Communication Skills

Communication is a key aspect of our daily lives and interactions with others, in my immediate circle of people there are several people that I would consider effective and competent communicators both at work ant at home. One of these people is my direct supervisor, he is always clear in his  communication, with everyone he comes in contact with. He is always honest and shares information that is necessary to be effective in my work. When he is speaking he is at ease, and provides an atmosphere of collaboration and free expression of ideas  and perspectives without fear of reproach. All of these things I admire in him, but what I like most his is courage to express himself and share his beliefs and convictions with others. I sometimes struggle with expressing my ideals and convictions to other and shy away from communicating my personal beliefs. This is one area that I would like to grow and become more like him.

Discrimination in the media

Last weekend my sisters and I watched a few movies and as I watched them I was struck by the discrimination that I saw in both movies. The first movie we watched was Mc Farland USA, in this movies there were several incidents of racial bias, stereotyping, and discrimination. As I watched this was struck by the strength in the children in the movie, and of my own children who are half-Mexican and have at times have faced discrimination or been stereotyped based on their ethnicity.

My daughters were on my  mind in the second movie The Duff, in this movie the comments and gender stereotypes that were the basis of this movie. As I watched this movie I felt disgusted about how the guys and girls treated each other, and everything was based on the way the girls look and that their looks were tied to their value and self-worth.

The media portrayal of race, ethnicity, and gender perpetuates the message that thin-beautiful white people and traits that are valued. I see how many young people buy into these beliefs and how much damage they do the younger generation. In order to begin to change the mindset of youth, we need to change the messages we are sending them through the media and our own interactions with each other.

Micro-aggressions

This week I was talking to a co-worker about my mom, who we are looking to move into an assisted living senior building or other such facility. The person I was talking to is of another ethnic group. As we talked about my mom the second I mentioned an assisted living or senior  home her body language shifted slightly and she said "Are you sure you want do do that, My mom would come live with me if she couldn't be on her own anymore". I felt that she was judging me and something was wrong with my family because none of my siblings are offering to take her in and care for her.

Since reading this week about micro-aggressions and biases, I felt more comfortable about telling her that I understood that different families have different cultural values and believes on to best support aging parents, and what is right for my mom, may not be right for hers or for my in-laws.  Since studying Micro-aggressions I have been much more aware of how I treat others and take an additional second before I say something that might be judgemental or biased against someone.

Discussion about Culture

This week  I attended a diversity training and had a great conversation about culture and diversity with several of my colleagues. For many culture was described as the aspects of their personalities that make them unique. There was a general consensus that culture goes beyond race and ethnicity,  and can be described as the customs and values that unite a group of individuals.

Some of the aspects that were discussed as part of culture were religion, family values, respect for elders, views on parenting, education, the way we dress, food preferences, and political affiliations. Then we looked at the iceberg model of culture.

This led to more discussion of culture, and how some did not realize how we look at and view individuals with special needs. One person shared how he was always told that he needed to be tough and not to cry when he was hurt. He said that this was how it was for all of the boys in his family. He struggled when he had his son and wanted him to be sensitive and be able to express emotion, but felt pressure from his family to not caudal him and "make him tough".

As I listens to the discussion, I though about how my value system is shaped by culture. This includes how I approach problems and thoughts on illness. As an early childhood educator it is important to understand how families view illness.  For some families there is the belief that being cold can cause illness and bundle their children up. It is important to respect the differences of all families and in order to do that we need to understand our cultural beliefs and biases.

Family Culture

In the field of Early Childhood Education we are often asked to examine our family cultural views are the importance of cultural items. This week as I look at cultural and diversity I was asked if I needed to be evacuated to a foreign county what three small items would I take and why. This was hard for me to answer, because I don't feel that I have any tangible items that are of cultural significance to me. There are several things that are of sentimental value to me and my family, including pictures, but don't carry any cultural value to me, My culture is ingrained in me, it cannot be reduced to trinkets or items. It is who I am to my core, my attitude, ideals, and views on life, politics, parenting etc. These traits I would carry with me wherever I go. If I had to pick one tangible  item I guess it would be my wedding ring, I would take this because it is a part of my social identity and a way to hold my family close to me.

When I think of research...

