Professional Hopes and Goals

  I hope that that I will always be an anti-bias educator that I aim to be and provide an anti bias education to all children and families who are from diverse background.

  I hope that early childhood field can be the very platform for us as anti bias educators to provide an education experience for children so that they will be more aware and know how to manage diversity, social justice and equity.

  I would like to thank each and every colleague for sharing their invaluable experiences and thoughts in this course. And to the Professor Horton for guiding us in the right path and encouraging all through out. 

Welcoming Families From Around The World

  I would choose Mongolia as the country of origin for my class family as I really do not know anything about this country.

  I am a visual person hence I would first watch any documentary on Mongolia. I will also go through the family's file upfront to know a little a bit about them. I will have a sit down with the family and get to know them better. I may even give them a form to fill up where they can tell me more about themselves, their family culture or the culture of where they come from. And I would join an online group of people who are from Mongolia and start making online friends so that can get to know more people from the country and thus learn more about them and the place.

  I hope this way, I will be able to help the family to settle in in the new environment without ignoring their background of origin. I also hope that I can help them to keep up their roots by blending in their culture into the classroom so that other children will be learn about it. This is not just for one kid of course. I will do for all children in the class so that everyone gets to learn about each others culture in a fun learning way. 

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudices and Oppressions

  I have witnessed many incidents that are bias throughout my life. I was in one of the middle eastern country and I decided to walk into a shop in a mall. There was no one in that shop except for one salesgirl who happens to be an Asian. She saw me coming in, I smiled at her and wished her but she didn't respond and went back to her work. I was looking through the things in the shop when suddenly I heard her saying “ Welcome”. Just before I turned around to look at her, I thought maybe she realized that she forgot to greet as she was too focused in her work ( she was writing something). I turned around to look at her but I was surprised to see that she wasn't looking at me and smiling. She was looking at the front of shop and then I realized she actually stood up, smiled and greeted a bunch of Middle easterners who just walked in the shop. The irony of the situation was that, those bunch of middle easterners didn't even smile or respond back to her greetings.

  This particular incident diminished equality by each one looking down upon the other and thinking the other person is unworthy of a simple greeting or smile. This made me feel sad, angry and I couldn't do anything but laugh at the situation. I think the change needs to be done from the grass roots. Parents and social surroundings need to teach children how to respect and not be bias of others. I feel our generations or the generations before us have failed miserably in creating a world without bias, prejudice or even oppressions. We can change this so that the future generation can live in a better world. 

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

  I detected one microaggression incident this week. We were at the beach and my boys were playing with their beach toys in the sand. Many people were at the beach as well. One of the child ( who happens to be Norwegian based on the language they were speaking, I could be wrong) found one of my boys bucket which was left unattended and started playing with it. My boy later realized this and came to me and reported it. I told him that if he wants to play with it he could go and tell the child that the bucket is his and he wants to play with it or if he doesn't want to play with it yet he can let the child to play with it for a while. Of course he wanted to play with it immediately so he was insisting on me to go and get it. I refused as I wanted him to learn to tackle this kind of issue by himself. He was standing in front of the child but he didn't talk. He, then realized that the child speaks in Norwegian. Immediately he thought that the child only talks in Norwegian and not in English. So he shouted back loudly at me saying "she doesn't speak my language". I know he meant no harm but the child's parents were close by and they would have heard it. I have a feeling that they may have felt like a victim of microaggression. I would have if I was in their shoes.
  This week practice influenced me in such a way that I was very conscious with what I was saying and what others were saying to each other and whether there was any microaggression content in what was said. I would say I had become a little extra sensitive to my surroundings. 

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

  I am so lucky that I have friends who are all so different in so many ways but we have one thing in common which is our great friendship. I have contacted three of my friends who are from different culture, race, country and so on. Let's just say, Miss 'A' is from the US and she is of hispanic background, Miss 'B' is from Japan but has been living in the Netherlands for many years and also married to a Dutch and Miss 'C' is a Syrian who was born and brought up in Belgium. 
However, due to unforeseen circumstances, Miss 'C' could not come back to me on time. 

  Miss 'A' had explained culture and diversity closest to what I have learnt in this course. Culture and in her words "Culture is the way of life by a group of people, plain and simple. It isn't based on written rules, it is something that naturally happens and it affects how we choose to live and how we choose to perceive the world around us. Culture is influenced by everyday attitudes & thoughts, family values, ideas, traditions, beliefs, etc. We learn from our families and our communities what is culturally acceptable and not acceptable but as we grow, we find ways to adapt & learn from other cultures that we live in" where else Diversity in her words, "a mix of different groups of people with unique qualities". These unique qualities include elements such as cultures, races, ideas, attitudes, foods, music, beliefs...".

Miss 'B' however, spoke of culture and diversity based on what she knew of the Japanese way of life and the Dutch way of life and nothing beyond that.
It's very interesting to see my friends' perspectives on culture and diversity. Through this assigment, I have learnt that many people do not know the true meaning of culture and diversity including myself. Now when I see other's I know that I should acknowledge their differences and celebrate it.

My Family Culture

  I am a hindu but I am not a religious person. However, since small my parents have taught me to pray and I have come realise at some point in my life that, praying gives me strength and hope. So I will first take with me a picture of my God whom I have been worshipping since I was little. This has given me a lot of peace of mind and assurance that everything will be ok and the courage and power to face anything. Secondly, I want my children to always remember their family no matter what. I am not sure if we will all be together in the new host country, if we are not, I will bring a picture of my extended family to always remind my children of their origins and ancestors. Thirdly, I will bring my 'bindi' which is a red dot which we Hindu women put in the middle of our forehead to symbolize that we are married ( a black dot is for unmarried woman). Although many are not following this culture, I have been doing so since I was small. I can never leave the house without this. It reminds me of my culture and who I am. I will definitely bring this with me as well.

  If I was asked to keep only one personal item and give up the rest, I would feel like losing a family member. The sadness of leaving my own country and on top of that to give something dear to my heart which reminds me of my roots will be quite devastating for me. I am very much emotional about some of my personal belongings especially the ones that I have mentioned above.

  From this exercise, I have learnt that everyone are different as they come from a family which is unique by itself. Cultural diversity does not only mean the different race or religion however it goes beyond that. I never knew that I am so attached emotionally to all the things that I have mentioned above. This makes me so different even from my husband and my children. Cultural diversity exist even in our own family.  

When I Think of Research

 From this course, I have gained knowledge on many aspects of how to conduct an ethical and methodological research. After completing this course, I safely say that I am little overwhelmed with all the information that I had absorb in order to understand the true nature of doing research. My perspective about doing research has completely changed. My mind was a little all over whenever I think of research but now I think I can put things into perspective and come up with proper planning and design to conduct a quality research. I still do think I need a lot of practice before I can even do a quality research. The challenges that I faced during this course was my struggle to understand many of the terms in the textbook as English is a second language for me. I tried my best to overcome my challenges by discussing it with my colleagues and mentors in the field. As an early childhood professional, whenever I think about research, there are tonnes of issues within the field that needs to be addressed. 

  Having said all that, I have truly enjoyed this course and working along with my colleagues. Unfortunately I have been ill a long time during the course period which focussing in the course work was a big struggle for me. However, I enjoyed reading all of my colleagues posts and their feedbacks on my work. Thank you for your and Dr Todd's support. Hope to see you in the next course.