The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

The memory that I am going to share is when my daughter was in kindergarten almost 23 years ago.  It was a time when multicultural crayons were just being introduced.  My husband is from Venezuela so his skin tone is more olive, but he is still a very light skin toned Latin American.  Our daughter has dark hair, dark eyes and more olive toned skin like her father.  She was at the art table with her friend coloring and she picked up a crayon and started to color and her friend told her she could not use that one because her dad was not white.  She said, “I have seen your dad and he is not white so you can’t use that crayon”.  When I picked Jordan up that afternoon the first thing she asked me when she got in the car was what color is daddy.  I asked her why she was asking and proceeded to tell me her story. 

The feelings I had were anger, sadness, guilt, and frustration all rolled into one.  I was angry that anyone would hurt my child.  I was sad that someone hurt my child and guilty for putting her in the situation.  I was frustrated with the teacher for not stepping in to help her.

The way this situation could have been better is if the teacher would have been utilizing the teaching strategies suggested in our textbook on exploring skin color with young children.  Children are active observers of physical characteristics.  As they become familiar with some of their own features and those of their classmates, help them to have vocabulary and ideas to understand sameness and difference (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).

 

Reference

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Practicing Awareness of Microagressions

Wow!  What a week to practice my personal awareness of microagression.  There was a staff member at my work that accused another co-worker of calling her a skinny bitch.  The person that was accused of saying "skinny bitch" is an obese woman and the "skinny bitch" is an employee that is struggle to gain weight.  If in fact the obese woman called her "skinny bitch" then this would be a classic case of microassult.  Microassault, which is an overt, deliberate, hostile act intended to hurt the person on a conscious level, calling someone a nigger or a Jap, purposely discriminating against the individual (Laureate, 2011). 

Additionally, this week we received a complaint that one of our trainers sent home all the people that showed up for class based on skin color.  If the people were black they were allowed to stay for the training and if they were white they had to leave.  At this time we are still doing some phone calls to determine if this act did in fact happen or not.  This plus the skinny bitch in one week were almost to much for me to deal with at work this week.  However, they did give me some content for this weeks blog assignment.

Discrimination comes in many forms and effects people in many different ways.  This particular situation developed when the co-workers were discussing choosing the best meals.  Both people in this situation need to choose a nutritional meal, but need to focus on different aspects of the meal.  The obese person jokingly said, "yeah, right like you have to be careful of the meals your choose look at yourself."  The skinny person in this situations perception was you are a skinny bitch and why do you have to worry about nutritious meals.  She struggles daily to consume proper nutrition and get her weight to a healthy level just the same as the obese person struggles daily to get her weight to a healthy level.  They both have similar struggles, but the microassult was the "skinny bitch" remark.  At this point in time it is a she said, she said situation because there were not any other people around. I am interested to know what others think about this microassult.

My observation experiences this week were just to heighten my awareness of the effects of discrimination, prejudice and or stereotypes of people.  The forms of discrimination that I come in contact the most is the discrimination of either socioeconomic status or education status.  I work at the University and we collect workforce data on child care center and family child care home providers across the state of Oklahoma.  The people that we speak to on the phone day in and day out often have less education and make less money so this type of discrimination I have to work on with my staff on a daily basis. 

Reference

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011).  Microagressions in Everyday Life. [DVD]. Perspectives on Diversity and Equity.  Baltimore, MD: Author.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I sent a message to several friends, family and colleagues asking them to send their definition of culture and diversity.  I was curious how quickly people would respond to me and how similar or different their definitions would be from each other and myself.

The definitions from a female colleague were as follows:

Culture:  refers to the environment in which children and families come from.  It is the different beliefs and lifestyles that families instill in their children through their modeling.  The language the family speaks primarily in the home.  Different types of foods that the family cooks.  It is important to teach diversity and culture in classrooms, to help children understand the world in which they live in.

Diversity: refers to many things, children with special needs, a-typical children, children from different origins, children from different backgrounds, children from different types of families-single parents, grandparents, and same sex parents.  Just about anything that makes you different from someone else.

