Although many of us try not to take out home baggage and struggles to work with us in some instances this feat is very hard to pursue. Carrying unwanted feelings of isolation, misunderstandings, judgment, and loneliness can affect the way we present ourselves around others regardless of if they are the cause of the problem. In terms of how various isms and injustice may affect the way educators present themselves to children, it is possible to see their parent's views influenced upon them and give us a bad taste of the beliefs and thoughts of not just caregivers but children as well.
An example I can think of when this situation occurred was one of my students asked me if I was white. At first, I thought I heard him say if I was alright so I put my thumb up, nodded, my head and said "yes honey I'm alright." The child then proceeded to shake his head and asked, if I was white then pulled out his arm to reveal his skin color. He then said if you're white you are alright but if you're not white then you are bad. This took me by shock. My initial thoughts were ones of hurt and frustration. This incident took place during the unjust protests of George Floyd occurring all over Philadelphia and other parts of the world. Our school is located in the heart of center city PA, and we even had to close and have early dismissal some days due to all the riots and protests occurring.
Before responding to the child I took a deep breath and asked why did they think only white people were good and others are bad. He said that that's what his daddy said and "it is what I see on TV." I then started to ask him how he felt about me being his teacher. I stated that I'm black, I'm kind and I am your friend, do you like me? The child smiled and nodded his head. I then asked about another Black student in the class and asked if she was his friend. I asked about this particular girl because she has been absent for a while because of COVID and he has been asking where she is a lot. He then said yes, "I like to play LEGOS with her." Perfect I exclaimed so if both me and she are your friends and we do not have White skin are all black people bad? He shook his head and said, "well not you guys but some are." I replied saying, this is true but sometimes everyone regardless of their skin color makes red choices and does something not so nice." He shrug and continued playing with his toy lion. Referring back to the readings from the text and Eric Hoffman from the media files in this course, Strategies for Working with Diverse Children, I have come to the knowledge that I should've had follow up activities and discussions with all the students in the class, not just a one time talk when the situation had occurred (Derman-Sparks & Edwards 2010).
After this incident, I discussed what I witnessed to leadership who then had a follow-up conversation with the child's parents discussing helpful books and resources to discuss diversity to young children.
In this instance I was able to slow my thought process down and offer effective dialogue however, there have been times with other colleagues or co-workers who are my age where I am not able to slow down my thinking and either walk away from the situation as a whole or engage in noneffective dialogue with the individual with whom I was upset with.
I am biased with my discussion with young children because I believe that they are still young and questioning and challenging social norms however with older individuals particularly ones that are older than my generation of adults I feel more heated and aggravated by them because I feel as if they are reluctant to change their thought process and biases and prejudice towards others. While participating in the courses at Walden University I am beginning to defunct my theory on this older generation refusing to change their prejudice and stereotypes of different cultures.
Reference
Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Microaggressions in everyday life [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Hi Kirsten, your post is a clear case of bias instilled in children right from their family. According to Derman-Sparks & Edwards (2010), young children develop pre-prejudice as they absorb negative attitudes, misinformation, and stereotypes about various aspects of human diversity. The management did a good job by engaging the parents to discuss that aspect of diversity. Sometimes, parents instill these pre-prejudice in their children indirectly as the children listen to their conversations or the way they act.
ReplyDeleteAll the same, teachers just have to find a way to discuss diversity issues on a child level at all times. Activities, books and roleplay can be very helpful.
Reference
Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
Hello Kristen, what a great example of how children influences and see their world. The way you handled the situation was very professional. As I work in the early childhood field I found out that several factors may influence early childhood development. Diversity environment can be challenging for early childhood educators to create an inclusive environment for all children. Early childhood educators must understand that diverse family experiences and needs to strengthen inclusion for the programs. Therefore, early childhood teachers must seek to drive specific components. These include a well-enhanced physical environment, interpersonal interactions, and a program-supported structure. A child involved in a more diversified environments develops better a better understanding and acceptance of diversity and with a lot of exposure, unlike a less diverse community Richter et al. (2017). The awareness of diversity in the early childhood field, including cultures, social identities, prejudice, Isms, and privilege, is the core body of knowledge that I have learned from this program.
ReplyDeleteReference
Richter, M., Daelmans, B., Lombardi, J., Heymann, J., Boo, L., Behrman, R. & Bhutta, A. (2017). Investing in the foundation of sustainable development: pathways to scale up for early childhood development. The Lancet, 389(10064), 103-118.
Thank you for your post, Kirsten. Our students are trying to figure things out constantly. The environment around them is constantly shaping and reshaping their thoughts, beliefs, and opinions (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010). The way the media portrays a number of situations can be extremely dangerous for our children if they overhear. Recently, I was getting dressed in the morning and we normally turn the local news on to get weather updates and good banter before the day. However, at 7 am, our local news channel ends, and national news begins. The first story was regarding the lawyer in South Carolina, Murdaugh murders (which did not get any airtime on the local SC news station), and the reporter made a statement about Alex Murdaugh and the killing of his son and wife. My 6-year-old comes to the bathroom saying, this man killed his son for $10. She was appalled by the entire story, wanting to know more with dozens of questions flying in the direction of my husband and me.
ReplyDeleteWe have to understand that our world is full of bad news. In the incident that occurred with you, I believe your student was trying to gauge your beliefs as he was forming his own. Is white alright and black not alright. I normally would use the same approach as you, let’s try to see if your “belief” is always true. You have a friend who is black, therefor black is alright too. Unfortunately, with the amount of input that is being shared with our students, I think we have to simply make the rule and respond according. No, it is not true that someone white is alright, and someone black is not alright. People of all colors will be alright or not alright by the things that they do. How do YOU know if a person is alright, what do “alright” people do? I think we need to be more definite to combat the questions that arise as our children see the divisive world all around us.
Reference:
Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, D. C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).