The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice and Oppression

One hope I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds:  

My hope for working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that I will use my knowledge about diversity and culturally responsive practices to serve these families in my best capacity.  I hope that I will be a role model for both my colleagues and my students in regard to incorporating culture into my instruction and classroom environment as well as how to appropriately respond to students and adults of different cultures and backgrounds.  I will also have to learn how to be open minded because what I am learning now to best serve our populations might not be best practices five years from now because our populations will be constantly changing. 

One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice:

I have been in the same school for the last twenty years.  I have seen my student population move from an almost all white middle to upper class population to a school with many Asian, Hispanic and African American students. Teachers who have been employed at my school and in the school system who have not attended any diversity classes really are at a loss at how to best serve these students.  I think that trainings on how to best serve diverse populations are greatly needed in the school systems.  At my school, we have had a few trainings on equity and equality but it only scratches the surface when dealing with diverse students.  We need much more than this.  We need trainings on how to become culturally responsive educators. 

A brief note of thanks to my colleagues: 

I’d like to thank my colleagues for being advocates of diversity and cultural responsiveness. I’d like to thank them for challenging me to think in different ways about people and situations because my backgrounds and experiences are different then their backgrounds and experiences.  They have helped me open up my mind to different viewpoints. I’d like to think I have done the same for them with the knowledge from my own background and experiences.



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