Professional Hopes and Goals

When I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds, I hope that they experience less discrimination in all situations. I hope that people become more accepting of differences and diversity of others and accept rather than reject. I hope that children embrace their culture rather than reject it when they are not accepted because of their differences.

One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field in relation to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice, is to welcome all children and families into their schools and centers with open arms. Early childhood professionals should be taking the time to learn about all families, and learning even more about families that are of different cultures. Diversity should be celebrated, not discouraged.

To my colleagues in this program, thank you for your encouragement and comments. Thank you for taking the time for read and correspond with me throughout this course. Good luck in your next step! 

Welcoming Families From Around the World

Country: Yemen

In order to prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family, I will:

• Learn greetings and salutations of the language spoken in the country (specific to the family).
• Learn about the specific area of the country where the family is coming from.
• Learn about cultural differences in reference to respect.
• Reach out to family before the child begins school, if possible.
• Find out if others in the school or community are from the same country.

I am hoping that these preparations will make the child and family feel more welcome in the classroom and will show them that they will be valued in our room. I believe that the preparations will also help me as an educator become more familiar with the cultural differences to expect from having a child in the classroom from a country so different from my own.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

Just this week I read about an independent retailer who blatantly discriminated against a customer who is deaf. The seller was doing a live sale of items on her website and when the customer asked for the seller to hold up the size of the items as she is deaf, the seller refused.

            Had the seller began to show the sizes, she would have then made the sale equitable for all of her customers. Since the seller was aware and refused to show sizes, she completely diminished the equity of the sale. The seller even went as far as to block other customers that were commenting with the size for the deaf customer.

            Not only was I saddened for the customer and disgusted by the seller, I was also pleased that other customers made sure to do their best to accommodate the deaf customer. I have no idea how the customer felt about this whole incident but I am glad that she spoke up and let it be known to others that were not viewing this sale about the seller they have been doing business with.

            In order for this incident to turn into an opportunity for greater equity, the seller must recognize that what she did was wrong. This seller needs to not only apologize to the customer that was directly impacted but to all of her customers as she showed disrespect to everyone. All retailers, whether in a store or online, should have training in customer service that includes how to treat all people. I know that I will not do business with this independent retailer or any retailer that shows disrespect and discrimination to others.