.  Good luck to all of you in your future classes, and with your final simulation!

Early Childhood Australia

One thing I noticed on this particular early childhood website is that they have articles archiving back to 2002.  One particular issue that caught my eye was that children were being sent to a detention camp in Malaysia while trying to seek asylum in Australia.  This was in August 2011.  Early Chilhood of Australia chief executive Pam Cahir was trying to talk with the governor in order to put a stop to this, and give the children and their families another option while seeking asylum.  I didn't see any up to date articles on this particular issue.

The Australia website has many of the same resources as some of the American websites offer, to include issues with baby and toddler sleeping, school transition and childhood obesity.  They also offer a Being, Belonging and Becoming learning framework, which offers several different ideas and resources for different learning topics.  It seems as if this would be something good to incorporate while working with families:  http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/resource_themes/eylf_early_years_learning_framework.html#EYLF_Principle_1_Secure_respectful_and_reciprocal_relationships.

Along with the above learning framework, they have a few others, such as how to build confident learners.  I think these are great ideas, and something I will save in my resource guide.