Defining Culture and Diversity

This week we have been asked to share the responses of individuals that we have spoken with about culture and diversity.  As we strive to define these concepts for ourselves, we know that the meanings are different for others.  We take those perspectives and allow them to shape our own definitions.

In my conversations with friends and colleagues, I found that their definitions of culture and diversity were similar and insightful.  One colleague spoke of culture as a broad term that encompassed many groups of people of similar characteristics, yet also has the potential to be a narrow designation.  She acknowledged that culture is not only one's ethnicity or heritage, that it also includes their family practices and traditions.  A friend struggled to define culture as one specific definition, but diversity was something that was easier to explain.  She called it the idea that differences are accepted among individuals and  many cultures are brought together in communities living and working together.  We talked about culture and she said that she understood that it included more than just race or ethnicity.  Finally, I spoke with another friend that spoke of local culture and diversity as one in crisis.  There are areas of our community that clearly struggle with unemployment, poverty, and discrimination.  In this conversation, culture was defined mostly as race and ethnicity and diversity was limited to areas outside the community in which people live.

Most people I spoke with were aware that culture is more than a person's race or ethnicity, though few could identify the less obvious characteristics of culture, such as socioecomonic status, parenting styles, and home life practices.  Diversity seems to be an easier concept for most people to define and identify.  They know that differences are what make us unique and what bring us together to create communities.  In reflecting on these individuals' answers, I understand that we all struggle to define culture and diversity for ourselves personally.  We can generate a definition, but when we think carefully about either our own culture or that of the children and families we serve, we have a lot of work to do to fully understand where they are coming from and how to best provide for their needs.

Perspectives on Diversity and Equity

In my new course in diversity and equity, we are exploring the ideas surrounding the cultures and backgrounds of children and families, how families are defined, and how professionals can partner with families to provide the most quality experiences for children and families in our programs.

This week, we have been asked to consider the following scenario:

A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of your country. The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees. You and your immediate family are among the survivors of this catastrophic event. However, you have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. You are told that your host country’s culture is completely different from your own, and that you might have to stay there permanently. You are further told that, in addition to one change of clothes, you can only take 3 small items with you. You decide to take three items that you hold dear and that represent your family culture.

Blog about all of the following:

A description of the three items you would choose

How you would explain to others what each of these items means to you

Your feelings if, upon arrival, you were told that you could only keep one personal item and have to give up the other two items you brought with you

Any insights you gained about yourself, your family culture, diversity, and/or cultural differences in general, as a result of this exercise

I would take a family photo, a family recipe book, and a small key chain with St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers on it that I received from my dad before I traveled to Russia after high school.  The family photo would remind me of the bond we share as a family.  It would allow me to remember times when life was simpler and encourage me to establish that life again once we settled in the new country.  The recipe book would be important for us in that process to establish a sense of normalcy in the new country.  It would also be a tool to share our culture with others that have been displaced.  Food brings people together and sharing traditional foods is a great way to develop relationships with others.  The key chain would be important to me to remind me of my dad and the faith he and my mom raised my sister and I with.  It is a small token that holds very significant meaning.  I carry it in my purse every day!

If I was told that I could only keep one of the items, it would be the key chain.  I could carry it with me and remember my family and my past experiences, as well as feel a sense of security in the presence of a reminder of my faith.  I would feel a sense of loss in leaving the photo and recipe book behind.  When you think that those are the only possessions you have in the world other than the clothes on your back, it is tragic to think that they would be taken from you.  This exercise should be a reminder to us that this happens to people all over the world every day.  We hear in the news about people fleeing their homes because of war, famine, or other catastrophic events.  We must be thankful for what we have and the security we feel.  When we approach families, we need to be mindful of the pasts from which they come.  We often have no clear idea of the traumas they have experienced and the care they will require until we build a strong relationship with them.

Final thoughts on research

In this final week of "Building Research Competencies", we have been asked to reflect on what we have learned and experienced over the past eight weeks.  When we began this class, I was so excited to learn about the research process and the different elements that make a quality research design.  I think that we improve our professional environments based on the volumes of new research that is emerging all the time. 

