Week 4- Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

An example of microaggression in which I remember from another time was this year in my classroom. I was meeting a new family in my classroom when the secretary walked in to help register the family. She looked at the family and asked if they only spoke Chinese. The mother looked at our secretary and said, “We only speak English. We moved from Haslett (a district close by) and we are Korean not Chinese.” At this point I felt embarrassed for the building’s secretary and bad for the family. Our building is very diverse and we do have many families that do not speak English so I know that the secretary was only trying to help and was not trying to be rude. It was very uncomfortable for all of us.

My observation experiences this week affected my perception of the effects of discrimination, prejudice, and/or stereotypes on people by making me more aware and sensitive to my own comments and actions. I currently have a father of one of my students, attending school each day with his son. He is doing this due to severe behavior problems that his son has. They recently moved here from a different country. The young boy is having a difficult time adjusting.  I have to communicate with the father throughout the day about the classroom routines, schedule, activities, etc. It takes a lot of extra effort on my part and at times is very frustrating. This class has made me self reflect on how I am approaching both the father and son. I am trying to make sure that I am not being microaggressive in any way.