Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

With everything that I have learned so far in this course about culture and diversity, I was very curious to hear what others would have to say about these topics. Honestly, before I took this course this is something that would take me a minute to talk about so I could gather my thoughts. I think culture and diversity is something we come in contact with on a daily basis but not topics we tend to talk about all the time. Or maybe I should say they are topics that hit us in the face but not something we think deeply about. Each one of the people I contacted was different in their age, religion, and ethnicity. One of my friends I had to email and when I received her response I really enjoyed reading it and how she viewed culture and diversity. I wanted to share the email and her response to everyone. Here it is:

“When I think of "culture" I visualize different races, their customs and beliefs.  My family is of Italian descent and examples of our culture are large Sunday family dinners consisting of macaroni and gravy, loud conversations that may appear to others as arguing, and a lot of affection and love.  I live in a neighborhood which is primarily occupied by those of Indian descent.  I enjoy observing their culture.  I see women who are attentive mothers and wives. Women who seem to be more passive than American women and men who work hard to provide for their families. Their dress, their cooking, religion and their language are all part of their culture. “

“Diversity is the differences in our cultures.  Diversity, in the recent years, has become a word synonymous with "tolerance for differences in people."  I am a strong proponent of loving people for who they are, and not judging on cultural differences.  I believe that you can learn from, teach and love people from all walks of life.”

I love the example she gave of her loud conversations with her family and how it could be seen by others as arguing. Without knowing her family and her culture it is impossible to know that is normal conversation to them and nothing is wrong. This is why I feel it is so important to take the time to get to know others that are different, inquire about their culture and ask questions. We will never know anything unless questions are asked. Someone could go their whole life thinking this family hated one another because they assumed what they heard was arguing.

The other two people involved in this assignment gave an answer about culture and diversity that were very similar. They defined culture as the traditions people hold, how they celebrate holidays and which ones they do, where they come from, meaning race and ethnicity and the language they speak. They spoke about diversity as the differences between people and how we come together and accept everyone. I received the old saying “we all put our pants on one leg at a time” which I think fits pretty well. They both also said they wouldn’t live their lives as certain people chose to, but they respect them and accept them for who they are.  

I got the impression that we still think a lot about surface culture when asked how you define culture. We instantly think about the holidays people celebrate and the language they speak, as did two of the people I spoke to instantly said. We don’t tend to see deep culture because we don’t take the time to see that far into people’s lives and families.  I agree with the last sentence written by my friend in her email, “I believe that you can learn from, teach and love people from all walks of life”. I just don’t think we take the time to learn from others and dig deeper into the lives of others to expand our knowledge of the diversity and cultures around us. 

My Family Culture

There are so many items from my childhood growing up that I keep dear to my heart and are a part of my German heritage. Three small items that I treasure are my Christkind ornament, a Hummel, and a harmonica. The Christkind ornament is a Christmas ornament that my family has always included on their tree. She is a fairy like being dressed in gold and white robes and wears a crown upon her golden hair. In most German speaking countries she is the bearer of gifts, just like Santa Clause is to the children here in the United States. Gifts are exchanged on December 24^th, delivered by the Christkind who leaves gifts under the Christmas tree and disappears before the children can see her. Hummels are porcelain figurines originated in Germany in the 1930’s based on the sketch art of Sister Maria. The hummel that I have is a little girl holding a basket of flowers that was passed down to me from my mother, which was given to her by my Oma from Germany. My harmonica is pretty self explanatory; its silver, very old, made in Germany, and was my fathers.

Growing up I never usually saw my extended family but on holidays, such as Christmas. Christmas was always a time that brought me great happiness and I always treasured the traditions we had growing up. As I stated in the previous description of the Christkind, gifts come on Christmas Eve as did our tree in my house. We very much followed my father’s German tradition for Christmas as my mother celebrated the same way. My fondest memories as a child was going to bed on Christmas Eve evening and being wakened by my mother later that night to walk down the stairs and be amazed by what I saw in front of me, an amazingly decorated Christmas tree and presents galore. Of course I knew about Santa Clause and even left him milk and cookies, but I always knew of the Christkind and somehow believed in both as a child. The Christkind ornament brings me back to great memories I had during Christmas and the wonderful stories and traditions my father brought into the house.

My mother had started collecting Hummels after she visited my father’s family in Germany for the first time. My Oma was a huge collector, and on my parent’s last trip before I was born she gave my mom one to take home. Up to this point my mom had my two brothers and had always wished for a girl. The hummel, which was a little girl was supposed to be a symbol of what was to come. When my parent’s got back from that trip to Germany my mom found out she was pregnant with me, 12 years after she had had my younger brother. My mother always treasured the hummel, and a few years ago she gave it to me in hopes that one day I will have a girl of my own.

