Professional Hopes and Goals (EDUC 6164)

One hope I have when I think about working with children and families from diverse backgrounds is that I can create an environment that values each child for who they are. I hope that I can show understanding and compassion as well as help the children to accept themselves and others. I hope I can teach children that differences are not bad things.

One goal that I have is to have more open discussion with colleagues and parents about issues of diversity and social justice. Discussion is vital in understanding and being open to other viewpoints is vital to constructive discussion.

I want to thank my colleagues in this class. Your posts and comments have made me think and re-evaluate ideas that I've had. Your support has allowed me to reflect and grow. 

Welcoming Families from Around the World (EDUC 6164)

The country that I chose for my new family is Brazil. I have had and currently have a family from there but still only have a basic idea about the country.

To prepare I would do the following things.

1. Learn to say hello, goodbye and thank you in Brazilian Portuguese.
2. Read about the different areas of Brazil and find out where my family is from.
3. Find out some of the cultural traditions that are practised in that area.
4. Read about family life and school life in Brazil.
5. Find other children in the school who speak that same language so that I can introduce them to each other.

By doing this research I hope to be able to welcome this family more fully into my class. I'm hoping to help make the transition easier because I have information about what differences they might face. I'm also hoping to make the family and especially the child in my class feel safe and comfortable. Knowing what school life was like in Brazil I can help ease the new child into new routines.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice and Oppression (EDUC 6164)

      As I have mentioned before I live in the Netherlands but I am originally from Canada. When I first moved here, I needed to get my teaching credentials certified by the Dutch authorities. This was a pain to do and took some time. I had to get my degree stamped first by my university in Calgary to certify it's validity. They sent it to me in the Netherlands. I then had to send it back to Ottawa to get it stamped by the Dutch embassy in Canada. When this was done, my degree was certified and I was able to hold the position of teacher.

      I have a colleague who is from St. Maarten's which is part of the Dutch Antilles. She, unlike me, has held a Dutch passport since birth. Her education was in Dutch and followed a Dutch system. She also had to get her teaching degree certified by the Dutch authorities. Although her program was almost identical to mine, hers was denied. The only reason that I can see for this is that most people from the Dutch Antilles are black. The result of this denial is that she holds the position of teaching assistant even though she has the responsibilities of a teacher. She has her own class and is expected to take on the same tasks that I am. Because she has a teaching assistant position she is paid significantly less. She has almost as much experience as I do and yet she gets half the salary.

    This situation started about 7 years ago when the school district where we work started checking certifications. It has yet to be resolved. I still feel angry at the unfairness of it all. The only way she can rectify this situation is to redo her teacher training, something that is almost impossible while working a full time job. She is a single mother and can't take time off to go to school. She shouldn't have to either as she has already done all the training required. I also feel helpless to change the situation. She has accepted it but I can't seem to let go of my feelings of unfairness.

   In order to bring greater equity to this situation I think the process of certifying degrees should be changed. Rather than looking at the degree itself, they should look at the courses in the program. They should compare the actual program completed to the program that is offered here. They should also take into account the era that the degree was completed as requirements change. The location of the university should not be known to the committee that certifies the degrees.

Practising Awareness of Microaggressions (EDUC 6164)

The task this week was to observe microaggressions. I did not observe many, in fact only one that was on television. I think the reasons for this are the environments in which I live and work. My school is an international school and, as such, most of the teachers are acutely aware of different cultures. Most teachers are think carefully about how they say things because of this. This doesn't mean there are no microaggressions at my school, just that I did not see any this week. My home environment is in a language that is not my own. While I can follow conversations, I often miss hidden messages if they are present. This makes it difficult to identify microaggressions.

The one microaggression I did observe was on a cooking show on tv. The idea is that amateur and professional cooks from a certain region compete against each other to represent their region in the final. The task was for the eight cooks to be divided into teams with a team leader choosing who they wanted. One team leader, male, chose all women to work with because they wanted attention and would be more easily led. This statement made me indignant. The hidden message is that women are weak and need a strong leader to achieve something.

