Welcoming Families from Around the World

The family I chose for this assignment is from Burma.  I chose this country because in the city where I live we have noticed an increase in people from this country. 

Five ways in which I will prepare to be culturally responsive towards this family:

1.       Learn the country’s geographic location and climate

2.      Learn about the country’s situation (why are people fleeing this country?)

3.      Learn about their traditions, culture, customs, religion and language

4.      Find someone in the community that can speak the family’s language so that I can welcome the family in my classroom and have an effective communication.

5.      Include materials, pictures, books, music in the classroom environment that reflects the family culture.

Families from different parts of the world immigrate to United States from different reasons I believe that one of the most important things is to know those reasons.  When a teacher understands the family culture she is able to build positive relationships with the family.  Identifying someone in the community that can help us to communicate with the family is beneficial for the family, child and teacher.  It is through communication that we build relationships and engaged the families into their child’s education.  Lastly, when children and families are reflected in the classroom environment they feel welcome and develop a sense of belonging within the group.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

I have a memory of an incident that happened to one of my co-workers few years ago.  My co-worker was African-American, and we were working in a white predominant neighborhood.  I remember she used to tell me that she was scared to go out of the office alone.  She felt people around the area did not like to see black people around.  She never wanted to be in the office by herself, and when she was by herself; she would lock the doors.  I always thought she was exaggerating a little bit.  One day they opened a hair/nail salon in the same plaza that our office was located.  She enjoyed getting her nails done, so she went to the salon to give it a try.  Surprisingly 5 minutes passed, and she returned to the office. We asked her what happened. She told us that they did not want to do her nails and told her that the spa chairs were not working. We thought that it was  weird that all chairs were broken so me, and another white co-worker decided to visit the place and asked to get nails done.  To our surprise they did not tell us that the chairs were broken and welcome us into their salon.  My white co-worker told them that she would never use their services because they just refused to offer services to her black co-worker.  They got into a big argument, and rude words were exchanged.  From that moment,  we apologized to our African-American co-worker and started validating her concerns around the neighborhood we were working.

This incident diminished equity because this salon was not willing to offer their services equally to all people.

I remember that I felt angry, embarrassed and powerless because there was nothing I could do to fix that situation.

Unfortunately, for an opportunity of greater equity in this case the salon owners needed to change and stop believing that they are superior to other ethnic groups.

Microagressions

In the early childhood field there are many examples of microaggression, but when I was thinking about one example this week the one that stood out to me was a case in which a male teacher was complimented.  I remember the compliment being said as “Oh Mr.____________is such a wonderful teacher to be a man.  So this means that man cannot be as good teachers as woman.  I think this is a case of gender microaggression.  We all know we need more male teachers in the field, but if we think that they cannot be as good as female teachers we will always have problems recruiting man in the early childhood field.

After learning this week about microagression, I think there  are more unconsciously racism and prejudices that people are aware of.  Now that I am aware of this I will be more careful in the way I communicate to other people.