What I Have Learned

When working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds, my hope is that I can support each child’s optimal development by making anti-bias themes part of everyday lessons.  My hope is to continue working on becoming a more equipped anti-bias educator so that I can support the growth of each and every child that are in my class.  I also hope to continue to build strong relationships with the families whom I work with and that this will allow families to become more part of our anti-bias program at school.  As the more families become part of a program of anti-bias education, the more their children are likely to develop anti-bias identity, knowledge, empathy, and skills (Derman-Sparks and Edwards, 2010, p. 39).

One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field related to diversity, equity, and social justice is to provide teachers in the field of early childhood education with more professional development opportunities that include these topics.  As not all educators working in this field have had the opportunity to take an anti-bias education class. Therefore, not all educators are equipped with implementing an anti-bias curriculum.  There are a lot of educators that are not able to appropriately and properly implement an anti-bias curriculum as they do not have the tools to do so.  I believe that we who have learned how to implement an anti-bias curriculum can make changes, however, I do feel that more change can happen when all educators are informed and equipped in teaching about diversity, equity, and social justice.

Thank you to all for supporting my growth and journey of becoming an anti-bias educator.  Through your blogs, comments and discussion posts I was able to learn and grow as an early childhood educator.  Wishing you all the best of luck with your next course!

“It is not our differences that divide us.  It is our inability to recognize accepts and celebrate those differences.” – Audre Lorde

References

Derman-Sparks and Edwards (2010). Anti-Bias Education for young children and ourselves. Washinton DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Start Seeing Diversity: Creating Art

 

Paint Brushes: Photo by RhondaK Native Florida Folk Artist on Unsplash (RhondaK Native Florida Folk Artist, 2016, P.1)

Hand supporting tree: Photo by Neil Thomas on Unsplash (Thomas, 2017, p. 1)

Apples: Photo by Fischer Twins on Unsplash (Twins, 2017, p. 1)

Rocks: Photo by Deniz Altindas on Unsplash (Altindas, 2015, p. 1)

Hand: Photo by Ian Espinosa on Unsplash (Espinosa, 2017, p. 1)

Paintbrushes: It is important that parents and teachers support children as they demonstrate awareness of stereotyping, as this will allow children to “foster critical thinking and respectful relationships” (Derman-Sparks and Edwards, 2010).  The paint brushes remind me of the children and the different colored paint represents the knowledge and education we should provide children with regard to recognizing stereotypes and biases appropriately.  With the correct and appropriate knowledge children can paint a beautiful picture.

Hand supporting tree: Research has indicated that early intervention and the promotion of strengths and resilience can help to avoid negative outcomes caused by physical and emotional trauma or abuse (Kisiel, Summersett-Ringgold, Weil and McClelland, 2017).  The hand supporting the tree represent resilience and therefore regardless of the environmental influences like the wind, the tree is still standing and growing as it has resilience.

Apples:  Some apples look different, but that’s just normal.  One of the main aspects of anti-bias education is to focus on developmentally appropriate practices that will support and develop each child’s fullest potential (Louise Derman-Sparks and Edwards, 2010).  By focussing on this we could help children understand the view of that being different is normal and being “different is just how people are!” (Derman-Sparks and Edwards, 2010).

Rocks:  This picture reminds me of the role that adults and teachers play in children’s lives, especially when children are going through trauma or abuse.  As from this weeks video segment about Quinn’s story, we learn how possible outcomes are possible when a child does receive the help that they need and are able to build resilience (Laureate Education, n.d).  This picture to me illustrates what it means when children receive the support that they need.

Hand: Children and adults who are going through or went through abuse or trauma need help.  If they do not receive the help and support that they need, they will drown in the negative outcomes caused by physical and emotional trauma or abuse.  From Quinn’s story, we can see what could happen to a child when they drown in the negative outcomes caused by physical and emotional trauma and/or abuse (Laureate Education, n.d). 

