Microaggression

     Learning about microaggression and its compound effect on targets of it has made me ashamed of myself and the countless times I have been the person unintentionally causing discomfort to people I have been in contact with. I want to really learn to be able to distinguish between proper compliments and how they are worded and comments that constitute microaggression.

     My evening co-teacher is a beautiful black woman. She changes her hair regularly, sometimes wearing wigs, sometimes putting in extensions, sometimes doing her natural hair in creative ways. I found out black hair doesn't get washed too often. I am always telling her I wish I had her hair, which is listed as one of  "nine things everyone needs to stop saying to black women immediately"(Turner, 2014) because my options are: down, or ponytail. I can't skip two days washing, conditioning, and
blow drying, or my head would look like a greasy mess. But I feel I am being honest; I admire the versatility, and the apparent easy-care.

     I have also joked with a gay co-worker about his (assumed) sense of style, but it always seemed encouraged by him. Now I am wondering if my comments were first, or after his poking fun at himself.

 I would like to present a scenario to my colleagues for your opinion:

     I am a white, middle class, 50+ woman. I happen to listen to a lot of rap, among other types of music, probably because my 18 year old fills my playlist for me. While passing a table of co-workers chatting among themselves, all young, single people, the man at the table made a reference to an older song (I don't know the title) about wobble, baby, wobble, baby and I sang the verse and did a little dance. They all were shocked, laughed and made comments about my knowledge of the song words and hurting myself moving like that at my age.

     Should I have been offended? I did feel a little weird and thought maybe I should have kept to myself. Can members of the dominant culture be targets of micro aggression? I shudder at how many remarks I have made to my daughter's boyfriend about his whiteness, all in fun, but I'm sure he's tired of it. He said he was nicknamed sunscreen boy in college.

Reference:

Turner, E. (2014). Nine things everyone needs to stop saying to black women.  http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/10/9-things-stop-saying-black-women/
     

For my class assignment, I needed to ask three people their idea of what culture and diversity were. I asked a 25 year old white, middle class woman with a high school education, a black 23 year old with a college degree in sociology, and a 12 year old mixed race girl from a middle class family.

     The 25 year old white woman responded with the typical short answer regarding racial differences and being accepting of them. It opened up an interesting conversation, because of course I had to relay what I am learning. She said she did not think she had a culture, because to her that meant something which is actually diversity. Being like "most people" to her meant she was not different. She enjoyed discovering that she had some unique qualities, giving her culture!

     The black 23 year old college graduate knew exactly what I was asking and gave me a detailed description of her ethnicity, her heritage, and her culture (including the surface culture and deep culture!). Her definition of diversity was "varying characteristics people in a common interest group possess."

     I asked the older sister of one of my students what she thought of culture and diversity. She said that culture was how a person lives, and diversity was people being together who are different from each other.

     I felt the woman who was like me thought like I did at the beginning of this course--that because we are part of the main stream, and don't have any family traditions, that we did not have culture.
With the exception of my college graduate friend, only race was thought of when describing culture and diversity. Most people, if not properly educated, do not think of housing situations, parenting techniques, health care, work, religion, gender roles, or any of the multitude of deep culture characteristics. All these contribute to a person's identity, and their actions and reactions in social situations.

     I enjoy opening up my eyes to deeper meanings for people I don't know, and also enjoy telling others about it. It will help me to provide better educational opportunities for all the children and families I serve.

    

My blog assignment this week required more thought than any other. I needed to select three items that are important to me that I can take with me if I were to be relocated to a foreign country. I read the assignment on Sunday and the puzzle has been with me everyday, all day, all week. Is it pathetic that I have no such items? Nothing that represents my heritage, my culture, my beliefs? I have no family heirlooms, no recipe books, no special Bible or even photo albums. I do have boxes and boxes of recent family photos and vhs tapes that I treasure, but those would not be practical to take with me.
     I suppose my phone, which holds all my contacts, thousands of pictures, access to internet, maps, language translations, and currency conversions, would be the most valuable as well as practical for me to take. I also have a small Swiss army knife, given to me by my daughter, which means a lot and is also practical.
     My family has many works of art that were created by my grandfather and his brother. These are huge sculptures and paintings that are no smaller than 5'x10'. Most of them are in Italy, but my parents have a few paintings. I have photos of these items--on my phone.
I could not even come up with a third item. So, if I was told upon arrival in my new country that I could only have one thing, it would be my phone. As long as I had my family (which had better include my dog Sasha!) everything else is just stuff.
     From reading about the cultures that do exist in other families, and traditions they have enjoyed, I do feel a bit left out. But, my current family life is so fulfilling that I wouldn't dare complain.

