Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

My husband, who was born in England and raised in England and South America, defines culture as the difference between different ethnic groups of people.  How they celebrate, what they eat, how they behave.  He defines diversity as what sets people apart from each other.  

My sister in law, who was born and raised in Michigan, defines culture as the way one group perceives another and defines diversity as the differences in people.  

A colleague of mine, who was born and raised in Las Vegas, defines culture as how we behave and defines diversity as what makes us unique.  

The answer from my friend reminds me of what Nadiyah Taylor stated in our video Family Culture from week 2, “Culture is our way of being in the world” (Laureate, 2011).  This explanation helped cement the meaning of culture in my brain.  The video from week 3, Culture and Diversity, also helped cement the meaning for me.  Before watching the videos, I thought of culture in terms of celebrations, food, customs; the same things my husband stated above.  After listening to Janet Gonzalez –Mena speak in our video, I realized I was only looking at the surface things.  The things that Janet refers to as the “10% of the iceberg you can see”. (Laureate, 2011). 

One thing that was not mentioned by any of my friends/family was the fact that culture is learned from the people around you, something Janet Gonzalez-Mena mentioned in the video Culture and Diversity.  This class has helped me realize this point.  I look back at many of my habits and everyday actions and realize I am my mother to a tee. 

Listening to others define culture and diversity made me realize just how difficult they are to define.  Each person I asked took a couple minutes to think about their answer before they responded.  I enjoyed listening to their various responses and discussing each topic with them. 

Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). Culture and diversity. Perspectives on Diversity and Equity [DVD]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). Family culture: Dynamic interactions. Perspectives on Diversity and Equity [DVD]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

My Family Culture

Imagine the following:

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.
Blog about all of the following:

• A description of the three items you would choose
• How you would explain to others what each of these items means to you
• Your feelings if, upon arrival, you were told that you could only keep one personal item and have to give up the other two items you brought with you
• Any insights you gained about yourself, your family culture, diversity, and/or cultural differences in general, as a result of this exercise

The first item I would bring is our box of family photo albums.  This would be something we could always look back on to help remember the big and little special moments we had in the past.  The second item I would bring is our video camera to help us preserve new memories. We could use it to take videos and pictures of our new experiences and make new memories.  The third item would be a collection of family recipes. Everyone in our family gave my husband and I their favorite family recipe in a beautiful box as part of our wedding gifts.  This is something we can pass on to our children to help represent how food played a role in our family culture.

If I was told upon arrival I could only keep one of the items, I would be devastated.  It would not bother me to give up the video camera, but I would not be able to choose between the family photos or recipes.  They both mean so much to our family.

This assignment made me realize what things are truly important to my family and what we could not live without.  

When I think of Research...

Before this class, research was very intimidating to me.  I am still intimidated by it now, but I also feel like I have a better grasp on the main concepts involved.  The articles that guided us to the important aspects in a research paper were very helpful to me and something I will use for years to come.  

I realized that research is not as scary as I once thought, although the terms used in the studies and in our text book were difficult for me and something I still struggle with.  I knew there was a lot that went into planning a research study, and while it’s an area I still struggle with, I do feel more comfortable with the research planning process. 

One area I struggled with was narrowing down my research topic.  I started with a topic that was much too broad.  With the questions and help for Professor Davis, I was able to narrow down my topic to something that hopefully would turn into a successful research project.  There are still more specifics I need to work out, but overall, I am very pleased with my topic.  

Thank you to everyone for their insightful conversations on our discussion boards.  I have learned from all of you and wish you the best in your future classes. 

Research Around The World

I explored http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/ .  It is a wonderful site that is easy to maneuver through.  Some of the international research topics I found were: learning and teaching through play, dealing with bullying, respecting diversity, engaging and building a strong communication with families, and many more.  

I was surprised to find while exploring the site that half of the world’s refugees are children.  I guess I never thought about how many children would be impacted.  Children would be impacted even more and at greater risk for adverse effects from being uprooted from everything familiar.  

I enjoyed the links to articles from Every Child magazine. It is a publication focusing on the early years in a child’s life and includes various topics that address the issues that arise in the early years.  It is a link I will be revisiting. 

Research That Benefits Children and Families

I used naeyc.org for my resource this week.  I found an article from Dr. Alison Gopnik, who has been doing research on young children for 20 years.  I remember Dr. Gopnik from video resources from my first few classes here at Walden.  The article focuses on ways Dr. Gopnik has seen children benefit from play. She has confirmed through her research that children learn through exploring and playing.  This study extremely important for young children and the people who care for them.  With the state of education and the increasing academic demands on our young children, it is studies like this that will help educators fight to keep play in their classroom.  

"Children are eventually going to learn to recognize letters. But learning how people work and what’s in others’ minds is a much deeper and more profound learning. Ironically, parents who think they are helping their children by exposing them to flash cards with letters on them are doing less to help their children than parents who expose their children to pretend play, read to them, and talk with them" (Gopnik, 2009).  This is my favorite quote from the article and one that I feel I will referencing in my research.


http://www.naeyc.org/files/tyc/file/TYC_V3N2_Gopnik.pdf

My Personal Research Journey

The topic related to the early childhood field that I would like to know more about is the benefit of play in the early childhood classroom.  I have broken this topic down into three related subtopics:  1. play and brain development, 2. play and social development, 3. the teacher’s role in classroom play.  The reason I chose this topic is because of what I see happening in my school and my classroom every day. 

This is my eleventh year of teaching and I am sad to say that I have seen play slowly worked out of the school day.  I taught first grade for 8 years and this is my third year teaching kindergarten.  Many of the things I am teaching in kindergarten currently were part of my first grade curriculum years ago.  I also have many students who have never been in a school setting before coming to my classroom and do not have the opportunity to play with other children their age in their neighborhoods.  The only time they have any interaction with their peers is the two and a half hours they are in my room.  I also have students who are learning English as a second language.  The only time they get to practice English in a risk free setting is when they are talking to their peers during play time.  Unfortunately the increasing difficulty of the standards does not leave much time for free play, or so my administrators and district leaders think.

If anyone has resources or personal experiences that would help me in my research journey, I would greatly appreciate it.  If I find any helpful information, I will be sure to pass it on.  I am looking forward to learning with all of you!

Final Blog Assignment

I have enjoyed contacting someone who teaches in another country and hope to keep in contact with her in the future.  Three consequences for me from learning about the international early childhood field is:
1. Make contact with a fellow educator who teaches outside of The United States.
2. Become aware of early childhood education in other countries.  Learn about issues related to young children and education in that country. 
3. Discover new early childhood resources used and available in other parts of the world that may be used in The United States as well.

One goal I have is to try and create new international contacts in other countries and build my professional education community.