Throughout the course, we focused on a simulation that we designed and "practiced" all of the steps that a researcher would take in completing the study.  I learned that the topic you choose must be very specific even though it can contain many different aspects that would be beneficial to study.  For example, my topic was social and emotional development and the relationship of healthy attachments.  I needed to narrow that down to how language development affects healthy attachments in children that have been adopted from non-English speaking countries.  There are so many aspects to research that I had not realized.  I found the literature review to be the most challenging.  In finding information about the study that I was conducting, it was difficult to determine what would be helpful and what I should not spend time reviewing.  I found that I examined the abstracts more carefully before exploring the full article.  It was also difficult to keep from following the tangents that the article searches often went on.  I had to keep my focus question in mind when searching for information.

Research in early childhood comes with it own challenges and considerations.  When working with children and families, we must be very sensitive to the dynamic that they present, the backgrounds from which they come, and what the impact of the research will be for them.  When planning a research design for early childhood, I think that the mixed method approach is important.  I found that the qualitative process creates more of an opportunity to explore the subjective nature of  children and their families.

My perceptions of professionals in our field have changed as a result of this course in that we can, and should, become active participants in the research process.  We should appreciate all of the wonderful discoveries that we are provided with, but we should also be pursuing our own.  This is a very exciting prospect for me.  Having been in the field for over 20 years, I am looking at my next 20 years with new eyes and all of the possibilities!

Thank you for all of my colleagues (again!) for your comments, questions, and feedback.  I look forward sharing ideas and learning more from you in the future.

Katherine

Exploring International Research Sites

This week we have been asked to explore a variety of international website devoted to sharing the latest research on early childhood education in their region.  I chose to focus on the European Early Childhood Education Research Association (www.eecera.org).  What I found there was that the research and topics of concerns are similar to that of the United States and align well with my own interests within the field.
The two main topics I found the most information on are inclusion in early childhood education and research around the birth to three age group.  Both of these topics are of interest to me and are ones that I am involved with daily.  In my work in inclusion, I have learned that it is a growing trend and becoming more widely practiced in early learning environments.  We are seeing the value in creating opportunities for children to learn alongside peers that have varying abilities.  I have always been passionate about the youngest age group in our care.  My "career" started in an infant room when I was 16!  It is fascinating to me to see the research and development of theory and programs on an international level.
The EECERA website has journal articles that share the knowledge on each topic.  One such article describes the shift in thinking around the education and care of babies in settings outside the home resulting from the increase in women returning to the workplace (Rayna, S. & Laevers, F., 2011).  The authors seeks to explain the various factors that influence the approach to caring for young children including research on attachment and social and emotional development.  Another article reflects on the idea of embedded instruction for children with special needs in inclusive environments.  The authors found that the use of embedded instruction was beneficial for children with special needs to gain new skills and also generalise them across other areas of development (Rakap, S. & Parlak-Rakap, A., 2011).  Embedded instruction is the practice of identifying natural times and activiites to engage a learner in the instruction of a particular skill or concepts.
While exploring the EECERA website, I found that they accept submissions for journal entries.  This is something that I have considered throughout this master's degree experience.  I am interested in sharing some of the knowledge and research I have gathered with others and I never knew how to go about doing that.  With more experience in writing on a graduate level, I hope to gain the confidence to submit some of my work to a professional organization similar to EECERA.


References:

Rakap, S., & Parlak‐Rakap, A., (2011): Effectiveness of embedded

instruction in early childhood special education: a literature review, European Early Childhood

Education Research Journal, 19:1, 79-96

Rayna, S. & Laevers, F. (2011): Understanding children from 0 to 3 years

of age and its implications for education. What's new on the babies' side? Origins and evolutions,

European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 19:2, 161-172

www.eecera.org

Research Topic

I was recently exploring the ZERO TO THREE website for resources on infant and toddler development and the latest research that is being done to support the work done in that age group.  Social and emotional development is of great interest to me since, in my opinion, it is lays the foundation for successful, healthy children and adults.  Under the "Behavior and Development" tab there is a section on Early Childhood Mental Health.  On that page there is a video clip of an experiment done to show the effects of a responsive caregiver and a non-responsive caregiver.  The reaction of the child is fascinating and it truly shows how important our reactions to children are.  The research and work done in the area of mental health has direct implications on our field.  We all know that the demand for quality early childhood programs is increasing and with the information that is provided by this kind of research, we can begin to understand our role in training and sharing the knowledge with those in the field that are interacting daily with young children.