     I do want to talk about my trip to Chicago this weekend. My husband and I had to find our way off the plane to the correct train, figure out how to buy a ticket from the machine, catch a bus going in the right direction, figure out how to pay that fare, determine which stop to get off and which direction to walk to find my daughter's new apartment. With all this discussion and the readings on my mind, I was gaining a slight perspective of what it would be like to find your way around in a completely new place, and you couldn't speak the language to ask for help. I have to give immigrants a lot of credit to be brave enough (or desperate enough) to attempt this.

     Before taking this course about building research competencies, I received  all research information as fact, with no questions. Having explored the many factors that can influence a study from beginning to end, I have many questions. My view when reading new information has changed. Instead of generalizing and accepting the question and the resulting analysis, I look for the researcher's reasons for the study, the context of the research question, the methods used and validity of the study.
     I have learned there are so many ways to approach finding out new information. Researcher's individuality can affect how the question or hypothesis is worded, the design that is followed, and the analysis of the data.  I found the many new terms and ideas difficult to understand at first as this is a subject I was totally unfamiliar with.  By supplementing the required and supplemental resources with explanations from the web, and by reading the information multiple times, I was able to gain an understanding of the material.
    Early childhood professionals must have a difficult time evaluating what new information uncovered is valid, and to what extent. As this field is gaining recognition for its importance in the development of our future generations, more studies are being done. Professionals have a large amount of information to sift through and judge its usefulness.
    I would like to thank all my colleagues for their thoughts, interpretations and real life examples. They have helped me to learn and understand an entire new subject area. Understanding how research is conducted and the many factors that influence it is not only interesting but very useful in discerning which new facts presented will be believed and which will not.

This website had to be bookmarked for future reference!  I was very impressed by the success it has enjoyed wholly on it's own, with no outside financial support. Being a self-sustaining non-profit organization, they avoid the risk of influence by special interest groups on the information it compiles and distributes.
    When exploring current research, I found it helpful that Journal submissions are categorized by most read, current, latest, and most cited. Browsing most read, many of the articles listed were about incorporating children into the research process, as we studied in this course. Articles such as:

•      Research with children: three challenges for participatory research in early childhood by Tim Waller & Angeliki Bitou
•      Introducing children's perspectives and participation in research by Deborah Harcourt & Johana Einarsdottir
•     Listening to young citizens: the struggle to make real a participatory paradigm in research with young children by Christine Pascal & Tony Bertram

spanning from 2009 to 2011. Latest articles held a mixed listing of topics dating as recently as November 17, 2014. Current articles and most cited articles gave me an idea of what is the current trend in the early childhood field. Reading these article titles and observing the dates written, it is obvious and exciting that around the world as well as in the U.S., the importance of a strong supportive experience in the earliest years  of humans is becoming accepted fact. Our professional field is gaining respect for the expertise that it requires and the major influence it can have on a child's trajectory.  Children, with the help of the UNCRC, are becoming visible and are more involved in their own development through pedagogy of guidance rather than authoritarianism. I feel like I am getting in on the ground floor of a maturing professional field!

Reference:

European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA)  Retrieved from: http://www.eecera.org/

Exciting concept of mixed age child care settings

     By comparing the work I do now in center-based care, where classes are grouped rigidly by age, with the home day care I operated for 12 years, I feel strongly that mixed age group care is more beneficial,  not only for the children, but for caregivers as well.

