Welcoming Families from Around the World

Welcoming Families From Around the World

The Family’s Country or Origin: The Netherlands

The five ways in which I can prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family: While on home visits and conferences, I must consider the families background; I will ask questions regarding their family history, ways in they would like to communicate their expectations; by gaining insight about their family’s rules and behaviors.  In addition, I will plan lessons that will reflect the child and his/her family’s values and norms.  Furthermore, I can make my classroom culturally sensitive by, providing environmental print, maps, books, posters, and language that reflect the child’s country of origin.  Creating a culturally responsive classroom will help me to recognize my own values and bias which will benefit both me and families.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and oppression

The other day my niece who lives in Chicago ILL and is a Fed-X delivery person, posted on her posted this on her status: “So I'm(black girl) carrying a boxes about 20-30lbs down a hallway, white man barely moves so I can get pass.  The receptionist (of the dominate culture) comes out to help me and she has to walk thru this same hallway with the same boxes, not only does he move out of her way, he ask if she needed help as he gave her hostile glare”.  This, specific incident of bias and prejudices diminished her equity because this was a form of discrimination and stereotypes. The man felt either that she was a strong black women or the white woman was weak and fragile, or he was being prejudice against her; which cause my niece to feel inferior.  This incident brought out feeling of sadness and anger; because of the daily reminders of how things change, but they remain the same.  Society as a whole would have the change in order to turn incidents like these into opportunities of greater equity.  

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

I have a  daughter with a cognitive disability who has a full head of thick long hair my hair. My hair is short and thin., as we were standing in the checkout line in Macy's on Black Friday. Two ladies of the dominate culture were in line behind me, one of them said to me " excuse me mam but is that your daughter? I said yes it is, then the lady said to me in a louder voice 'is that her hair? I reply "yes it is! then her very rude friends saids ' We mean is that her real hair because my friend and I were wondering if it was a weave.I responded unprofessionally, by telling them they can continue to wonder until they figured it out. This was a form of microinsult and stereotyping. This experience has taught me that racism and discrimination still runs ramped in the world and we as early childhood professional have our jobs cut for us when tackling the many issues of micro aggressions in regards to serving children and families.

Culture and Diversity

I spoke with my sister, a coworker, and my daughter they shared their definition of culture and diversity.  Here are the answers that I received that relates to what I have been studying in this course regarding culture and diversity.  I found it surprising that many people found this question difficult to answer.  Furthermore, the few people who were able to answer the question; answered it in terms of groups of group’s people, but never including information about themselves.

Marilyn:  Culture and diversity relates to the environment that you live in where different groups of people share the same qualities that make the group unique and special. 

Lisa:  Culture and diversity is what makes us who we are, it is whom we spend time with, our beliefs, and how we were raised.  Many things can define religion, music, hobbies, heritage, ethnicity, and us.

Tiana: Culture and diversity is the behaviors and traditions shared by a certain group of people passed down from generation to generations behaviors that make certain groups diverse.

          All three of these answer related to the resource reading “Perceiving and Responding to Differences”.  This article spoke about the differences of people, race, gender, and social class and how it can define people as a group.

Items of My Culture

The three items that I would choose would be my cookbook because rich  foods is part of my families culture. I would also bring my bible because prayer is a big part of my culture. the third item that I would bring would be my picture album because collecting family photos is also an important part of my culture.

I would explain to others that eating big family  meals together, praying, and catching precious moments and milestones ensures that my family unit stays connected.

If upon arrival I was told that I could only keep one personal item, it would be my family picture album.

As a result of this exercise I know that family culture represents the family's, values, beliefs, roles, norms, and rules.