What I Have Learned

Anti-bias education thus strengthens the possibilities for early childhood care and education programs to implement the profession’s commitment to foster development of the whole child. It supports children in developing fuller, truer understanding of themselves and the world and strengthens their sense of themselves as being capable and empowered to make “unfair” things “fair”. In turn, these social, emotional, and cognitive abilities increase the likelihood that children will be able to navigate the larger worlds of school and their communities constructively and effectively, regardless of experiences they have there. (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards 2010 p.17).

  Through the different topics that I read through, I have learned that the emotional and social development of children all comes down to their knowledge of self and others. Creating an affirmed environment that welcomes children irrespective of who they are, abilities, where they come from, their believes and social economic status comes down to acceptance, tolerance and being responsive.

  One hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is creating an affirmed early childhood environment where I will be able to teach children how to respect individuality, different abilities, cultures and family structures. A place where children can easily assimilate and feel welcomed in order for them to develop, socialize and get to their fullest potential.

One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is to keep creating the awareness of the benefits we all can derive from knowing more about diversity, teaching about diversity in schools and embracing diversity can do to our immediate community and the world at large and the same goes for equity and social justice.

  It has been an educative eight weeks, a memorable one with the help of all my colleagues, I want to say a big thank you to all of you, for the great support you have given to me in one way or another. Wishing you all the best of luck as you continue in the journey of embracing and teaching diversity. Wishing you all a happy holiday.

Reference:

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).

                                        Start  Seeing Diversity

               

                                 

                                                                                                       

                                      Diversity

                    Diversity is inclusion

                         Diversity is appreciating

                                Diversity is accepting

                                     Diversity is tolerating

                             Diversity is seeing all the rainbow colors, acknowledging them and identifying that they all have their own unique qualities

                             It is respecting me for who I am

                              It is respecting you for who you are

Diversity is like a rainbow bar, if a color is not represented the rainbow will lose its beauty.

                               Diversity is me and you.

                                   “We Don’t Say Those Words in Class!”

Creating a rich anti-bias learning environment sets the stage for discussion and activities about racial and other physical differences and similarities. The richer the environment, the more likely children will ask questions, even in classrooms where staff and children come from similar rachial backgrounds. (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards 2010 p.83).

Children are able to point out differences easily, they are able to point out the differences that exist in body types or when a body does not match the voice that comes out of it. One of my first experience of a transgender actually happened last year in the Philippines in an eatery.  My then 7 year old son noticed that the waiter sounds like a man but was dressed up like a woman. He said “Mummy is that a woman or a man, he talks like a man but looks like a woman”. Honestly I was speechless and at the same time embarrassed, I did not know what to say to him in order not to draw attention to our table.

I was actually shocked that he could notice that the voice does not match the body it was coming out from. So I decided to take his attention from it. Up till this moment I have not addressed the issue of explaining to him if the person that served us that day was either a man or a woman. I guess I am leaving in denials that such people exist. Derman-Sparks and Olsen Edwards explained, “If you can’t think what to say, are uncomfortable responding directly and matter-of-factly to an incident, or later feel you mishandled it, talk to someone you trust to explore your feeling and possible responses. Always go back to the child with your new response”.

The message I believed was sent to my child is that of an abominable question, I most have made him feel that there are certain questions that should not be asked. If I had thought of it rightfully I would have used that moment as a teachable moment to explain to him how most people born as a women or men prefer identifying themselves.

As an anti-bias early educator our job is to help children develop to their full potential, teach them to be empathetic and have respect for differences that exist in the world, and for them to embrace diversity. Be proactive and responsive to children’s questions. Look for opportunities to initiate interactions that offer children accurate information and let them try out their ideas about differences between being male or female and acting like a boy or a girl.(Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards 2010 p.95)

Reference:

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).

Gender, Gender, Identity, and Sexual Orientation

Gender identity is a person’s private sense, and subjective experience, of their own gender. This is generally described as one’s private sense of being a man or a woman, consisting primarily of the acceptance of membership into a category of people: male or female. Some children may learn at an early age that their gender does not correspond with their sex. And that is exactly what the two families in “Two families Grapple with Son’s Gender Identity” are struggling with in the audio segment of this week’s resource. I know it is difficult for these two families to come to terms with what their children are trying to manifest as it concerns their gender identity.

Homophobia and heterosexism permeate the world of young children through books, movies, toys and culture in our society today. Most of the movies, books and toys all have overt messages on what is accepted when it comes to sexual orientation.  Most families think that being a homosexual or transgender you will be able to infect their children, so as a defense mechanism so they try as much as possible to avoid transgender and homosexuals from taking care of their children. I feel the best way to avoid this is to let this families understand that if a transgender or homosexual takes care of their children that does not mean that their children will eventually become a transgender or a homosexual.