References

 

Altindas, D. (2015, October 08). Rocks Stacked. Retrieved from unsplash.com: https://unsplash.com/photos/t1XLQvDqt_4

Derman-Sparks and Edwards. (2010). Anti-Bias Education for young children and ourselves. Washinton DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Espinosa, I. (2017, July 15). Let me drown. Retrieved from unsplash.com: https://unsplash.com/search/photos/help

Kisiel, Summersett-Ringgold, Weil, and McClelland (2017, February 01). Understanding Strengths in Relation to Complex Trauma and Mental Health Symptoms within Child Welfare. Retrieved from https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=0541196d-0362-4bca-a2e9-72684e31581d%40sessionmgr120

Laureate Education. (n.d). Learning from Another’s Life Story: Traumatic Influences. Retrieved from http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/EDUC/6357/CH/mm/audio_player/index_week7.html

RhondaK Native Florida Folk Artist (2016, April 14). Paintbrushes. Retrieved from unsplash.com: https://unsplash.com/search/photos/paint-brushes

Thomas, N. (2017, August 03). Hand Supporting Tree. Retrieved from unsplash.com: https://unsplash.com/search/photos/help

Twins, F. (2017, September 30). Red Apples. Retrieved from unsplash.com: https://unsplash.com/photos/uSPjZzYwXO4

Start Seeing Diversity: “We Don’t Say Those Words in Class!”

A couple of weeks ago I had a child in my class that noticed how different another classmate spoke because of his accent and mentioned it the class during a class discussion.  She asked: “why do you speak like that?”, and giggled while asking the question.  I firmly told her that she shouldn’t say that and asked her to apologize to the classmate.  I made it very clear that we do not make fun of people who talk differently than ourselves.  I started asking students how they would feel if someone laughed at the way they walked or talked.  It became an interesting class discussion.  It was already very difficult for this student to settle in and make friends, therefore after hearing this comment from another student was heartbreaking for me.  By asking her to apologize I may have given her the message that recognizing differences are not good and we shouldn’t recognize differences.  However, it is important to set clear and firm limits anytime a student is being hurt either physically or emotionally (Derman-Sparks and Edwards, 2010).  Instead of only asking her to apologize I could have explained to her that it is good to recognize differences but we shouldn’t make fun of classmates when we recognize these differences or make fun of classmates because of their differences.  I could have then gone on with the discussion on feelings involved when we make fun of each other because of our differences.

It is important to recognize differences, as it will allow us to respect each other, build pride as well as prevent challenging prejudice thinking that could grow into a bias of some sort (Laureate Education, n.d).

References

Derman-Sparks and Edwards. (2010). Anti-Bias Education for young children and ourselves. Washinton DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Laureate Education [Producer]. (n.d). Start seeing diversity: Race/ethnicity [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

When I first started working at a school in Bangkok, I soon started realizing how it is impossible to find an Asian doll for children to play with.  The first week of working with my first group of children I noticed how more than half of my students were Asian, but there were no books and no toys in the classroom that reflected their culture, or any other culture other than white Europeans.  All the books especially the books with human characters all looked white European.  I couldn’t find one single book in the classroom with Thai people, or any other culture in it or even just something like food or customs that represented the Thai culture, or any other culture.  Research has clearly indicated how play in early childhood is an important element of promoting cultural awareness (Rettig, 2009).  The relationship between play and cultural diversity is significant as we have a rapidly growing population and therefore more and more children from very diverse backgrounds are entering our schools (Rettig, 2009).  Through play, children learn about cultural beliefs and values and through play children also learn about the world around them (Rettig, 2009).  I was on a mission to find dolls, toys and books that represent different cultures as I have learned how through play I can provide children with positive learning experiences about human differences and similarities, which will help children in resisting incorrect and harmful messages about themselves and also about other people (Derman-Sparks and Edwards, 2010).  To be honest, it was so very difficult for me to find Asian dolls, books in which characters are not only white Europeans and also family toys that are of different cultures.

In the video segment, it is mentioned how a teacher had to guide children’s thinking of stereotypes that were made about that doctors could only be male (Laureate Education, n.d).  A few months ago our topic was work that people do.  In our first class discussion, we all discussed different work that people can do and one girl said that she wanted to be a farmer.  A couple of the boys and some girls laughed at her, saying that she can’t be a farmer as only boys could be farmers.  I asked her more about what kind of work her mom and dad do, and it was clear that she wanted to be a farmer as her mother is a farmer.  I continued the discussion on how either boys or girls could be nurses, kindergarten teachers, firefighters, soldiers etc. When it came to our next project the following day, several girls wanted to be farmers, a couple of boys chose to be nurses, and some of the girls chose to be engineers.  Through this topic and the discussions and projects that we completed, I was able to see the influence that we as early childhood educators could have on children’s view about gender stereotypes.  It is also interesting to learn how “one of the first differences children are likely to be aware of are gender differences” (Rettig, 2009, p. 3).