The definitions from a culturally different male family member were as follows:

Culture: is what defines a group of people living in or about a place.

Diversity: is defined as the difference between people be it religion, gender, national origin, race coexisting in a particular place.

The definitions from a culturally different female college student were as follows:

Culture:  is the norms, practices, and behaviors of a particular group of people.

Diversity: is the differences in culture of different groups.

The aspects of culture that have been included in the answers here are similar to surface culture.  All too often, when early childhood educators think about culture, they think about the surface things that are easy to see, taste, and define (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).  Examples of surface culture include the different type of food cooked is a perfect example of surface culture.  The other two people’s definitions were to general to categorize them either surface or deep culture. 

The aspects of culture missing from the definitions were the deep culture items about language, values, ideas of education and roles within the group.  My colleague touched a little bit on the deep culture aspects with references to the home language and home environment.  Looking back on these definitions makes me think that they are very similar to my definition of culture and diversity from just a few short weeks ago.   

I think beginning to look at culture through the perspective of deep culture the metaphor of the iceberg seems more and more accurate.  Additionally, reading the definitions of other also adds the idea of culture and diversity are often looked from a very surface level view and not considering what really makes the person who they are and what they believe.  Culture is like an iceberg the tip shows and the beneath the surface is the unconscious part where the tensions come into play (Laureate, 2011).  The young college student and the male from another culture provided very generic definitions without any detail; therefore, not providing the deep culture definition that we have learned about this week. 

 Reference

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Culture and Diversity. [DVD]. Perspectives on Diversity and Equity. Baltimore, MD:

My Family Culture

On my journey to another country I am leaving everything I own behind except for the these three small items that mean the most to me and represents my family culture.  I would bring the three baby books of my children because that represents my life.  My husband and I have put everything about ourselves into these three children and having their "baby" books with me forever would make me feel connected.  I use the word "baby" book loosely because it is more like a life book.  I just started it when they were born, but to this day I still add a few words of endearment and mementos of their life.  These books represent our family culture.  Since I am only able to take three things I would just bring the baby books because I have three children. 

My feelings if, upon arrival, I were told that I could only keep one would be devastating because as a mother how do you choose between children.  I would likely choose to stay behind because I would never choose among them because they are my joy, my life and my family culture.  I guess if I were alerted that there was a possibility that I could only take one item then it would be a family picture so that I would have them close to me always.  If I was not alerted prior to arrival I know within the baby books are picture of us as a family doing things we love together so I would simply pull out one of those pictures that show us living our lives together as a family.

When I really had to stop and think about what represents our family culture it is closeness and their baby books represent that closeness.  They like to tease me that I still put stuff in their baby book, but they often will pull them out and we reminisce about their life.  The baby book has become a part of the story of their life through the eyes of their parents.  Our perspective of the highlights that have made them the young adults they are today.  What I learned about myself is that when you have to pair down to just 3 items many things that initially seem really important are just things that really mean nothing in the bigger picture of life.  My family is what means the most to me and my family culture is we still together through good and bad times. Nothing is more important within a culture than how its children are raised (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

When I think research.....

When I think research...

The first thing that comes to mind is a white coat and mice in a cage.  I realize this seems odd, but that is the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word research.  However, joking aside I know that is just one type of research and it is not necessarily the world of research when it comes to early childhood.

The insights I have gained in Building Research Competencies are amazing.  The resources provided throughout the class to assist with reading research and gaining greater understanding of research designs have been so helpful.  I was very concerned about this class initially and sitting here at the end of class feel very competent.  I know that I am still very much a novice on this topic, but I feel much more competent as a consumer and reader of research.

My idea about doing research has changed and I feel that I could design a study, but I still feel that I need more time to be able to conduct and analyze the data.

Completing the research simulation was very helpful in developing a deeper understanding of the planning, designing and conducting research in early childhood.  Each week as we explored different designs and had to take our research question and fit it into the framework of the new design helped me to realize that you can design your study a variety of ways to do your research, but the key it to determine if you have selected the correct design to provide the most robust data in the end.  I think for me getting a better understanding of triangulation and all the different methods of triangulation that exist was very insightful.