My father and I always had a connection to music when I was younger. He hardly ever spoke to me in German, but he would sing to me in German to teach me certain words and phrases. My father plays many instruments, such as the guitar and accordion, but the one that intrigued me the most was his harmonica. He had so many that he brought with him to Germany, but one shiny silver one always stood out to me. This was the one he would let me use when I was little and wanted to try. Two years ago for Christmas he gave me that very shiny silver harmonica. I have it displayed in my house and every time I look at it I remember the great times I had with my father listening to him play.

I would be crushed if I was only allowed one of these items to come with me. It was hard enough to just choose these three. It would have to think even deeper into my thoughts about my culture and what is most dear to me. I would try to think about what would give me the happiest memories about my childhood and that shows my pride regarding my culture.

This assignment has brought me back to my childhood and the ways in which my culture has shaped the way I live my life and the thoughts about diversity. I would not consider my life as to be part of the dominant culture and I know what it is like to be looked at differently. I hope my work so far and the work I tend to do in the field of early childhood shows children just how special they are even if they are not like everyone else. Our differences make us unique and showed be something to be proud of.

When I think of research...

With this being my first research course, it was a real eye opener for me. I knew coming in I would gain a great deal of knowledge regarding the research process itself. There is so much involved from start to finish that it does get overwhelming at times. All the technical terms that go along with research was very intimidating for me as well.  I believe my biggest struggle during this course was choosing a topic to research that sparks my interest (there is a lot!), and narrowing it down into a question to study. Research is a wonderful tool that gives us insight into early childhood and helps us to build quality programs for our children. Although, it is a very complex process that requires much knowledge and careful planning in order to successfully validate your research in the end. I feel in the beginning of this course I underestimated the array of challenges that researchers face throughout the study. It is so important to take into consideration all of the ethical issues that could arise in your research design. Making sure your participants are fully informed of all knowledge regarding the study is extremely important as well as confidentiality. When children are involved in the research process, even though they are not at legal age to consent to the research, they need to be aware of what they are going to be involved in.

I knew research was a huge part of our knowledge of the early childhood field, but thinking I could be a part of it never crossed my mind. I feel much more comfortable in my understanding of research and the design process, but know I will need more practice in order to be truly comfortable. I have gained a better understanding of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research and when it benefits to use each one.  I have so much more respect for EC professionals that work so hard to bring to us this wonderful insight into the development and care of our young ones.  Their work is never ending.

I appreciate all of the knowledge and insight my classmates have brought to this course. I have learned so much just from the discussions of others alone. Having the support of others has really helped me to continuing my journey in early childhood and has made it much more enjoyable. I hope to work with you all again, and I wish everyone much success in the future!

Research Around the World

For this assignment I chose to explore Early Childhood Australia. There are many resources available and listed on the main page of the website. One of the studies I found searching through their website was on a children’s sense of belonging when they enter Kindergarten. This research article caught my attention because I was a Kindergarten teacher and I know how difficult it can be for children to transition into a full ‘classroom’ experience. This time is an important one in the lives of children and their parents; a process Joerdans (2014) calls it rather than just a one-off event.  Being aware of the children’s feelings and well-being during this period is critical to know what needs to be done in order for them to become and feel a part of the school community.

Another research article that I found studied the professional challenges of 87 preschool teachers at a major time of a policy change in Australia. A program was designed to look at the existing skills and knowledge of current teachers against 4 year graduate proficiency standards. As these teachers entered this university learning environment they faced many challenges, where lecturers noticed a difficulty in re-engaging in the study of early childhood. This study concluded that in order engage effectively in ongoing professional development teachers need inbuilt ‘slow time’ (Whittington, Shore, Thompson 2014).

I also found a few studies on the use of technology in the early years, specifically with the use of musical learning. With my own research question focusing on parental involvement I was excited to see a study on parents as activists for equitable high quality early childhood education in Australia. Through much of my research in both U.S. and international searches, I find that we are all studying much of the same topics in early childhood. We are all concerned with the well-being of children while providing them with quality programs. While providing these programs for children we need to make sure that our teachers are re-educating themselves on practices and procedures needed in order to maintain these programs as high quality. Concerning ourselves with challenges teachers and professionals face in the classrooms, will lead us to ways in which we can support teachers and help them in their struggles.

I will definitely be visiting this website again as I did not get too many of the articles that I would have liked. So many of the research titles caught my interest and I know would expand my knowledge in early childhood. I enjoy gaining all of these resources so I can go back and revisit to gain more and more information and keep up to date on current news, which is so important in the world of early childhood.

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

Research that benefits children and families

Unfortunately I have not had the chance to be involved in any early childhood research studies, nor do I know of anyone that has. I can be sure this will change in the near future. Although I did come across a study involving both children and their parents I found interesting and wanted to share with you all.

