Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

The biggest take-away I have from all the coursework I have taken on anti-bias education is that we need, as educators, to set the example of what we want our children to be. Children learn biases early on in life, from family systems, friends, classmates, well-meaning teachers and even different types of media.  Adults, even the most well-meaning adults, pass their biases and stereotypes onto children without even intending to.  My parents, when I was young, never really spoke out negatively about people who were different in my hometown.  As I have mentioned before, I come from a hometown where the people are almost all Caucasian and are from two parent families.  Anyone who was different was avoided, even if we were never given the indication that those different people were bad people.  So instead of speaking out negatively about these people, our lives were just arranged so that we would not come into contact with these people whenever possible.  So, I was never encouraged or given the opportunity to connect with people who were different.  I still to this day have to push myself to make connections with those I see as different from myself.  This discomfort was learned at an early age and reinforced by experiences in school and in college.  Now, in order to be a great anti-bias educator I need to remember Eric Hoffman’s comment “We need to learn to honor families ourselves in order to help children internalize respect and to help children learn to interact with others with fairness and equity.  They need to learn that even though families are different they are also a lot alike in many ways.  Children learn bias and stereotypes at an early age.  We need to remember we are to set the example of what we want them to become” (Laureate, 2011). If we want children to see others positively, we need to teach them to see the similarities between each other instead of the differences.  And if they see differences, they need to see them in a positive light (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).  

People are also influenced by the “isms” they are labeled with.  Even the most well-meaning people say and do things that negatively impact people from different classes, groups and cultures.  People make microaggressions on a daily basis without even being aware of them.  They make comments that insult those who are different without even being aware of it.  For example, people assume that all homosexual men are good at some sort of art, fashion or decorating when this isn’t always the case.  Asking a homosexual man to help with a home decorating project could be insulting instead of flattering.  Asking an overweight person if they exercise regularly could also be insulting because they could have a medical condition that doesn’t make it easy for them to lose weight.  We always need to think about the feelings of those who are different than us before we say or do something that might seemingly be harmless but isn’t (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).  

I know that a one of the “isms” I experience is single parent “isms”.  Although I am a single parent, I have many friends who are married.  They often talk about their husbands and how hard their lives are.  Although I love these people dearly, some of these ladies do not work or only work part time.  Here I am, a single mother, working full time, taking graduate classes and working a second job.  It is very hard to hear about how hard their lives are when they do not have any idea what a single parent struggles with on a daily basis.  When I think about the different backgrounds of my children in my classroom, I try to remember to think about what their struggles might be and how mine might even be insignificant compared to theirs.  Putting myself in their shoes is very important, especially when I want others to put themselves in mine.  We have to model that for our children and our families in order to make the connections with each to form the strong bonds needed to work proactively with families (Derman-Sparks &Edwards, 2010).

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, Inc. (2011). Strategies for working with diverse children: Learning about fairness: Culture, language, and economic class.Baltimore, MD: Author