The greatest challenge for me in the beginning was just feeling competent in working with this content.  I was very scared of this class, but with the support of my classmates and Dr. Shephard I feel that I was able to overcome my perception that I was not capable of being successful in this content.  I think understanding early childhood at a deep level provided me the foundation necessary to layer research on top of my early childhood foundation. 

Early childhood professionals need to understand how to use research to support our work.  Whether you are in the classroom or working as a part of a professional development system research is a necessary part of our work.  Understanding how to be a good consumer of research is critical in our work.  The part of this class that I appreciate is the resource on reading research so that I can incorporate research into my daily work.

I have appreciated my classmates in this educational journey for sure, but this class I have leaned on my classmates through this learning process.  Thank you so much for your support and guidance for me through this class.

Research Around the World

            Reviewing the following site:  Early Childhood Australia: This is the Australian equivalent to the U.S. based NAEYC. You can access several links to early childhood research from the menu on the left side of the home page http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/.  Gave me some great insight to the research in action they are conducting there to support the early childhood workforce.  Some of the topics of interest are as follows:  reflection as a tool for quality, early years frameworks, assessment, diversity, childhood resilience, portfolios, the Code of Ethics, active learners, aggression in young children and storytelling just to list a few. 

            The most interesting part of exploring this site is that it seemed as if I was simply exploring NAEYC’s site.  The topics of research in action are very similar to the research in action topics we would explore in the United States.  Reviewing the Code of Ethics was very similar to reviewing the Code of Ethics we follow.

            The information that I found noteworthy was some of their research in action articles.  They have two that I am going to utilize in my research study because they are about the teachers and their impact on the quality for young children.  I was very interested in them and was able to download one for free, but I am purchasing the other so that I can begin to see the differences or similarities of teacher education and quality of care for children within the United States and Australia.

            This assignment was very interesting and productive because I was able to locate some additional literature to support my research simulation.

 

Reference

Early Childhood Australia.  (2012, December 17).  Research in practice series.  Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/research_in_practice_series/rips_index.html

 

Research that Benefits Babies

While this is not a published research article, but the "Still Face" experiment I think is fascinating involves the use of children to prove a research theory.  I am embedding the link to the ZERO TO THREE website so if you have not watched the experiment previously you will have the opportunity to watch and I look forward to hearing your responses about the experiment. 

 

This video clip is excerpted from ZERO TO THREE's Helping Babies From the Bench: Using the Science of Early Childhood Development in Court.  The video was developed by ZERO TO THREE for judges working in family court to use as a basis in helping them make decisions about the best interest of young children.  The entire video can be obtained from ZERO TO THREE for free.  The entire video is great and I think a must have for any early childhood professional.  The link to view the excerpted video clip is as follows:  http://main.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_stillface.

 

The Still Face paradigm, designed by Edward Tronick, is an experimental procedure for studying infant social and emotional development. During the experiment, an infant and a parent interact playfully before the parent suddenly stops responding and looks away. After a short period, the parent reengages with the infant. The infant’s reaction to a suddenly unresponsive parent and his or her behavior when the parent resumes interaction, have been used to study many aspects of early social and emotional development (ZERO TO THREE, 2010).

 

The risk/benefit around the "Still Face" experiment is minimal because of the duration of the experiment.  While the child does experience distress it is only for a short amount of time and the child recovers because the mom begins to provide love and attention.  The benefit of this experiment is that we get to see the effects of children not getting the attention they seek and if that continues over time the lasting impact it has on their brain development.  This is a very powerful experiment and we have integrated this into our Infant, Toddler and Two's Early Learning Guidelines training so that teachers of children in this age group can see the importance of meeting the babies needs and providing them appropriate attention.

 

 

 

 

Reference

ZERO TO THREE. (2010).  Still Face Experiment.  Retrieved from http://main.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_stillface.