Over the last several years there has been a growing understanding for the need quality research to benefit the field of early childhood education. There has been much political discussion on the importance of the high quality early childhood education, not only to support school readiness but also to support the future of our society. As I embarked on research I felt that only those advancing the field and work research universities in the field. As I read literature on my issue, I saw the importance of including professionals at every level in the process. Classroom teachers need to understand their role in classroom research, and that they are researchers investigating and discovering what the children in their care are showing them and each day. 

In planning research it is important to look at all of the factors and implications of the research topic. I learned that all research has intended and unintended consequences, and all of these need to be considered. As I looked at the why and how of working with children that have challenging behaviors I needed to look at several factors and take several things into consideration. This caused some challenges and I needed to continually examine my own beliefs and value systems to avoid bias in the process of design my study.

This has been a great process and has allowed me to grow in my own competency level in the field. I learned that every person in the field needs to be an active participant in advancing quality through research.

International Early Childhood Research

Around the world the field of early childhood education is booming with research about supporting the physical, emotional, and social development of young children. This week I spent time reading some of the research projects that were done by graduate students at the Early Childhood Development Virtual College in Sub- Saharan Africa. Many of these research studies were about parent education, engagement, and collaboration. These studies were conducted in different African countries, but all researchers understood the importance of the family in early childhood development.

As I explored the research papers and the ecdvu.org website I found that the trend was community building and working with the families, this is not only important internationally or in developing nations, but something that we need to spend more time researching how to support children and families in our own communities.

On the ecdvu.org website there are country profiles for the students who were part of the first Master’s program. I strongly recommend that when there is extra time in your day that you read some of the research as well as the country profiles.

Focused Research

This week I was asked to imagine that I had unlimited funds and resources to conduct research that would have a lasting impact on the field of early childhood education. As I pondered this I thought about autism research primary in developing therapies to address social-emotional impact of autism in girls as that is a subject that close to me, but as I thought about my week meeting several advocates for Head Start and knowing that many members of our Congress are not convinced of the lasting benefits of Head Start I decided that if I could I would conduct a longitude study on the positive effects of Head Start on low income children and the working poor.

Head Start currently serves over a million children a year providing more than just an early start for school, but also provide medical screenings and nutrition, as well as parent education. They provide a vital service to the country, but is already underfunded leaving several communities who are in the most need of quality early education without it, and programs currently in operation are always in fear of losing funding. If a long term study that looks at the the fiscal impact of Head Start be able to show policymakers that the return on investment on early care and education is worth the initial cost both fiscally and and on  society as a whole could be conducted I think that it would have a lasting impact on the field.

Research Simulation

Early Childhood Research

All early childhood professionals are researchers, we continually research and investigate what children are learning and how to add the the environment to aid in their learning. It takes time and practice to become a proficient researcher. Over the next several weeks I will be conducting a research simulation on working with young children who have challenging behaviors, specifically how the education level of a teacher impacts how young children develop self-regulation and the emotional language to work through challenging behaviors.

In my role as early education director I receive calls almost daily from parent who have children who have been asked to leave another preschool due to behavior problems. This increase is of interest to me as I plan and lead staff development workshops on how to support these children and their families.

As with most things assistance and support is key to success so in order for me to have a successful simulation I need and ask for support from my colleagues not only through literature, but from stories of challenging behaviors in different early childhood settings.

International Early Childhood Education

Over the past several weeks I have been looking at quality early childhood care and education both in the United States and internationally. It is through this research via it be through international contacts, professional organizations, newsletters, blog posts, videos, or pod cast this has consequences both for the profession and myself personally. These consequences can be both positive and negative.
1. They say knowledge is power, but it is actually what you do with the knowledge that is power. When you aware of an issue you have a choice to act or to ignore. It is through the action of those working in the field that we will begin to see change and this change will impact the globe for years to come. There are so many opportunities to become part of the international world of early childhood education to help improve the lives of children everywhere.
2. We live in a global world and that means an increase in communication of needs, issues and successes in the field. We need to communicate with one another and collaborate for change.
3. As humans we tend to make comparisons and I have seen this in many of my readings and research. We compare the systems of early care and education in countries around the world. We need to use this comparative research to determine what systems and standard yield the best results for children and create a universally recognized set of criteria in which to measure quality and effective programs around the world.

I have though a lot about where my career is taking me in the field and as my life situations have changed over the past several months I feel that I need to begin to look beyond my local community and have a larger impact on the field than I can do at the local level. I don't know what this looks like right now, but it is something that I will be spending a lot of time looking into.