Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

• Describe at least one example of a microaggression which you detected this week or remember from another time. In what context did the microaggression happen? What did you think and feel when you observed the microaggression or when you found yourself as the target of a microaggression? One microaggression that I have experienced was religionism. I remember growing up being mocked or picked at for being a Christian. People would either call me a goody two shoes or assume I did not do certain things are simply sneer at me for being a Christian. On both sides of my family different family members have made comments about my family being Christians. It has become frustrating and discouraging throughout my life having these things said to me. More than anything it has made me question myself. Growing up I had a lot of confidence in who I was and what I believed. But with every person who would make a comment in my direction about my religion or make a statement about something I believe I would become a little less confident about it. As much as I would like to believe that people do not influence who I am, it is next to impossible to completely 100% ignore everything that others say to us. I have matured and not let what others say bother me as much, but it does not make it any less hurtful every time someone says something to me about being a Christian. 

• In what ways did your observation experiences this week affect your perception of the effects of discrimination, prejudice, and/or stereotypes on people: I have learned a lot about microaggressions this week through the readings and the resources. My knowledge has broadened and expanded regarding this topic. I have been able to put myself in the place of others as well as relate my own personal experiences in regard to this topic. I see the importance of having a sensitive attitude toward this subject. In some ways this subject has taught me that it is necessary to simply agree to disagree about certain things. Every has a different view on things, but it does not mean that they are wrong. This has also made me take a careful look at myself. I am trying to pinpoint biases that I have developed over time and work on them so that I can become a better educator and accommodate children and families better. 

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

Matt – Diversity- I guess I think diversity is like our differences and stuff.

                Culture- Culture is hard to define. I guess it’s like the food we eat and like the stuff we believe in or something.

Roni- Diversity- To me diversity is about the things that make us different. But it goes further than just what we look like and our race. Diversity includes our feelings about things and how we react to different things.

           Culture- Our culture is like our heritage. It is part of us and it makes us tick. Without our culture we would not really have an identity.

Megan- Diversity- To me diversity is like a way to describe things that make us different. Like my husband is African American but like his grandmother is white and his grandpa is black and like his mom and dad are both black. But like I think this is like diversity because he comes from lots of different stuff.

               Culture- I think culture is kind of like our way of life. Like the things that we love and are important to us and stuff like that. Like I said with my husband, his culture is different than my culture which I guess is also diversity. 

 I was interesting hearing my friends discuss these topics from their point of view. I feel like maybe they skimmed the surface on what these words mean but they do not fully appreciate them or understand them even. My knowledge and understanding of these topics is growing and developing as I am taking this course. I think that my friends understand concept of diversity and culture but maybe not to the extent of what they really mean. From their standpoint this is probably their only experience with these words. I am excited to learn even more regarding these words and what they mean.

My Family Culture

• A description of the three items you would choose
• A scrapbook/photo album with photos of friends and family and other important things that I want to remember
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• My Bible
  
• My jewelry box
  
• How you would explain to others what each of these items means to you
• I would take a photo album because pictures are very important to me. I think I really like pictures because they remain the same even when the people and things in them are completely different. If I took my photo album it would be a reminder of all of the good times even though i would need to be leaving my home.
•  I would choose my Bible because my faith is important to me. I would want to make sure to take it with me and to hold onto it even though I would be going to a culture where they do not have the same faith as me. 
• I would also take my jewelry box because although it does not actually have any real jewelry in it, it has keepsakes that are special and important to me. It has coins in it that my grandmother gave me before she passed away and a small marble painted to look like the earth given to me by my grandfather. By taking the jewelry box, I would also be taking these special things along with me that would make me thing of people in my family.
• Your feelings if, upon arrival, you were told that you could only keep one personal item and have to give up the other two items you brought with you..
• .If I have to choose only one to keep and two to part with, I would chose to keep the photo album/scrapbook. Photos are very important to me and  I would want to make sure that I still had this small part of myself with me. It would be very hard to give up the other things, but this one would be something that I would be able to look at over and over again and to share it with my children, if I ever had any.
• Any insights you gained about yourself, your family culture, diversity, and/or cultural differences in general, as a result of this exercise,
• This was actually much more of a difficult task than I thought it would be from reading the instructions. It was really hard for me to narrow it down to three things that I would bring. It was also interesting for me to think about what it would be like if I lived in a different culture and had to choose three things to bring. In the United States we are a very materialistic culture, there were so many things that I considered taking but I had to choose from only three. 

When I think of research...

I feel like I gained a lot of new insights in research, especially research in regard to young children. If nothing I think this course gave me a good opportunity to learn about the terms of research. It also gave me a better understanding of different ways to make a research design. One of the biggest things that gave me a new perspective was the idea of gaining consent for children working with research.

