Most of us have experienced discrimination of one form or another at some point in our lives. The -ism that I have most often bumped against is sexism and gender stereotypes. Education, especially in the early childhood field, is very female heavy. This of course means that most of my colleagues are women. When there are men on staff, I have noticed that they are given more leeway in their classroom practices. The men that I work with are wonderful teachers and great people. I like both of them. However, incidents that would cause a reprimand for myself or my female colleagues sometimes gets laughed off for them. An example of this happened not long ago in my school. Our school has two class sets of iPads, one for the upper school and one for the lower school. In the team room is a cabinet where the iPads can be secured and charged. The upper school iPads are often not brought down to this cabinet but are instead locked in a cupboard to which only one of my male colleagues has the key. He had been sick for 2 days and then went on a out of town training. The iPads and some other ICT material were inaccessible in this closet. Our director was not happy and tried to break into the cupboard. This was unsuccessful. After the weekend when everyone was back, our director laughed about it and never did talk to my colleague about any of it. I feel this is because he is male.
The question for today is how might dealing with an -ism affect your interactions with children and families. "Gender is probably the most restricting force in American life" (Sue, 2010, p 160) was written in a op-ed piece in the New York Times. Women are often faced with obstacles because of their gender. This affects interactions with children and families in many ways. Frustration may bubble over into conversations with parents. You may unintentionally put obstacles in the path your students are on. Prejudicial attitudes can make women feel like what they do is not important. Early childhood teachers are not leaders of government or CEOs of multinational companies. Parents may hold an attitude of superiority which would influence the way they interact with you.
To combat this, early childhood educators need to be aware of society's messages about gender and try to avoid stereotypical roles within the classroom. Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards (2010) say "that every child deserves to develop to his or her fullest potential" (p 2). This potential should not be hampered by differing expectations because of gender. As educators, we need to work hard to even the playing field for all young people in our care.
References
Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
Sue, D. W. (2010). Microaggressions in everyday life: Race, gender, and sexual orientation. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
The question for today is how might dealing with an -ism affect your interactions with children and families. "Gender is probably the most restricting force in American life" (Sue, 2010, p 160) was written in a op-ed piece in the New York Times. Women are often faced with obstacles because of their gender. This affects interactions with children and families in many ways. Frustration may bubble over into conversations with parents. You may unintentionally put obstacles in the path your students are on. Prejudicial attitudes can make women feel like what they do is not important. Early childhood teachers are not leaders of government or CEOs of multinational companies. Parents may hold an attitude of superiority which would influence the way they interact with you.
To combat this, early childhood educators need to be aware of society's messages about gender and try to avoid stereotypical roles within the classroom. Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards (2010) say "that every child deserves to develop to his or her fullest potential" (p 2). This potential should not be hampered by differing expectations because of gender. As educators, we need to work hard to even the playing field for all young people in our care.
References
Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
Sue, D. W. (2010). Microaggressions in everyday life: Race, gender, and sexual orientation. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
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