microaggressions

This week I heard some microaggressions and noticed most of them were microinsults.  The one that sticks out to me is when I was picking up my daughter from preschool.  All the parents were outside, like always, waiting outside the door.  I overheard a Hispanic woman talking to another a woman who is Middle Eastern.  They always talk so I assume they are friends.  I overheard the Hispanic woman asking her Middle Eastern friend for recipes that have curry in them.  Then I heard the Middle Eastern woman respond with, "What makes you think I like curry?"  Then the Hispanic woman said, "Well...because you Indian."  Then the Middle Eastern woman said, "I'm not Indian."  I was embarrassed for the Hispanic woman and felt bad for the Middle Eastern woman.  I kept to myself and pretended I didn't hear anything. 

Through this observation, it made me check myself because I have to admit that I thought the Middle Eastern woman was from India too because of her attire and the fact she speaks another language when she is on the phone.  Also it made me think about how both women must have felt.  The feelings of shock, anger, frustration, and embarrassment because I that's how I felt when I was listening.  We as a society, have to do better to minimize these microaggressions.     

Culture and Diversity

The definitions to culture that I received were; someone's background and heritage, one's race and background, and the traditions and backgrounds that a person who they are.  The definitions of diversity were; people's differences, different races and cultures, and the differences that makes us interesting and who we are. 

The definitions I were sort of similar to the definition I have studied in this course by defining culture as someone's background, race, and creed.  The same goes for diversity, in terms of one's differences.  However, these meanings are mainly the surface definitions.  They are the common definitions but I also learned that culture and diversity does deeper.  Culture and diversity also deals with parenting styles, children roles, and daily rituals.  The deeper meanings were omitted and not acknowledged. The definitions I received from my friends made me think about my own preconceived definitions I had about the two terms.  It is easier to defined the words with the simple terms but most people neglect the deeper meanings and I am happier to know the 90% of the iceberg. 

3 items...

The three items I would take are my family photo album, our generational bible, and a quilt.

 

I would take the album because it holds all the pictures of my family.  I have pictures of my great grandparents and all the extended family.  It is important to have this album because it is pictures of my family.  The generational bible it holds the family tree in it.  For generations my family has been putting the marriages, births, and deaths of our family members in this particular bible.  We have had to add paper in order to keep up with it but it is important to have in order to trace our origins and family members.  The quilt is something my grandmother started.  She started a quilt and then she gave it to my mother and she added patches.  Then it was passed on to me and I have began to add patches.  I hope to pass it onto my daughters and they can continue to tradition.

 

If I had to choose one item over the other two items I would feel torn, angry, and very sad.  I would feel torn because I they are all of equal value to me.  I would angry and frustrated with the situation.  Then I would be very sad at having to leave two priceless items behind.  My family culture main focus is togetherness and never forgetting our ancestors so I would feel like I was abandoning my ancestors in some way having to chose between the items.

What I learned...

During these last 8 weeks of engaging in this course, Building Research Competency, I have gained a lot of insight into research and it influence on early childhood education.  I learned about the different structures of research design and differences in quantitative and qualitative studies.  Also about the importance of ethics.  I have found that research is still pretty tedious.  So my thoughts on conducting research hasn't changed much.  Some challenges I have found in research is learning all the different types of research and understanding all of them.  I studied intensely the differences and learned as much as I could about each one.  I still find myself get them confused.  I also find it challenging to formulate hypotheses and narrowing down my research questions to a simple topic.  I have found that research is very important in the early childhood field and it helps the field continue to stay current.  It also helps caregivers and early childhood professionals better understand children and their development.