Stereotypes are an easy way to define people. They release you from having to open yourself up to other possibilities. They can give you a target for your frustrations. The most common target here is the Morrocan community. They are stereotypically portrayed as troublemakers who are too lazy to work. The members of this minority are often blamed, individually and collectively,  for many of the ills and troubles in the country. One result of this is that some members of the Morrocan community are very angry at everyone. This can promote hatred and feed into the cycle of exclusion that already exists.

Perpectives on diversity and culture (EDUC 6164)

    I asked a range of people the two questions this week and got very similar answers from most of them. As a definition of culture the prevailing synopsis was the beliefs and traditions of different groups of people. One person suggested that culture is made up of the music, art, dance and literature of a group. When asked about diversity the main response was a group that includes people from different cultures. The people I asked had some difficulty describing diversity.

    Most of the points brought up by my interviewees were part of the surface culture, the tip of the iceberg that is easy to see and to compare. These include the art and music of a group as well and the traditions, food and dress. When talking about diversity they all mentioned having a variety of cultures. An example of this is a classroom in our school which represents between 10 and 15 cultures in itself.

    There was no mention by anyone of 'deep' culture. Although one person described how the aspects mentioned gave an idea of the groups beliefs there was no mention of how culture shapes our everyday interactions. No one described culture as all-encompassing. Religious beliefs were mentioned as were political beliefs. One respondent even mentioned 'teacher-itis'. No one commented on how these aspects of culture are the lens through which we see life (Taylor, Laureate Education, 2011).

   I was surprised by some of the responses that I got. Most of the respondents are colleagues and work in the same environment as I do. We have had many discussions as a staff about culture and diversity. Part of the curriculum that we teach is international mindedness. What surprised me is the almost exclusive use of surface culture as a definition. While we talk about the diversity in our school and accepting differences, none of this was reflected in the definitions. For my own definitions now I want to be sure to include the differences within an ethnic group. I want to think about how diversity can occur within one person.

References

Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Family cultures: Dynamic interactions [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Family Culture (6164 Diversity)

       The first item that I would take with me would be my iPad. Both my husband and I are tech nerds. We love gadgets, so much so that I call my iPad my baby. My iPad gives me access to all my photos including the scans of the slides my father took. He is deceased. My iPad also allows me to read as many books as I want in whatever language I want. In a new culture, being able to have something familiar is incredibly comforting.

       The second item I would take would be my recipe book. Although I don't cook a lot there are certain family recipes that I would like to be able to recreate. Comfort food is another thing that reminds a person of home and family. It's one of the things I miss living so far from my family.

       The third item would  be my family tree. This has been created by my dad and gives me a sense of belonging. It allows me to trace my history on one side of my family and gives me roots. It is an ongoing project that I have been adding to since I took it over in my teens.

        If I was told that I needed to give up 2 items to enter the country, it would be difficult to decide between them. I would feel unsettled. At the same time, I would feel like taking the opportunity to build a new life. Sometimes hanging on to traditions too tightly can close off growth. While I would want to keep a connection with my roots, it would be important to put down new roots, especially if we needed to stay in our new country.

        I found this assignment particularly difficult because I have left my home country to live in a new place. I have started building a new life more than once and, while it's always difficult, it also gives a sense of freedom. I have discovered that family culture is very adaptable. In a new place, you hold on to objects and traditions that make you feel comfortable but you also collect new objects and traditions that become as important to you as the older ones.

When I think of research ...

Research is hard work. There are so many things to consider and to decide before the data gathering even starts. It is vitally important that the question your study asks is specific enough to be researchable. A very broad topic will means that time and resources needed will become unmanageable.

I was very interested to read and learn about qualitative methods of research. Before this course I usually equated research with statistics and quantitative data. I've learned that research takes a lot of planning. Hayes writes about "[t]he 'what' and 'how' of research" (2010, p 105) as the first steps in research design. After these points have been addressed the researcher must decide on when, where and who. All these aspects need to be decided before the study begins so that the findings reflect a 'true' answer to the question or questions being asked.

I found it very difficult to complete the tasks for the research simulation. The theoretical nature of the assignments challenged me to think in a different way. To meet this challenge I tried to incorporate the feedback I received into the next task.

Thank you to everyone who came on this journey with me. I appreciate your comments and your thoughts on the different topics we've discussed. Good luck with your future studies.

