An example of microaggression that I experienced was when a parent who is a psychologist and from California came to pick up his daughter. It had been an especially trying day and the children were just not in synch with me. The father walked in the door sat down tiredly and watched the children as I tried to get them in order. I turned to the father and apologized. I told him that I was a little intimidated because he was a child psychologist and I merely worked in a school age room. He stood up and said he make 270.00 dollars and hour to examine or diagnose a situation. I told him I make seven.

When the father used how much income he made in order to shut down any proceeding conversation we were about to embark I felt powerless. I didn't feel it was worth his time for him to ask me a question about what was exactly going on in room but to give me the message that he simply wanted to go home.

I can honestly say that this week has really opened my eyes with stereotypes and prejudice. I was surprised that there was just such an underlying nastiness in the way people talked to one another to gain power in a situation. Yesterday in work when a woman was put in charge to close down our building and tried to undermine what I said to the children as a way to embarrass me and empower herself I felt a sense of “bitchiness” when I retaliated. I feel guilt when I am in this situation and I am forced to regain power by speaking up for myself.

Diversity and Assimilation

I would like to begin with saying the first person I talked to an Indian coworker named Nita. Nita to be seemed very much involved in her heritage but I was really surprised by the answers she gave me about culture and diversity. She told me about her daughter who is in 5^th grade. Through out the years, the administrators and teachers would constantly get her name wrong, even as going as far as spelling it wrong on a certificate she received in school. Nita said she tried to explain to her daughter that she had a difficult name and to have understanding when people were not able to pronounce it. I told Nita about our reading and how this is really an event that chipped away the spirit of this little girl. What I had taken out of the conversation was that assimilation was more important to Nita then diversity. The reason I came to this conclusion was because with each example of an Indian tradition that was taken from my reading there was an excuse why this couldn't take place in an Early Childhood setting.

My husband says culture says a certain number of people who have similar beliefs in society while diversity is people with points of views or backgrounds/differences.

The last person I asked about culture and diversity was a parent of Chinese decent. We had a conversation on how American and Asian culture were different. She told me that she did not practice a lot of the traditions that were from her home country. An example of this would be, on the child's first birthday the baby picks from a group of objects to determine what their occupation will be when they become older. She thought this was silly when she thought of others doing this. She said it didn't bother her when she thought people thought she was something other then Chinese. What I had gathered again from this conversation is assimilation is more important and traditional cultural values have taken a backseat.

“All young children first develop their self-concept within their family, getting their initial sense of place in the world from who their family is and where they fit inside it. By preschool age, they begin also developing group cultural identities and social identities.” Sparks, D. L.& Edwards O. J. (2008)

I really enjoyed talking about other peoples cultures and it opened my eyes to assimilation and diversity. With the people that I talked to there was a lot less of the diversification that I expected.

Reference

Sparks, D. L. & Edwards J. O. (2008) Anti Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves. National Education For Young Children

The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees. You and your immediate family are among the survivors of this catastrophic event. However, you have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. You are told that your host country’s culture is completely different from your own, and that you might have to stay there permanently. You are further told that, in addition to one change of clothes, you can only take 3 small items with you. You decide to take three items that you hold dear and that represent your family culture.

This is the first item I would take with me. It is a coin that my husband got me after my grandfather passed away. They would give these coins to fighter pilots while my grandfather was in the Navy. This holds dear to my family culture because it reminds me what my values were based on. It reminds me of the stories that my grandfather instilled in me since I was a little girl and how I still pass these stories on to this day.

These are metro tokens from Trenton New Jersey. I actually have them on a necklace instead of a pair of cufflinks. I wear them frequently because they ground me and help me remember where I come from whenever I feel as though I am lost. My tokens are pretty beat up and it only has meaning to me. To everyone else they look like a coin.

The third thing I would bring is a clothespin. This clothespin would represent my grandmother raising us. It would represent the plastic tubs of water she put in the yard for us to play in the Summer and the smell of fresh laundry we would run through that she hung up. My grandmother is a huge part of my culture and things I also still use today.

If I was told I could only keep one of these items, it would feel was though I would have to give up that memory. These identities are so engrained in me I do not think this would be possible.

The Journey: Research Around the World

The Journey: Research Around the World: What are some of the current international research topics? One thing that I noticed while looking at the Early ...