Perspectives on diversity and culture

I asked three people about culture and diversity. I ask one male co-worker, one female co-worker, and a friend who is of a different race than I.

My male co-worker, Jimmie, stated that culture is the need to historically analyze and preserve the traditions of the past.

He also wrote that diversity is the ability to respect, understand, and harbor multiple viewpoints, opinions, and cultures, to better enrich a community.

These statements I agree with. The statements were very forward and I agree that diversity can better a community, i never thought of it that way but it could bring people together in a sense.

Another co-worker who is of Indian decent stated that culture is a group or family of people generaly from the same geographic location.

To me this is a little too broad, but goes to show that not everyone knows what culture is about.

Her definition of diversity was people from different backgrounds, geographically, financially, etc, with their own traditions.

This definition was a little more specific and seemed to beeter suit what I was expecting.

The last person I asked about this was a young lady who is only 19 years old and has had no college training. I was interested to see what her response was.

Culture is traditions habits, foods, and ways of living, following certain rituals/religion in day to day life.

Very good, not what I was expecting.

Diversity is people from differnet cultures, that are in the same community, it can be called diversity.

This is true but not exactly what I was asking. I'm glad she tried though.

microaggression observations

I have actually been witness to this type of behavior this week in my own classroom. We have a very diverse class and one day this week I had a new parent come to our room to tour and ask why there were so many "black kids" in our room compared to the other classrooms in the school. This threw me off completely and I was not sure how to respond for a quick second. I replied to her by saying that our class is a very diverse one and we welcome everyone into our room no matter their color. Our children vary from black, to white, to indian, to asian, and even those with dissabilities. In my class especially we accept all walks of life, and we teach our children respect.

 As I said before I was shocked and was not sure how to resond to the parent without being rude. Her comment really offended me. I was certainly glad thatt there were no other parents in the room at the time I can only imagine what would have happened.

My Family Culture

I have been evacuated from my home and told I can not return, I only to bring three item with me to represent me and my culture:
1.) A picture of my family in front of our Christmas tree.
     *I cherish this picture because it was the last picture of me and my family when I lived in  Colorado. It was the last Christmas that I spent with my family, and it was a time of thanks and a  time of sadness, as everyone knew I was leaving but we rejoiced in the fact that I was finally grown and moving away from home.

2.) The picture of my boyfriend and I at Halloween, dressed up for a party.
     * This represents that tradition that we have always done in my family and now with my new family of dressing up for Halloween to be silly and have fun with others around us. We celebrate Halloween as a holiday to eat candy and act like children, not as the traditional all hallows eve.

3.) A black stuffed teddy bear that was given to me at Christmas.
     * This bear was given to me as a gift when I was just hitting middle school and was torn between being a big kid and just a kid. I still loved the childish things of the years past but was changing and did not which way to go. This teddy bear has been through it all. He has been sewn multiple times re stuffed, and traveled all over the world with me, and means the world to me because it was from my Grandmother.

I would be absolutely heat broken if I was told that I could only keep one item. All three of these things mean so much to me and show who I am and how I was. I am still just a big kid and want my teddy bear, my family is my one and only, and my boyfriend is what i have to be thankful for in my life right now.

As far as learning about my family and my culture, i have always known who I am and what I represent. My family made sure that I knew these things at a very young age. I have always been told that God and family come first, after that you can make your own decisions.

concluding research

• What insights have you gained about research from taking this course?

I have seen that there is a lot more to doing research than simply looking up some sources. There are methods and various ways of going about finding the information needed. I now know that in order to have a proper research study that one must have a clear and consice question in mind and be able to narrow it down in order to find the answers that are needed.

• In what ways have your ideas about the nature of doing research changed?

As I stated before i now know that there is a lot more needed than to read some papers. I know that the ways we have been taught make research a little easier than simply googling some answers. These methods we have been given allow us to narrow down the search and look at the answers from different points of view.

• What lessons about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood did you learn?

