Welcoming Families From Around the World

Welcoming Families From Around the World

My new family is arriving from Russia and will be starting school next week.   In order to prepare for their arrival I have done some research.  I will try to make this transition as easy as possible.  I hope that through preparation and research the family will feel more comfortable and that they fit in with the school setting.  I have listed five ways that I will prepare.

First-I have labeled items in the classroom in their home language.  This will help them to find the items and rooms that they need.  This way the family can teach us new words while they are learning new words.

Second- I would plan a “share your culture” day.  All the families could participate in this so no one feels put on the spot.  I would also ask if they would like to come and share something from their culture.

Third- find out who in the family I should consult in education and health matters.  I want to make sure that I don’t offend the family by speaking to the wrong family member. 

Fourth- find out what experience they have had with public education.  If they have had little experience with public schooling develop a plan to slowly introduce them to the process.

Fifth- develop a plan to address issues of differences and avoid discrimination behaviors.

You can't have money because .....

One experience that I remember experiencing prejudice was when I first started college after high school.  I was registering for financial aid and waiting for the results.  I met with the financial aid officer and she told me that I did not qualify for much in the way of financial help.  She told me it was because I was white.  She said if I came back and was Native American, Black, or Hispanic she could help me. 

I was completely floored.  I could not believe that she just came right out and said that.  I know many people thought like that but never would say it out loud.  She was say that because I was white I did not need any help financially for school.  My parents had two children in college and one more on the way.  My parents were both teachers, we had no money.   I was upset and depressed because I would not be able to attend college at that time.  I was stuck in a minimum wage food service job that did not pay enough for me to even attend the community college. 

In this situation the financial aid system needs to change.  The need for help should be based not on race but on an individual needs assessment.  We fill them out every year, it is called the FASFA.  The financial aid system needs to look more closely at your ability to pay for school.

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

My Horrible Mistake 

I choose an example that happened to me just this week.  My class was working on a cornucopia for Thanksgiving.  We were discussing the different fruits and vegetables that were in the basket.  Without thinking I asked one of my Hispanic students about the hard green bananas that they sold at Food City (a grocery store that caters to Hispanic cooking supplies).  I assumed that since he was Hispanic that he would know what I was talking about.  This is an assumption that I have to get rid of.  I am quite embarrassed by my behavior. 

The second example was from when I was in high school.  I lived in New Mexico on the boarder of the Navajo reservation.  The reservation schools would recruit student teachers from back east.  They would stay in the dorms with the students and have meals with them.  The student teachers statements when they came were that they were “going to save the Navajos”.  I am not sure what they were going to save them from but this was their attitude.  The unstated message was that the Navajos were unable to care for themselves and that they were uncivilized and educationally deprived.  This was so far from the truth.  The students were the ones that were hurt the most.  They had to correct the perceptions about them that these teachers came with.  The students were actually the teacher in this situation.

In taking this course, watching the videos and reading through the materials I have seen how hurtful these unintended comments are.  Most of the perceptions that we have about people are completely wrong. 

Culture and Diversity

Culture and Diversity

Culture-

Defining culture was not an easy task.  I asked many people their definition of what culture meant to them.  They all looked at me and thought it was going to be an easy task.  They found it to be as difficult as I did.  I always thought culture to be your ethnicity and the country you were from.  I am finding it is not as simple as that.

I asked my best friend and longtime colleague what culture was to her.  She immigrated to the US when she was a child from Mexico.  Her idea of culture is acknowledging your race and traditions, looking at your family values and morals.  It is also where your ancestors came from.

My mother’s idea of culture is the accumulation and development of beliefs.   Culture also encompasses a specific group’s heritage and history.

My father had a different idea of culture.  He said culture is anything you want it to be.  I thought this was a sarcastic definition, but as I have been reading and watching the videos I am finding this to more true than not. 

In reviewing my parent’s definitions and ideas of what culture encompasses I do not see my definition of culture before I started this course.  I gathered my ideas from my family but also from friends and coworkers. 

