Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

“Microaggressions may be based on socioeconomic status, disability, gender, gender expression or identify, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion. These insults or insensitivities may be exhibited by students or adults within the school community” (Bui, Ogaz, Portman, & Treviño, n.d.).

When I was teaching early childhood special education, many of my students were exposed to microaggressions due to their age and disabilities.  My students were referred as “those kids” or “babies” by teachers and some students from other classes and grade levels.  My students were three-, four-, five-, and six-year-olds with varying abilities.  Because my students had disabilities that ranged from autism, Down Syndrome, deaf/blind, intellectual disability, et al., they were thought to be baby-like, unintelligent, and retarded. 

One day, I heard a kindergarten student say, “look at the babies in that classroom.”  This hurt my heart to hear my students referred to as babies by their peers.  I knew this was a learned term for my students because the student’s teacher would ask her class to watch out for the babies when we shared the playground at recess.  A couple days later, I noticed two kindergarten girls watching my students coloring with sidewalk chalk during recess.  I walked over to the students and invited them to come draw pictures with our class.  When they joined us, I purposefully introduced them to one of my five-year-old students.  I asked them, “how old are you?”  When they both responded that they were five-years-old, I said, “no way, Kimberly is five-years-old, too.  Wow!  Y’all are the same age.”  When they realized that Kimberly and some of my other students were the same age as them, my students were no longer known as babies. They were called by their first names when the kindergarten students passed them in halls and played with them on the playground. 

Children learn by listening, watching, and following the lead of the adults in their life.  The adults include their parents, grandparents, and teachers.  You cannot make people change but you can lead by example.  Children learn from adults, and sometimes they learn more from other children.  The two girls that joined my class at recess time, learned that my “babies” were their same-age and had names just like them.  As they started learning my students’ names, so did their classmates. 

Reference:

Bui, T.T., Ogaz, J., Portman, J., & Treviño, J. (n.d.).  Examples of Microaggressions in the Classroom.  Retrieved March 30, 2019 from https://www.messiah.edu/download/downloads/id/921/Microaggressions_in_the_Classroom.pdf

Perspectives on Culture and Diversity

This week, I reached out to my brother, sister, husband, oldest son, and friends.  I asked them what their definitions for “culture” and “diversity” were.  These are the responses I received…

Culture

v “Culture is the norm for a group of people… the way they act, talk, interact, behave, support one another, dress, etc.  They have customs that are specific to them.  Cultures are everywhere…in a home, school, classroom. Business, church, club, organization, office, team, etc.”

v “Culture, in a global perspective, is what makes each country distinct.  It is the way of life that makes each group of people different.  In a non-global perspective, it is each of our historical backgrounds, as well as our learned traits, that create the way we live.”

v “Culture is the religion, food, way of life with different ethnicity.  Their history and background which makes them unique and their own culture.”

v “Culture is a belief system of a particular group. To me that could be as small as family interactions and traditions or larger groups such as regional groups, ethnic, or religious.  Also, the social aspect of old versus young generations. Why do we do what we do and how we go about doing things within those groups.”

v “Culture is a shared or group identity that a person associate with. Usually based on traditions, it defines boundaries for a person’s beliefs, actions, and lifestyle. A culture can also be based upon a profession, religion, or any commonality that a person identifies or wants to identify with. Sometimes used as a justification for the infringement on the beliefs of others.”

v “Cultures have mores-unwritten expectations that are deeply ingrained, formed from shared values and beliefs.  People find identity and a sense of belonging from these expectations.”

Diversity

v “Diversity means everyone is not the same in race, sex appearance, religion, likes, dislikes, beliefs, cultures, experiences, sexuality, socioeconomic status (SES), abilities, etc.  The differences are accepted, appreciated, and respected.”

v “Diversity is when many cultures are living and existing together.”

v “Diversity is different ethnic groups of people living and working together.  All have different cultural backgrounds and have their own way of lifestyle.”

v “Diversity is the differences within all of these groups.  For example, my husband and I realized how broad diversity was when we were looking for a church.  We had always been Baptist but wanted to explore.  What we found, even within the Baptist churches was that there were many points of differences within all of them.  Whether they were southern, central, etc.  Some were still traditional (white only, older traditional music only).  Some were more contemporary and seem to forget about the old parishioners, and some offered both traditional and contemporary while also encoring opportunities to work together.  To us that was where we wanted to be. Where differences are accepted and even celebrated.”

v “Diversity is broad, many faceted, diversity is the use of a bigger realm or field than a single item or concept.  To me, cultural diversity is an awareness for the beliefs and lifestyles of cultures different from your own. Does not necessitate a respect for the difference, just an acknowledgment that a difference exists.”

v “Diversity is a broad spectrum of differences within a group. The more people are exposed to diversity the more there is a chance for acceptance of different cultures, view, uniqueness, and lifestyles.”

Six different definitions from men and women ranging between the ages of twenty-two to fifty-five.  These definitions were their definitions composed based on their individual knowledge, experience, and belief.  The overall theme or definition of culture was the identity shared by a group of people based on their beliefs, region, way of life, language, et al. while diversity is the acceptance, respect, celebration of similarities and differences between individuals and cultures.  Six different individuals gave different definitions with a unified theme.  That is powerful!!

