It is my hope that as a professional in the early childhood field working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds, I will become a better anti-bias educator who will affect children and families in a positive way by helping them becoming confident in who they are and where they come from.
My goal for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is that I share my journey with my colleagues in hope that they too will begin to think about their biases they hold so they can also join me in the journey of becoming an anti-bias educator.
Thank you so much to my colleagues for your kind words, encouragement and also sharing your own journeys with me. I have enjoyed this course and learned some important lessons that will stick with my throughout my teaching career. Good luck to you all as we are nearing end of our time here at Walden! I'm so thankful for you all!
Jessica
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Creating Art
I would love to know if there is anything you think I should add, that maybe I missed in my slideshow! What are your thoughts? I have really enjoyed this course and can't wait for our next one!
Saturday, February 15, 2014
"We Don't Say Those Words in Class!"
In the summer for 2012, I got a part time job working at a local gym in the child care center. One of my co-workers, had really short hair, wore long basketball shorts and t-shirts and shoes that were gender neutral. I will call her Erin. At first glance, most people thought Erin was a boy. But when you began a conversation with Erin, you could tell that she was a girl. Before I began this course, I would have described Erin as a "tom-boy" or "butch." I worked with her a lot that summer and we got a long great. I personally wondered if she was homosexual, just based on the way she dressed and sat in a chair (leaning back with legs open like men tend to do), which I now understand was holding stereotypes about women who are homosexual. (I thought about his internally, but never externalized my questions.) I overheard a group of girls who were working in the infant room talking about Erin and calling her a lesbian and saying degrading things about her. It really upset me because I really enjoyed working with her and she had a great personality. She also had a twin sister who had really long hair and wore similar clothes and wore make-up.
One day, we took the kids outside to play. A little girl came up to the Erin and told her "You look like a boy! Are you a boy?" (but her tone was very snubby.) Erin turned red in the face and said "I'm a girl." So later, I took the little girl aside and I got down on her level and told her that was very rude to ask and that she should go apologize for saying that. I told her sometimes girls have short hair, but we don't need to call them a boy. She apologized to Erin and then went back to playing.
Looking back with my new knowledge of anti-bias education, I would have asked her, "What makes you think she looks like a boy?" It has been found that people seem to rely on hairstyle as a
noticeable facial cue in determining a person's gender (Eyssel & Hegel, 2012). I would then further the conversation by asking her "Did you know that some girls have short hair? We call them pixie cuts. Like Tinkerbell." As an anti-bias educator, I would also tell her that thinking all girls have long hair is a stereotype that that in fact, some girls have short hair. I would use this as a teachable moment later on and even use the game "Stereotype or fact" as mentioned in week 3's media segment on gender stereotypes (Start Seeing Diversity: Sexual Orientation)
This assignment has caused me to reflect on my own beliefs and consider how my perspectives influence their teaching and interaction with students from diverse sociocultural backgrounds (Eyssel & Hegel, 2012).
References
One day, we took the kids outside to play. A little girl came up to the Erin and told her "You look like a boy! Are you a boy?" (but her tone was very snubby.) Erin turned red in the face and said "I'm a girl." So later, I took the little girl aside and I got down on her level and told her that was very rude to ask and that she should go apologize for saying that. I told her sometimes girls have short hair, but we don't need to call them a boy. She apologized to Erin and then went back to playing.
Looking back with my new knowledge of anti-bias education, I would have asked her, "What makes you think she looks like a boy?" It has been found that people seem to rely on hairstyle as a
noticeable facial cue in determining a person's gender (Eyssel & Hegel, 2012). I would then further the conversation by asking her "Did you know that some girls have short hair? We call them pixie cuts. Like Tinkerbell." As an anti-bias educator, I would also tell her that thinking all girls have long hair is a stereotype that that in fact, some girls have short hair. I would use this as a teachable moment later on and even use the game "Stereotype or fact" as mentioned in week 3's media segment on gender stereotypes (Start Seeing Diversity: Sexual Orientation)
This assignment has caused me to reflect on my own beliefs and consider how my perspectives influence their teaching and interaction with students from diverse sociocultural backgrounds (Eyssel & Hegel, 2012).
References
- Eyssel, F., & Hegel, F. (2012). (S)he's Got the Look: Gender Stereotyping of Robots1 (S)he's Got the Look: Gender Stereotyping of Robots. Journal Of Applied Social Psychology, 42(9), 2213-2230. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2012.00937.x
- Han, S. H. (2010). Sociocultural influence on children's social competence: A close look at kindergarten teachers' beliefs. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 24, 80–96.
Laureate Media. (n.d) Start Seeing Diversity: Gender [media podcast] Retrieved from Week 3 resources of EDUC 6357 at https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_4197932_1%26url%3D
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