     In reading scholarly articles to determine if any experts had conducted research on this idea, information was limited. A study whose purpose was directed more toward teacher's ability to rate children based on postdevelopmental perspectives as opposed to developmental approaches gave many examples of benefits to the mixed age group setting. Scaffolded learning resulted in older children taking the lead, the younger children rising to challenges, empathy for the babies, and less stress for the caregivers. These are some quotes from the article:

   With regard to ELL's:

"This form of learning was perceived as particularly important to Gina, who worked in a centre with a large number of families whose first language was not English. She believed the multiage classroom contained a variety of skill levels in respect of language development which provided a framework for supporting

the children’s acquisition of English. A chronological classroom containing second-language learners would not necessarily have provided the younger children with the same level of exposure to the older children (Edwards, Blaise & Hammer, 2009)."

 

   With regard to teacher stress and social development:    

"The teachers discussed how, in multiage settings, older children were more likely to intervene when they saw a child upset, providing comfort and reassurance and creating a sense of community and caring within the group. They argued that this level of engagement was not normally possible in situations where all the children are of a similar age, and that having older children to spread the ‘developmental load’ reduced teacher stress associated with toddler tantrums, sharing, turn-taking, and the need to provide scaffolded support for appropriate peer interactions (Edwards, Blaise & Hammer, 2009)."
 

     With regard to cognitive development:

"Although these examples were expressed developmentally, they provided examples of children, particularly babies, working beyond their supposed ‘ages and stages’ of developmental progress. Thus two-year-olds confidently handling hammers and older children competently nurturing babies were reported as examples of how multiage grouping works to support children’s learning in ways not seen in traditional chronologically–based classrooms (Edwards, Blaise, & Hammer)."

  

     I loved all the observations made by the teachers in this article and wish I could post 75% of them to this blog. They overcame parent's worries about older children harming babies, shocked staff who were not teachers with the calmness and happiness of the classrooms, and provided positive social development to all the participants. I wish I could find more about this subject; if any of my colleagues has heard of research done on this I would appreciate the tip.

 

Reference:

 

Edwards, S., Blaise, M., & Hammer, M. (2009). Beyond developmentalism? Early childhood teachers' understandings of multiage grouping in early childhood education and care. Australasian Journal Of Early Childhood, 34(4), 55-63. Retrieved Nov. 15, 2014 from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=157c4832-337c-4316-9030-cf0e876695be%40sessionmgr4001&vid=11&hid=4109 

 

My Personal Research Journey

     My assignment is to attempt a simulated research on a subject that interests me. Throughout my life I have been fascinated by what drives a person to hurt defenseless children or animals. I have always been a gentle, caring person who loves to love and be loved, and I am so at a loss to understand what is going through people's minds who act in a hostile manner toward anyone. My child rearing did not involve any spanking, yelling, or manipulation. The three children I raised and the many children I cared for in my home day care are happy, successful people at different stages of their lives. My goal in working with children and families is to teach people how to raise their children with my methods, and proving that corporal punishment is not necessary will work toward that goal.
     My research subject will be "Is inappropriate student behavior displayed more or less by children who experience corporal punishment at home?"
     My first general search on the web led me to a blog called "Kidjacked", which although was not a quality source for data, did provide links to every state for the most updated laws regarding corporal punishment. The copyright for Kidjacked was 2014, but the notation on updates stated the last one was November 19, 2012. Many of the links led to current information, such as National Child Abuse Defense and Resource Center, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and InnocentDads.org.(http://kidjacked.com/, N.A., 2012)
     I plan on reading whatever updated information I can find on the Pearls, a couple who wrote a book about the proper use of corporal punishment. Their philosophy came to my attention when reading a news article about the arrest of parents who caused the death of their child from following the Pearl's methods (Eckhold, 2011).

References:

Eckhold, E. (2011). Preaching Virtue of Spanking, Even as Deaths Fuel Debate. NY Times, Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/us/deaths-put-focus-on-pastors-advocacy-of-spanking.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Kidjacked, Retreived from: http://kidjacked.com/

THE RESEARCH CHART
     I am having difficulty with the terms in the chapter for this week, and ultimately with the chart. I want to hear from my classmates--is anyone else finding this hard to understand? I am reading it over and over, but I think I need examples to understand it.
     What are some paradigms? Are there a specific set of "beliefs?" or are they infinite? Because ontology and epistemology's definitions rely on sets of beliefs, I don't really understand them fully either. Methodology is clearer to me because it is more concrete.
     Any laymans terms out there would be greatly appreciated.