Welcoming Families From Around the World

You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.

My family in this scenario is from Russia.  
To prepare to be culturally responsive towards this new family from Russia, I will:

               1.  Perform online and library research about the country and the area in which the family is coming from.
               2.  Reach out to cultural community resources for information and opportunities for myself and the family.       
               3.  Schedule a meeting with the family in order to take the opportunity to get to know the family and observe 
               4.  Prepare the classroom to be culturally responsive to this new family(ideally it should already be this)
               5.  Prepare the curriculum to be culturally responsive for the new student.

My hope is that these preparations will give the best beginning opportunity for the student and help their family feel welcome in this country.  It is scary enough moving to a new place, let alone to a place that speaks a different language and possibly holds different beliefs than their own.  I am hoping that the meeting with the family will give me a better look into their family culture.  I believe the biggest thing anyone needs to remember is that having an open mind and approaching the situation with reserved preconceived notions  will help prevent offending the family and allow the student and their family to be themselves.     

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

·         What memory do you have of an incident when you experienced bias, prejudice, and/or oppression, or witnessed someone else as the target of bias, prejudice, and/or oppression? Keep in mind that one can encounter such incidents in real contexts, including online environments, as well as in fictional ones, such as movies, books, television shows, and the like.

Prejudice is an experience that anyone who has encountered, probably wants to forget.  I can recall a time that my husband and I were shopping for jewelry in our casual clothes in the mall.  We weren’t wearing no observable high end brands and we were young.  When we entered the jewelry store, the employees saw us enter, but didn’t greet us.  So we began looking at the jewelry when another couple entered the store.  This couple was dressed up quite nicely as if they were on their way to a fancy dinner.  The employees seem to race to greet them.  They offered to clean the couple’s rings while they shopped.  They were shown the latest in the type of jewelry they were shopping for while we were never even greeted.  My husband told me that they didn’t approach us because we appeared to have no money while the other couple seemed to have plenty proving they would be more serious about purchasing additional high end jewelry.  Because of how we were ignored we chose to take our business elsewhere, but before we left my husband approached the employee at the counter and told him that they just missed out on the sale of our wedding rings.  This is really a minor prejudice compared to many other experiences but I wanted to point this one out because sometimes prejudice occurs when you least expect it and in all forms. 

·        

   In what way(s) did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity?

This prejudice that my husband and I experienced made me realize that it can be seen in many forms and experienced by many. 

·         

What feelings did this incident bring up for you?

I felt angry and hurt.  I couldn’t understand what I had wrong.  I really do not like when people assume something about me when they have no idea.

·         

What and/or who would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity?

When my husband spoke to the employees he was not mean about his comment, but firm and to the point.  His speaking up about what they missed out on because of their prejudice gave them a chance to see what they were doing and the consequences of their choices.  I am not sure what else could have been done in order to change the events.  

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

Microaggression  is something that I do not notice too much.  Most the time I am busy ushering my children in and out of stores, church, etc. that I do not have idle conversation.  As I reflected this week, I can recall a few instances of microaggression.  The first instance I can remember, occurred when I was a young child.  I can remember my grandfather’s comments about how girls could not handle tasks meant for boys.  I had no idea what he was even talking about, but I do remember my mother getting pretty upset with him and my father for the comments.  Another instance I can recall happened later in life when my husband and I first began dating.  His parents were very harsh towards my race and would always tell me that I could not understand their ways because I lacked culture.  I was always puzzled by their comments especially since I knew everyone had culture.  I was very hurt by their comments and still hold some resentment towards the negativity they showed me throughout our newlywed years. 

Because of these experiences I have more sensitivity towards others.  It does not feel good when others display microaggression and it makes you second guess yourself when exposed to these types of comments.  This week’s resources in class have given me good resources to justify my feelings about microaggression and to support my strategies for my students to overcome prejudices such as these.