References

Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S.A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood research: International perspectives on theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Research around the world

The website that I chose to check out was the European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA). In the current journal from the organisation,  The European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, there are several different research topics that are explored. The role of play in early education is examined in a cross-cultural study involving Chinese and German teachers and a look at play through a Vygotskian lens. There is an article involving identifying gifted and talented children in early childhood. A study looks at interactions between children and teachers and how the teachers encourage communication. An article that caught my interest is about bilingual education preferences of Russian-speaking parents in both Germany and Israel. There are also articles about parental involvement of minority parents and school readiness. Most of these topics are universal. Many countries are trying to include bilingual children and minority families. Many programs are looking at the role of play. School readiness is also a hot topic these days as more pressure is put on early childhood programs to teach academics. 

It was interesting to read about some of the cultural differences surrounding play. Having worked in Germany, I recognised the attitude that  free play is an important aspect of learning. Having been trained in Canada, I also related to the idea that teacher guidance is vital with play activities.  Two sayings from the different cultures seem to sum up the attitude towards play. In Chinese society the saying is "industry becomes fine because of hard work and is deserted because of play" (Wu & Rao, 2011). Learning and play are seen as opposites. Recently in Hong Kong, where the researchers focused their attention, there has been a push to include more play. In German society and many other European cultures the saying is "By that we could conceive of play and learning as being inseparable and also associated to children's life-world and how they experience their surrounding world" (Wu & Rao, 2011). Play is essential to learning in this view. In recent years, though, pressure has been mounting to include more academics in early learning. This pressure comes as a result of poor showings in international testing. I found this article relevant to my situation. The Netherlands, where I live and work, has similar attitudes towards play as Germany. There has been a lot of debate recently about this topic.

References

Wu, Shu-Chen & Rao, Nirmala. (2011) Chinese and German teachers' conceptions of play and learning and children's play behaviour. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal 19(4). Retrieved from website http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1350293X.2011.623511 #tabModule.

Research that benefits children and families

I like to listen to podcasts of radio programs while I walk. Recently I was listening to an episode of Quirks and Quarks. This is a science show that is broadcast on CBC radio in Canada. They were talking about the state of cancer research and were interviewing some notable scientists in the field. One of the treatments they discussed was cancer immunotherapy and is in the testing phase. The story they told was of a child, Emily, who was diagnosed with acute lymphatic leukaemia. She received chemotherapy for 16 months but it wasn't working. Her parents were told they could take her home for the last months or weeks of her life. Then she was enrolled in an experimental treatment program using genetically modified T-cells from her own body. She is now in remission. During the treatment she had to be placed on a ventilator for over a week. This is an extreme case where the benefits to a research participant can outweigh the risks. The long term benefits are also invaluable. The results of this study could help create a less risky treatment that could help hundreds of people.

References

Waging your own war on cancer [Audio podcast]. (2014, January 11). [With Bob McDonald]. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/episode/2014/01/11/january-11-2014/.

My personal research journey

         The questions that interest me revolve around language learning in young children. My own background contributes to this as does my current situation. I'm from Canada which has 2 official languages, Engish and French. When I started school at age 4 my parents decided that I should learn in French even though we are an English-speaking family. So I did my schooling until grade 9 mostly in French. In university I chose to continue and majored in French immersion elementary education. Although I now rarely use my French, I know it has helped me to pick up enough Spanish to live for 2 years in the Dominican Republic. Having a second language also made it easier for me to become proficient in a third when I settled in the Netherlands. I now work in an international school where 9 out of 10 children don't speak any Engish or Dutch when they come to us. I am interested in how they learn so that I can better help them when they arrive. I want to find out what strategies work best. I also want to know what long term benefits can come from learning a second language early in life. I want to know why some children seem to have a much easier time than others. I know I won't be able to answer all these questions at once. The scope is too broad and must be narrowed to a manageable research question (Mac Naughton & Rolfe, 2010).

          One tip that I got from the chapter on the research process this week was the recommendation to keep a detailed record of what articles and other resources you've used both for the literature review and other reasons (Mac Naughton & Rolfe, 2010). This seemed obvious once I'd read it but it is not something that I think of doing as I'm reading or listening to something.

References

Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S.A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood research: International perspectives on theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.