This study completed by Rachel Brown and Jane Ogden (2004) focused on children’s eating attitudes and behaviors and whether or not their parents have influence on their eating, specifically regarding snack foods. Trying to get young children to try new things and eat healthy has always been a challenge in my opinion. Proper nutrition and healthy eating habits has always been something our child care center has worked on throughout the school and with the families. Our company has even hired a nutritionist to help us and work with families that may need some guidance. With that being said, this study really caught my attention.

The study involved 112 parent/child pairs. Each pair filled out matched questionnaires which described eating motivations, snack intake, and body dissatisfaction. Additional items involving attempts to control food intake and using food as a tool to control behavior were completed by the parents.  What was revealed after the study was parents who tried harder to control their child’s dietary habits had higher intakes of both healthy and unhealthy food, while parents that used food to control their child’s behavior reported high body dissatisfaction. Brown and Ogden (2004) conclude by saying “a positive parental role model may be a better method for improving a child’s diet than attempts at dietary control.”

It is so important for parents to realize the importance of positive role modeling for their children. They pick up a lot from the adults around them, mainly parents and caregivers. Healthy nutrition is so important for the healthy development of all children. I enjoyed this study because it combined two topics that I find very important in the lives of children, nutrition and parental involvement.  

http://her.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/3/261.full

Personal Research Journey

There are many topics in early childhood that I would love to research further in order to expand my knowledge base. So when it came to picking only one topic to focus on during these upcoming weeks, coming to a decision was a challenge for me. I chose the topic of assessments in early childhood. Assessments are crucial for the educational success of children. It is so important for educators to realize the reality of assessments inside the classroom and why they are so important. Breaking this topic into three subtopics was hard because there are so many things you can focus on regarding assessments, such as the methods used, the correct tools to chose, and how often do you assess. What I eventually came up with was the uses of assessments in early childhood programs, the challenges educators face when assessing young children, and the importance of involving parents in the assessment process.

I am a huge advocate in parent involvement for the success of a child. I have worked in many different areas of early childhood such as curriculum supervisor, teacher and director, and in all my positions I have worked to involve parents in the classroom. I have observed such a positive reaction from students when they see their moms and dads actively engaged in their education. So with choosing a topic to focus on throughout this course, learning more about parent involvement in the assessment process stood out to me the most. Even though I have observed positive results from parent involvement in the classroom in general, involvement at the assessment level is something that is unfamiliar to me.

Right now I have reservations about myself and researching. This is something I am not too familiar with but am very interested in someday mastering. I know properly learning how to research will help me in my future journey in early childhood, although I have to admit it is a bit scary to me. In my mind there are many places throughout the research process where it can go wrong for me.  I want to be successful and am hoping that I will learn a lot from my colleagues throughout the next few weeks.

 Is there anyone else that has reservations or is it just me?
Does anyone prefer one search engine over another when looking for articles?...sometimes I have trouble when using Walden Library instead of just a google search.
Any good advice for handling the research process for the first time?

Reflecting on Established Relationships

I honestly didn’t think I would enjoy this course as much as I have. I was never one on doing a lot of research, although this course has shed a new light on research for me. I thoroughly enjoyed surfing the many websites over the weeks as well as reading the very informative articles listed for our resources. I have learned so much more about the issues EC professionals face around the world. To my surprise they are struggling with the same issues around the world that we are here in the U.S.. Although I was not able to make contact on the global level with any EC professionals, the resources I was able to have access to are so valuable to me. I have become knowledgeable during this course of how others, not related to education, have become involved in advocating for early education and their impact in the field. I feel I have grown in my knowledge of early education, focusing more on worldly issues. Sometimes I feel I am so immersed in my work as a Director and running my school, I don’t get the chance to be aware and read up on certain issue that impact the early childhood field as a whole. I now have been introduced to such amazing resources and websites that I know will help me tremendously in the future.

Recently, I have been thinking more about my career in the early childhood field and where I want to wind up in the future. I have had the opportunity to persue many roles in early childhood trying to figure out what role would be the best fit for me. I have thoroughly enjoyed this course and hate to see it come to an end. Maybe that is a sign for me on a professional level. My goal moving forward is to keep up on my research and set time during the week to do so. I want to keep up on the websites I have been visiting and join more newsletters to gain access to even more information. This course has shown me that I don’t just want to focus on what is going on here in the U.S., but to keep abreast of what is going on globally in the world of early childhood. The knowledge I have gained will only help in improving my center for the children and families that I am blessed to see on a daily basis, as well as improve my own personal growth as an EC professional.

I thank all my classmates for the wonderful information that you have shared throughout this course and helping to make this a wonderful path towards gaining my Masters. I wish everyone the best of luck on your journeys!