My Family Culture

Scenario:  A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of your country. 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.  What are the three items you chose?

This is a tough question to answer since I am not a materialistic person.  My husband and two sons are my important possessions.  They are the foundation of who I am, my beliefs, customs, and culture.  When searching the worldwide web for the definition of culture, a definition posted by an associate professor on the Texas A&M University people.tamu.edu web-page caught my attention.  It defined culture as being “the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving” (Choudhury, n.d.).  To me, my family culture is founded on the knowledge, experiences, beliefs, values, et al. that have been acquired and passed on through the generations.  The material objects can always be replaced, the memories, stories, knowledge, beliefs, et al. are irreplaceable. 

My grandparents, aunt, uncle, and parents have all passed away.  I have some family heirlooms, such as dishes, bibles, jewelry, and trinkets, that have been past down.  They are keepsakes, but they do not replace the knowledge, experiences, and memories of my family that I have shared with my sons.  They never met my aunts or uncles and paternal grandparents, and they briefly met my maternal grandparents that came to visit my parents once a year.  They did, however, know my mother and father and could maintain their memories of their experiences with them, the values they taught them, and the traditions they shared in their hearts and mind. 

I truly had to chose three items to take with us.  I guess one item that I would choose to take our laptop computer because it is our communication connection with my siblings, it provides access to digital pictures of family members (present and past) that have been saved on servers and in the cloud, and it allows us to recover music, recipes, information, and data that is important to our family and culture.  Another item would be our family bible.  The bible is a connection to our belief system and religion.  Neither my husband nor I were raised as active members of a church, but we do believe in God and Jesus Christ and the foundations of our religion as a Methodist and Baptist.  We have shared our religion, beliefs, and traditions with our sons.  It may sound wrong, but we can access the bible online or purchase a new family bible.  Our beliefs and traditions are within us, so the bible may not be an essential item if I had to narrow it down to just one item.  I am struggling to choose a third item.

To complete this exercise, I walked around my house opening cabinets, drawers, closets, and just inventorying our possessions and attempting to prioritize their importance to my family and to my culture.  My overall realization is everything we own is just stuff, and what is most important to carry on our tradition, beliefs, knowledge of the past, religion, et al. is my family.  I can live anywhere in the world without my material items, just as long as I have my husband and two sons with me.  

References:

Choudhury, Ifte. (n.d.). Culture. Retrieved March 16, 2019 from

http://people.tamu.edu/~i-choudhury/culture.html. 

When I Think of Research...

I think about my research simulation question about how the establishment of an inclusive culture in an early childhood classroom improve the social interaction and friendships developing between children with and without disabilities.  Inclusion is more than just including children with disabilities in the general education classroom, it is about building friendships, belonging, and allowing all children the opportunity to grow and develop to their fullest potential.

Inclusive education is a child’s right, not a privilege. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act clearly states that all children with disabilities should be educated with non-disabled children their own age and have access to the general education curriculum (2004).  “The “Policy Statement on Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in Early Childhood Programs,” released jointly by the Departments of Education (ED) and Health and Human Services (HHS) on September 14, 2015, states that all young children with disabilities should have access to inclusive high-quality early childhood programs, where they are provided with individualized and appropriate support in meeting high expectations” (ED, 2017).

An inclusive culture in an early childhood classroom benefits all the children, their families, educators, and overall all of society.  All parents want their children to be accepted, have friends, and grow up to be successful members of society.  Children develop a positive understanding of themselves and others when educated in an inclusive classroom that appreciates diversity, supports similarities and differences, and nurtures the development of empathy.   Friendship develop and maintain between all children, with and without disabilities, in and out of the classroom.  Children with and without disabilities learn coping skills, social and communication skills through friendship. “Because the philosophy of inclusive education is aimed at helping all children learn, everyone in the class benefits. Children learn at their own pace and style within a nurturing learning environment” (PBS, 2012).  In other words, children benefit when the principles of universal design for learning (UDL) is incorporated to support each child’s learning style as he or she is expected to learn to read, write, and do math.

This course has opened my eyes to understanding how much research-based studies benefit children, their families, and educators. Including research-based strategies can become an “innovative approach to strengthening the professional development of early childhood professionals” (Henderson, Meier, Perry, & Stremmel, 2012).  

References:

Henderson, B., Meier, D.R., Perry, G., & Stremmel, A.J. (2012), The nature of teacher research. Retrieved January 9, 2019 from https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/resources/pubs/Nature%20of%20Teacher%20Research.pdf. 

Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). (2004). Retrieved March 1, 2019 from https://sites.ed.gov./idea/.  

Public Broadcasting Station (PBS). (2012). The Benefits of Inclusive Education. Retrieved March 1, 2019 from http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/learning-disabilities/inclusive-education/the-benefits-of-inclusive-education. 

U.S. Department of Education (ED). (2017).  Early Learning: Inclusion.  Retrieved March 1, 2019 from https://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/earlylearning/inclusion/index.html.