This journey of diversity development and  becoming an anti-bias educator creates room for us to embrace diversity in whatever context we come across it, be it ability, sexual orientation, believes and culture. My greatest fear is my discomfort when it comes to sexual orientation that is different from mine, how do I beat all the odds and accept a sexual orientation that is different from mine.

Reference:

Audio: Spiegel, A. (2008). Two families grapple with sons gender identity.

                  Reflecting on Learning

Anti-bias is acknowledging all the differences and abilities that exist, embracing, accepting and being responsive towards all individual uniqueness. My most passionate hope and desire for my future as an early childhood professional and for children and families with whom I will work, is to be able to nurture all the children that will be under my care so that they will be able to believe in themselves no matter what, and have faith in their abilities.

I want to be able to inculcate into children, how to treat people fairly and respectfully irrespective of their abilities, race, gender, culture, social economic background and sexual orientation. As an early educator, I want to be able to create an affirmed environment that will give room to all children so that they will be able to grow, to be themselves, to exercise their rights and diversity.

“We need to give each other the space to grow, to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity. We need to give each other space so that we may both give and receive such beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity, joy, healing, and inclusion”.(Max de Pree).

It has been quite an educative experience this past eight weeks, and it wouldn’t have been interesting without all my colleagues and my wonderful instructor. You all made me to grow in leaps and bounds in becoming an anti-bias educator. I thank you very much for your comments and encouraging words, and I know this is just the beginning of my road to becoming an anti-bias educator. I hope to meet you all again one day God willing, and I wish you all the very best as you go on this life long journey as early/anti-bias educators and may the good Lord bless us all.

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

This week’s blog assignment is to know the impact of poverty, war, terrorism, abuse and other forms of trauma faced by children around the world and the impact that these hardship may have on children’s wellbeing and development.

I come from a developing country, and I decided to choose an industrialized country because, an industrialized country is an economically developed country, it is a sovereign state that has a highly developed economy and advanced technological infrastructure relative to other less industrialized nations.

So my focus is on Liangshan in Hong Kong, according to official statistics, around 30% of the rural population in Liangshan is struggling below the national rural poverty line. Deep-rooted difficulties such as extreme poverty, poor access health services, low awareness of hospital deliveries, under-equipped health facilities and shortages of qualified health providers, all combine to the imperil the survival and wellbeing of children of the children and women living on the edge.

As early educators we know the effects of poverty on children’s emotional health and cognitive development. If a child does not get the required nutrition right from the womb it affects both physical growth, cognition and emotional wellbeing of the child. Undernutrition has a greater effect on development in children living in poverty, whether in industrialized or in developing countries, than on children who are not poor. If a child does not get access to health care and good nutrition, the child will be faced with numerous health scares. The effects of undernutrition on young children ages 0-8 can impede behavioral and cognitive development, educability and reproductive health, thereby undermining future work productivity.

The first five years of a child’s life are fundamentally important. They are the foundation that shapes children’s future health, happiness, growth, development and learning achievement at school, in the family and community and in life in general.

Each time I ponder about the effects of poverty on children, never in my wildest imagination would I have thought of Hong Kong as one of the regions affected because of their technological advancement and they are one of the many developed nations that is economically stable, and I expect them to be able to provide atheist primary health to majority of their population.

The insights I gained, is that poor nutrition and poor health care facilities delays physical growth, and motor development in children. It also affects the cognitive development which results in lower IQs, greater degree of behavioral problems and deficient social skills at school age. It also decreases a child’s attention span, deficient learning and lower education. For us to have sound children ready for school, we have to be the voice for mothers who are ignorant of these things mentioned above and those that have no access to primary health care because the good health of all children starts from the womb of their mothers.

Reference:

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

Sexualization is becoming aware of sexuality, especially in relation to men and women, this is being encouraged today by the adverts on television. It is so common today to see a lot of disgusting and offensive adverts that are not morally right by all standards, but you see a lot of families and children gravitating towards such adverts because it is being promoted and accepted by the pop culture. All this can be seen in today’s fashion, music and the iconography of pop culture.

In the good old days most families make a good arrangement for their children to be taken care of, but nowadays a lot of mums are working to make ends meet. Most of the time when they come back from work they are really tired and pay less attention to their kids and this now encourages technology to do the baby sitting for them. Most of the sites our children visit is alarming by all moral standards.

One of the ways I have experienced sexualization of early childhood is through a popular dance group, this particular dance group encourages children to wear very skimpy and revealing outfits that leaves nothing to the imagination of whoever is watching, and also the heavy make-up applied on the faces of these young children just make them look like sexual objects.