Diversity-

The definition of diversity came a little easier to most people.  I always thought of diversity meaning differences.

My friend Elida said diversity was being able to understand every culture, knowing their background knowledge.

My mother’s definition was variety amongst a common group of people.

My father’s definition was variety among others.

In looking at my parent’s ideas of diversity I can see where I got my definition for diversity.  We lived in a fairly diverse population as a child in regards to ethnicity and religion.

The parts of culture that were included in the answers I got were surface answers.   The definitions were very clinical.  The parts of culture that were not included were the parts of deep culture.  Specific parts of culture were not mentioned.    

If my family were to have to pick up and move to another country it would be a very traumatic experience.  The thought that we would not be able to go back to our home is hard to imagine.  I can only imagine the stress that families have to deal with in this situation.  The three items that I would grab are my study Bible, notepad, and click pen.  I grabbed my study Bible for guidance and hope.  I grabbed my notepad and pen to write down all my experiences and feelings.  I would also use the paper to write down phrases of the new language that are going to be important to the survival of my family. 

Now that we are in the new country we will try to set up our new life.  At this time we are scarred and confused by the new culture and expectations.  We have just been told that we have to leave two of the items we brought from our homeland.  I am confused as to the change in expectations.  I am frustrated and feel deprived.  I don’t understand why this is happening and just want to go back home.  I know that is no longer possible, so I am just going to have to make do and adjust.

          While thinking about my responses to this assignment many ideas and feeling came to my mind.  I learned that there were few items that came to my mind when thinking of the items I would take.  The items that I chose were items that I feel would be most useful to me.  My Bible is the one item that I would not want to live without. 

When I think about research......

Throughout this course I have learned many things.  I have had misconception cleared up.  One insight I gained from this course was that there are many considerations when setting up a research project.  A person cannot just walk in and start a research project.  One must have a well detailed and thought out plan before starting.   I also gained a new set of vocabulary terms.  The research process is less confusing once you have a handle on the terminology. 

During this course my ideas about doing research have changed in that I realized how detailed a plan a researcher must have in order to complete the research project they are working on.

One misconception that was cleared up for me was that there are many types of research designs.  I also learned that you don’t have to use just one type of design either but can used a mixture of methods.  I do believe that without the large amounts of research that have been done in early childhood that our education system would not be as advanced as it is today. We have dedicated research professionals to thank for that.

Some of the challenges that I encountered during this course were learning the vocabulary words and making sense of them.  A challenge for me was also being able to distinguish between the types of designs, qualitative versus quantitative.  Using the research chart was a huge benefit to learning and understanding the vocabulary and other concepts needed. 

My perceptions of early childhood professionals have not changed due to this course.  My perceptions of researchers have changed.  I now have a greater appreciation of the work they do.  I now realize how much thought, planning, and dedication it takes to complete the work they do.  

Research in Africa

The web site that I choose to look at was the Early Childhood Development Virtual University Sub-Saharan Africa site.  I started to look at some of the research papers that had been done by the students of this university.  Some of the topics I found to be interesting were the development and delivery of nutrition training programs for homes that care for motherless babies.  They are trying to improve the nutritional care these children are receiving.  I also found a paper on involving the fathers in early childhood care and development.

The thing that surprised me the most when reviewing the site was the amount of research that is being done through this university.  The topics were not “fluffy” topics but ideas that will change the course of childcare and early childhood development throughout Africa.  The research could then be taken and adapted to other nations as well.  I noticed a few papers that dealt with leadership and curriculum development as well.  I am curious to see if they are starting from the beginning with the curriculum or if they are adapting one that is already set in place.  Another interesting insight that I found was the amount of research done on orphan children.  I know that there is a large orphan population due to HIV/AIDS and other health issues.  I am happy to see that they are not just dismissing this as just a part of life but are trying to help these children to become healthy and adjusted adults.

References:

Early Childhood Development Virtual University Sub-Saharan Africa (2011). Final Major Projects and Theses.  Retrieved from http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/major_reports.php