Channette's Early Childhood Studies Blog

  The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression During this course I have gained a new perspective on how to help families feel respect and accepted when choosing to enroll their children within my facility. One hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that my facility will become a resource they recommend to others. When families do recommend my facility, I hope that they will explain to others how myself and my staff accepted and respected their diverse background. I hope that the children and families within my facility will see their culture represented within my facility. One goal that I would like to set for in the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice would be to bring more awareness of this issues to my staff. I currently work at a facility that is on a military base overseas. I have found that staff often are not aware of some issues related diversity, e...

  Welcoming Families from Around the World   There are many countries in Africa that I have never heard of or know how to pronounce. If I was working at a childcare center and a new family emigrated from Gabon. I would not know anything about their culture or way of life. However, there are many ways that I will prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family.   First, I would identify what is the language of Gabon. One of the primary languages used in Gabon is French. Therefore, to be welcoming to the family I would learn and teach my co-workers a few common words in French. Some common words we could learn before they arrive are hello, goodbye, please and thank you. Second, I would prepare myself to be opened minded to any cultural differences that may arise. Third, I would attempt to contact the family to see if there is anything I can do support them in having an inclusive experience within the facility. I would attempt to find out if there is a...

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression A memory that I have of an incident when I experienced prejudice happened recently. Currently, I work in an environment in which I am the oldest person. The majority of my colleagues are in their twenties and early thirties. I often feel as though I am experiencing prejudice due to my age. The way people interact with me or leave me out of things I think has to do with my age. People are often shocked to learn that I am in my forties. All the time people tell me I look like I am in my early thirties. However, once my current colleagues find out my real age, they tend to treat me differently and isolate me more. Recently, I was at a gathering at a new colleague’s home. We were all sitting in the living room when the topic of everyone’s age started. Everyone went around the room and talked about how old they were. I never provided my age, but a colleague stated that I was the oldest in the room. Then another colleague stated that I was...

  Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions On Saturday evening I attended a barbeque with some friends. While there a gentleman began to tell me about an experience he had while living in Spain. The experience he described to me was a microaggression. The man explained to me that there was a club in Spain that if he, an African American male, went to alone he would not be let in. The owners of the establishment would point out something he is wearing and say it was against the dress code. However, if he went to the club with a local Spaniard he would be let into the club. The owners of the club were assuming that people who are non-Spaniard were perhaps criminals or would be disrespectful in some sort of way to the club. The man’s experience was an example of a racial microaggression. When the gentleman was describing his experience in Spain I was not surprised. I often here stories of how African American’s are treated in overseas countries. Generally, I have heard that if or ...