Here are more details about the video I referenced:

"The Still Face paradigm, designed by Edward Tronick, is an experimental procedure for studying infant social and emotional development. During the experiment, an infant and a parent interact playfully before the parent suddenly stops responding and looks away. After a short period, the parent reengages with the infant. The infant’s reaction to a suddenly unresponsive parent and his or her behavior when the parent resumes interaction, have been used to study many aspects of early social and emotional development."

"This video clip is excerpted from ZERO TO THREE's Helping Babies From the Bench: Using the Science of Early Childhood Development in Court."

References:

http://www.zerotothree.org/child-development/early-childhood-mental-health/

My Personal Research Journey

In this newest course "Building Research Competencies", we've been asked to choose a topic in early childhood that is of interest to us.  I have chosen to study attachment theory and its relationship to healthy social and emotional development in young children.  Recently, I have observed an increase in the number of families that are adopting children from foreign countries and I am interested in learning about the ways those children develop attachments to their new parents and how they adapt to the environment.  I am also very interested in how language development plays a part in that process, particularly if the child is an English language learner.

In evaluating resources and information on the internet, I realize that I need to carefully evaluate each piece for quality and validity.  The discussion this week encouraged us to look for sources that were both valid and non-valid and decide why they should be considered so.  This will help in my search for information on attachment theory and language development and my colleagues have shared many great sites to search.

Social and emotional development is often overlooked in early childhood.  With growing pressures for young children to perform academically, we must keep their emotional health in focus and understand that it is crucial for other areas of development.  I think it is interesting that there is so much in the news these days about bullying in elementary and secondary institutions.  The truth is it begins in early childhood, if you watch very carefully.  And as educators I believe that we MUST partner with parents to ensure that children are acquiring the abilities to empathize and recognize emotion in others and themselves.  In addition to the pressure to ensure academic success for children, teachers and administrators are now looking at having the primary responsibility of monitoring the emotional social treatment of others.  I realize this is a side sub-topic that could be a research simulation in and of itself, but I think there are some similarities.

Do any of you (my colleagues) have experience with working with families that have adopted children, either from the area or from abroad?  I would be interested to hear what services you know of that are available to them and how you think the process of language development affects healthy attachments.  I am looking forward to studying this subtopic and learning from you all about yours as well!

Katherine

Final thoughts on issues and trends in early childhood

In this last week of our course "Issues and Trends", we have been asked to reflect on the various issues we've studied and the various lenses we used to study them.  In addition, we have been asked to reflect on the international early childhood community and how learning about it has influenced us as professionals.  One of the consequences we face in learning about practices in the international arena is that we are forced to examine our own practices with a magnifying glass, looking for ways to improve, change, or match what our colleagues are doing worldwide.  Personally, I have been stretched to think more globally about the field and not just focus on my own individual work.  When I say "globally", I am referring not only to the international community, but also my own local community outside of my school.  Another consequence is that we see that there are thriving programs in the most rural communities and in affluent areas there are children living in poverty.  The same holds true for America and so we must look at the ramifications of economics on learning and the success of children and families.  Finally, a personal consequence for myself is that, as I study the various programs and organizations that are working to support children and families worldwide, the desire to travel is stirred.  One of my long-term goals is to work for an organization on a global level, allowing me to see the world and do the work I have chosen (or that has chosen me).  In my very first blog entry you will see that it is titled "My Part Yet to Be Played".  I do believe that I am in the right field and my desire to travel to various parts of the world to study and support children strengthens as I continue through this master's program.  I appreciate my colleagues and the insights they have lent to my discussions and presented on their own.
I will continue to attempt to contact professionals in the international community.  My goal is to create an exchange of information that will allow me to better understand the most pressing issues in various places and gather insight into how to improve practices in my own work and in my own community.
Thank you all and best of luck in future courses and your work!
Katherine