References

Derman-Sparks and, E. (2015, July 08). Teaching Young Children about Race: A Guide for Parents and Teachers. Retrieved from Teaching For Change: http://www.teachingforchange.org/teaching-about-race

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d). Start seeing diversity: Gender [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Rettig M., Ph.D. (2009, June 04). Play and Cultural Diversity. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.424.6176&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Thank You

I don’t have as much contact with other experienced early childhood educators from who I can learn from and collaborate with. As in Thailand, there are very few early childhood educators that have nearly as much experience and knowledge on early childhood development as the educators in this program.  I am grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from so many well informed and educated teachers.  I would like to share my contact information for those of you who would like to stay in contact for support throughout this program, after this program and also if you are planning on traveling to Thailand, Bangkok and need some travelling tips or want to meet up 🙂 Thank you for your support throughout this course and I wish you all the best of luck for the next few courses.

Lindie Denny

Work Email: l.denny@ris-swiss-section.org

Personal Email: lindiekdenny@gmail.com / kruger.lindie@gmail.com

 

Adjourning Phase of Teamwork

In the adjourning phase of team developing, “the project is coming to an end and the team members are moving off into different directions” (Abudi, 2010, p. 1).  I was once part of a school project that turned out to be very successful and all team members were very satisfied with the accomplishments that we all achieved together.  Before this team building experience I was part of other team building experiences, but they weren’t as successful and there were a few issues like roles were not clearly determines, there were some trust issues or the leader of the group showed poor leadership skills.  Saying goodbye to the team members were hard as we all had a good mutual understanding, everyone trusted each other and the leader of the team showed good leadership skills throughout the project.  I think it was hard to leave this group as I was not sure if I would ever be part of such a productive group again.  Therefore I also believe that it is indeed harder to leave high-performing groups.  One of the best closing rituals that I have experienced was when the team analyzed the project.  The leader asked all the team members to look back from the start of the project and evaluate all the accomplishments and failures, and also assessing what each of us could have done differently.  We were also asked to give the leader some suggestions on where he could improve his leadership skills by completing a feedback form about his leadership skills throughout the project.

The adjourning stage of team development is an essential stage of teamwork as it gives the team the opportunity to celebrate their successes and also to evaluate their failures (Abudi, 2010).  Adjourning from the group of colleagues while working on this master’s degree program will bring up a lot of mixed emotions as I will be sad to not have as much contact with other experienced early childhood educators from who I can learn from. As in Thailand, there are very few early childhood educators that have nearly as much experience and knowledge on early childhood development as my classmates in this program.  At the same time, I will also be very excited as completing this degree is going to allow me and other classmates to take on other projects and also open up new doors for us.

Reference

Abudi, G. (2010, May 9). The Five Stages Of Team Development: A Case Study. Retrieved from https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-five-stages-of-team-development-a-case-study.php

Productive Conflict

I recently experienced conflict with a colleague who has different views about involving parents more in our kindergarten program.  For example, for our lantern festival every year I would like to invite parents to our classroom so that they can decorate and paint the lanterns with their children before going on the lantern parade in the evening.  I work in a German-Swiss International School so the lantern festival is a very important tradition for the families from Germany and Switzerland and therefore we organize this event at our school for them every year.

Her argument is that we have a lot of children and having that many parents in the classroom with their children working on the lanterns would be too much work and chaos.  I, on the other hand, think it’s a great opportunity to involve parents in the classroom and making families important in the classroom.  I understand how she feels and respect her opinion on this matter, and to some degree, I agree with her. However, I think that if we organize it well it will not create chaos and would benefit the families and children tremendously.   Therefore I suggested to her that why not let each class decide for themselves what they would like to do.  As she also sees my point of view and respects my opinion, she thought that this was a great idea and therefore from next year on each class can decide for themselves how they would like to go about painting and decorating the lanterns, and whether or not they would like to invite parents to help out. In this situation there were supportive climates, as we were both open to each other’s ideas and feelings (Dan O’Hair, 2015).  This conflict was managed effectively and therefore this conflict was productive conflict (Dan O’Hair, 2015).  Productive conflict fosters healthy debate and in this situation the productive conflict that we had indeed fostered healthy debate as we were able to both exchanges the pros and cons of involving parents (Dan O’Hair, 2015).