The implication of this sexualization has made a lot of young girls to be more focused on looks, appearance and sex appeal.  I don’t know if it is a generational thing, most children of the millennial generation are so drawn to looking so slim so as to please their friends or should I say they have specific image of how they want to look like and all this is because of the adverts they see on television.

Generational differences contribute a lot to how we place importance on different issues, millennials might not see the world in the same way as the baby boomers and generation X. A lot of children are so glued to the internet, they find friendship there and feel free communicating to total strangers online. Most of them fall into the wrong hands and are used as sex slaves.

What I think early childhood professionals should do to tackle this problem is to enlighten parents on how to create rules that will reduce how their children use the internet. Parents should not be forced to buy certain advertised goods just because their kids want those goods. Boys and girls should develop a range of interest, their interest should not be based on their gender.

Reference:

Levine, D., E & Kilbourne, J. (2009). So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids.

Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice.

Young children need caring adults to help them construct a positive sense of self and a respectful understanding of others. They need adults to help them begin to navigate and resist the harmful impact of prejudice and discrimination. A person’s early childhood years lay the foundation for a developmental experimental journey that continues into adult. With appropriate adult guidance, this foundation will be a strong one, providing the base for the next stages of healthy development and the skills a person needs to thrive and succeed in a complex diverse world. (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010 p.11)

Growing up as a child in Nigerian, I was brought up to be spoken “to”, but enrolling in Walden university and most of the courses I have done have similarities on how to bring up a total child. One of the most striking ways in which children are being addressed is the way they speak “with” children. This shows equality, believing that the children have as much knowledge as the adults in their lives to contribute toward any positive discussion that is taking place.

Development is thought to be continuous and cumulative and the early years are almost always described as vital to later development. For example, children who have a difficult start in life are often expected to be less likely to succeed in life. (Sandra S., 2013 p. 3)

If children are given the right start as per the necessary requirements they need to blossom fully they will be able to develop well, emotionally, cognitively and will not find problem socializing with their peers socially. But if the reverse is the case where by a child does not have the necessary requirements to develop holistically, the child will lack the ability to get to his/her fullest potential.

Sexism is one of the isms I have experienced as an adult in my work place. Sexism or gender discrimination is prejudice or discrimination based on a person’s sex or gender. Sexism can affect any gender, but it is particularly documented as affecting women and girls. This kind of attitude fosters stereotypes of social roles based on sex.

My 4 years old daughter is so into this gender role, I don’t know where she got it from, she tells her brother that boys are not allowed in the girls kitchen whenever he comes around to help out, the colors boys don’t need to use and this baffles me because I tell her that it has to be the boy’s choice not to want to come into the kitchen or take part in ballet class.  People that end up being sexists must have started like this too.

I think in our profession as early educators it is so critical to make children understand that they are all welcomed to make choices in whatever play, games, and roles they want to take part in, at home or school environment as long as they have interest in it. They should not limit themselves by believing that certain plays, roles and games belong to the girls.

Limiting gender roles hurt children in all areas of their development. While gender role norms have become less narrow in some communities, there is still considerable pressure on children to shape and limit their learning behaviors according to gender. Paying attention to diversity and equality in relation to gender identity creates a strong foundation for children to succeed in school life and to fully become who they can be. (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010 p. 99)

References:

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.

Sandra Smidt (2013) the developing child in the 21^st century. A Global perspective on child development.

Observing Communication

Communication is all about passing information, it also helps to develop a common understanding between individuals. Communication occurs both verbally and non verbally, but the most important thing about communication is the ability to be “other” oriented. I have learnt that in communicating with children, I have to listen to them most of the time in other to go into their world of imagination.

Recently I observed a little girl narrating to her mother how a butterfly transforms from its cocoon stage to a real butterfly. The 4 year old girl demonstrates this transformation using a play dough that she rolled up to look like a worm and eventually turns into a butterfly. One of the amazing thing about the little girls expose, was how she molded the butterfly in its cocoon stage and also another image of a butterfly that was transformed already.

The little girl was so confident about what she was doing and I could see how delighted the mum was, paying so much attention to her, and from her body gesture you could tell that she was all up for a breath taking expose.

What I notice between this adult and the little girl was that, the adult was so patient with the girl, taking her from one stage of transformation to another, and the unique thing about this was how the girl’s vocabulary has improved as it concerns butterfly. So it got me thinking that as early educators we can make children initiate a discussion based on what they like and at the same time help build their vocabulary in that context, and this process will be an ongoing one as we introduced different topics.