I know that there has to be a plan. Before I would simply look up some information and call it a day. Now I have the understanding that in order to have all the information needed I need a game plan and an idea of how I want the research findings to turn out. I can see now that the process of studying someone or a group of people is a little more complicated than just watching and writting some notes. The more detailed you are with your observations or interviews the more likely it is that the research will be seen as valid.

• What were some of the challenges you encountered—and in what ways did you meet them?

Finding the information in general for my topic was difficult. I had to learn how to word the question to get the information I was looking for. It was not as simple as asking what color do children like the most. It was a process of using the correct words and in the correct order to get the information I needed.

• What are some of the ways your perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of this course?

I can see that it takes a lot more than some schooling or just liking kids to be in the field and truly know what is going on and why it is happening. I can see that it takes more effort on the part of the professional to stay up on what they need to know about children and how they function and learn.

International Research

I looked at the website for austrailia. http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/ I found that many of the topics that are important to them are also relevant in the United States. some of the topics include; breastfeeding, childcare ratings, diversity among children, inclusion of children, and many more. I saw that the national quality standards were a big issue on this site. They seem to take the "accredidation" process very seriously there. It was good to see that we are not the only country that is focused in on the inclusion process of children. This is one thing that I believe will make or break a child in their school careers. Children need to feel included no matter their state. I also noticed that child health and obesity is another big topic in their country. This means to me that we as a human race need to stop and look at what we are feeding our children and how much we are denying them the abilities to actively play. This is something that i would like to look closer into and possibly try to find a way to helop parents understand that this is not ok and that our children are going to suffer in the long run.

Research that will benifit children...

If I could choose any topic within the early childhood field to research and it would have a positive outcome on the entire community, it would be behavioral problems in young children. I choose this topic because I lived with this issue for much of my life. My brother has had behavioral problems his whole life due to a severe brain injury he got when he was two. I know what it is like for children to be put through test after test, and the Doctors never come up with a correct diagnosis. I would run a study to make sure that children were not being passed over when there may be something seriously wrong. Too many children today are being diagnosed with ADD and ADHD, and I find that to be the "easy way out" for doctors and parents. A child who is two or three years old should not be given this diagnosis. The child is more than likely just acting their age and the partents do not know what else to do, so they run to the doctor and get a prescription for Ridlin to calm the child down. This makes it difficult for the next child that comes along who may have something more severe than ADD or ADHD. I had a child in my class years ago who was, for lack of better terms, terrible. This child was as sweet as could be when things were going his way or he was playing. When he lost his temper though he was capable of injuring even adults. He woudl throw chairs, tables, knock over shelves filled with toys, bite, punch, the list goes on. There was something about this boy that I was drawn to. I took him under my wing and played a little bit of favorites with him, so I coudl possibly point his mother in the right direction. Jeremy was three and there was no reason for him to be acting the way he was for no reason. After I took on this mission I found that there were triggers that would set him off and allow him to lose his temper. He had a very difficult time with transition and needed ample time to prepare himself for that to happen. I would always alert him when there was 10 minutes left of an activity and allow him to begin his own transition before the rest of the class. This helped him a great deal. It was not medication that he needed it was attention.
I want to run a study that would allow people to see that jumping to conclusions like ADD is not always the right choice. A child may simply need some extra TLC and some time to work things out for themselves.

My research topic

I decided to do the topic of when children begin to actually learn their colors, shapes, letters, numbers, etc... I narrowed the topic down to what I truly wish to research and put my effort into. I have noticed in my many years of working with children and in day care centers that children are attracted to certain colors. Before the age of two I have found that if you put multiples of the same toy in front of a child of different colors almost 99% of the time the child will go for the red toy. This is what I find to be curious. I know that as children age their site grows. i also know that when children are born they are color blind and red is a significant color that sticks out in their grayscale. I want to find out why children truly like the color red over any other color. I want to know that when children begin to learn their colors and shapes, etc... that they learn certain letters or numbers faster because they are in the color red. These are all small little experiments I have done in my own time and with different children in different ages. I want to know the reasoning behind this.