Reference

Dan O’Hair, M. W. (2015). Real Communication (3rd. ed). New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Evaluating My Communication Skills

When evaluating myself on my listening skills I got a score of 37, which indicated that my listening style is people-orientated (Rubin, 2009).  My sister gave me a score of 35 and therefore I also fell into group 1.  However, one of my colleagues gave me a score of 25 which indicated that my listening style is action-orientated (Rubin, 2009).  This surprised me as I thought of myself as being more empathetic and concerned with others emotions when communicating with others.  I then thought about the people and interactions that I was thinking about when answering the questions to determine my listening style, and I realized that I was thinking about the interactions that I have with friends and family.  These results show how different I am when communicating with colleagues and friends/family members.

Becoming aware of how the action-orientated listening style might intimidate sensitive listeners, has allowed me to reflect on ways in which I can be more empathetic and concerned about the emotions of colleagues when communicating with them (Rubin, 2009).  I also realized that having a people-orientated style when communicating with family members and friends could sometimes be negative as this listening style could interfere with proper judgment (Rubin, 2009).  Therefore, I think it would benefit my communication with colleagues if I show more of my people-orientated style when communicating and then also show more of my action-orientated-style when communicating with friends and family members.

When evaluating my verbal aggressiveness I got a score of 55, my sister gave me a score of 60 and my colleague gave me a score of 57.  These scores show that I have a moderate level of verbal aggressiveness and indicate that I “maintain a good balance between respect and consideration for others viewpoints, and have the ability to argue fairly by attacking the facts of a position rather than the person holding that position” (Rubin, 2009, p. 1).  I think that having a moderate level of aggressiveness allows me to be an effective communicator as when I consider others viewpoints I am trying to be more understanding.  Being understanding when communicating with others allows me to manage stable relationships as being understanding is a strategy for managing stable relationships (Dan O’Hair, 2015).

References

Dan O’Hair, M. W. (2015). Real Communication (3rd. ed). New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Rubin, R. B. (2009). Communication research measures II: A sourcebook. New York: Routledge.

Effective Intercultural Communication

As I live and work in an environment which is very diverse in culture, I often have to change my behavior when communicating.  When I, for example, communicate with some of my colleagues who are German, I make sure that I always make direct eye contact with them.  When meeting with a parent who is German, I make sure that I always greet them with a handshake and direct eye contact.  When communicating with Thai parents I always “wai” them before and after a conversation.    A “wai” is kind of like a slight bow, with your palms pressed together in a prayer-like way.  It is a respected form of greeting and showing respect in Thai culture.

Three strategies that can be used to effectively communicating with people from different groups and cultures:

1. For effective intercultural communication a person should have developed appropriate knowledge, therefore it is important to learn more about how other cultures communicate (Beebe, 2011).
2. Develop your motivation to learn and improve on how you communicate with people from different groups and cultures(Beebe, 2011).  “Develop strategies to appreciate others who are different from you, which will allow you to appreciate different cultural approaches to communication and relationships” (Beebe, 2011, p. 104).
3. Develop a skill to adapt to different groups and cultures(Beebe, 2011). You could do this by trying to focus on specific behaviors that can allow you to overcome barriers and cultural differences (Beebe, 2011).

Reference

Beebe, S. A. (2011). Interpersonal Communication: Relating to others (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Communication Skills and Styles

I watched an episode of a soap opera that I usually don’t watch.  I noticed that the there were a few characters that have close relationships as some were more intimate than others and other relationships were more professional.  I assumed that the characters that were standing very close to each other while talking and holding hands were more intimate relationships.  The characters who were wearing formal clothes, who were in an office environment and who shook hands after talking had a more professional relationship.  There was also one scene where two people were having an argument as I one person threw their arms up in the air and the other person had their hands on their hips, with a frown on their face while talking.

After watching this episode with the sound on, I realized that the nonverbal cues were enough for me to determine whether or not the conversation was professional, intimate or not going well at all.  This assignment has allowed me to see how “understanding, agreement, empathy, and emotional responses can be displayed effectively by means of nonverbal cues” (O’Hair, 2011, p. 113).  When switching the sound on, I realized that the nonverbal cues matched the verbal language.  This has allowed me to see how nonverbal communication skills go hand-in-hand with verbal communication skills.  This assignment also allowed me to be more conscious of my own nonverbal communication skills and has encouraged me to be more cognizant of how I use nonverbal communication skills when communicating.

Reference

Dan O’Hair, M. W. (2015). Real Communication (3rd. ed). New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s.