I would also like to thank each and everyone of you for your collaboration through the discussion boards and the different ways you have supported me. It was wonderful getting to know some of you better and I wish you all the best with your future studies!

Research Around the World

Early Childhood Australia

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

One of the things I was most interested to see on this website was a link on the menu bar to the left of the screen that was entitled 'code of ethics'. I am familiar with the NAEYC  code of ethics and I have worked with that on a number of occasions in school and in my personal work at a child care center. I was pleased to see that in Early Childhood in Australia there is also a code of ethics that they stick to. Under another link entitled 'catalog', there were a lot of different subtopic options that I was able to explore. Most of them are also current trends in the United States. For the most part they are things I am familiar with and have worked my personally. A few of these include language and literacy, health and wellness, children's books and creative art among others. Another noteworthy thing I found on the website was a publication of a magazine called 'Every Child'. This was interesting to me because it was very similar to the publication that NAEYC has called Young Child .

Research that Benefits Children and Families

I know that research can be very beneficial for young children and families. As an early childhood educator, research has played a major role in my work with young children as well. There have been different times in my own experiences where I have been able to turn to research to help me in a situation with young children. I have particularly seen research in practice with young children in two ways: how children develop musically and working with children who are living in poverty.

I recently took a music training course to become a registered teacher for a company called Music Together LLC. Although I have a Bachelor's Degree in Early Childhood Studies, throughout all of my coursework we only just briefly touched on children and music. My eyes were opened to a whole new area of development in young children when I learned about how they develop musically. Attached here is a link to some information about how they research and develop their program: http://www.musictogether.com/ResearchAndDevelopment. I was fascinated by the research they have conducted in order to implement a program that would support young children's music development. The reason I found out about this company is because I attend these classes with the little boy I nanny for. I have seen how powerful Music Together has been in his overall development as well.

The other area that I have seen research in action and the benefit of it to young children is looking at young children living in poverty. For my student teaching I worked in a Head Start program. Here is a link to some research done by Head Start: http://www.nhsa.org/research. I saw this research put into action at the program where I was placed. I learned about how they utilized, not only research about young children and how they develop in general, but also about how young children living in poverty effects their development. This helped the teacher understand how to be sensitive to children and families living with this, as well as, helped teacher create an environment that was safe and helped support the children's development regardless of how things were in their home life. I think the research that was conducted with the children living in poverty was a benefit to them because it helped the teachers become more understanding of the children and the families and also helped them support the development of the child as well.

Your Personal Research Journey

Originally, when I responded to the Discussion Board assignment I stated that my early childhood topic interest was in learning more about job opportunities working in the early childhood field and how to better advocate for young children. Although I am still interested in learning more about those topics, I believe the more specific topic I am interested in researching in regard to early childhood development is language development. I believe three subtopics that are of interest to me in relation to this topic are how a child learning sign language as a young infant effects their language development, the benefits of speaking motherese to a young infant effect their language development and whether or not an early exposure to music effects language development in any way. 

I would like to research and learn more about how a young infant learning sign language effects their verbal language development because of my personal experiences with this topic. I currently work as a private nanny. The little boy I nanny for is now two years old. I worked on sign language with him quite a bit and he picked it up fairly quickly. His verbal language has developed the same way. I am curious to see if there is any research that has been conducted about any sort of correlation regarding learning signing language and verbal language. On a personal level I have a young nephew who also learned sign language he is eighteen months old and is just learning to use oral language I am interested to see how his oral language continues to develop. 

The benefits associated with speaking motherese (the simplified and repetitive type of speech, with exaggerated intonation and rhythm, often used by adults when speaking to babies) to a young infant and the effect it can have on the child’s language development is also a topic I am interested in researching. In my personal life interacting with young infants, as well as my professional work in an infant classes at a child care center, I have used motherese when speaking to the young infants. The little bit I do know about speaking motherese to young infants is helpful, but I am curious to learn more about it and to gain a better understanding of the benefits of it and when it is appropriate and not appropriate to use with infants.

The third and final subtopic I am interested in researching more about is whether or not an early exposure to music effects language development. I am interested in this because personally I know that music helps children learn other things. In my professional work I am being trained to teach music classes for a company called Music Together. This has spurred my curiosity and interest to learn more about whether or not music can effect a child’s oral language development.

 

Above is a picture of the little boy I nanny for and myself. I think I am most curious to research and learn more about language development because of my personal experience with it and the effect I have seen of these things I would like to research have on young children including the child I have taken care of.