Week 3

Week 3

Reflecting on cultural diversity within my life and my surroundings, I don’t think that I communicate any differently with people from different groups of cultures. I am a firm believer that it doesn’t matter your cultural differences, everyone should be treated the same. Everyone deserves to be treated with kindness and respect. We are all humans with rights regardless of diversity. As an early childhood professional I have the opportunity to model this belief to colleagues, students, and their parents. Based on what I learned this week, three strategies I could use to help communicate more effectively with diverse people or groups are: the Platinum Rule, nonverbal communication, and cultural myopia. The Platinum Rule will help me communicate effectively by helping me become aware that an enlightened communicator needs to consider the other person’s perspective. When communicating, the involved participates need to put themselves in each other’s shoes. People want to feel understood, respected, and cared about. I believe it is not only what you say but also how you say it and what you look like conveying and receiving an intended message.   Nonverbal communication will help me communicate effectively. “You communicate nonverbally when you convey a message without using any words. But you also communicate nonverbally when you use nonverbal behaviors in addition to words: when you smile, frown, or gesture as you speak or when you use a particular tone of volume while talking (Giles & LePoire, 2006)” (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2015, p.94).  I find myself doing this as a teacher and parent. ”Our nonverbal behaviors can send powerful, unintended messages without us having much time to think through them (Capella & Greene, 1982)” (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2015, p.95). Lastly, I think being aware of cultural myopia will help me be an effective communicator by reminding me to be conscious of other cultures and diverse backgrounds. "If we suspend judgment, we can come to understand that what looks wrong from our personal perspective may look right to someone else" (Gonzalez-Mena, 2010, p.36).

References

Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2010). 50 strategies for communicating and working with diverse families. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

O'Hair, D., Friedrich, G. W., & Dixon, L. D. (2011). Strategic communication in business and the professions. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Week 2 Communication Skills

Week 2-Communication Skills

The episode of television that I normally do not watch is the Vikings. My husband has this show recorded. I did watch an episode with the sound turned off and noticed several different communication skills and styles. I think the characters’ relationships seem to be constructed on a hierarchy based on the ways in which they were communicating. The nonverbal communication of passive and submissive behavior of lower ranked characters was evident. As slaves/workers were standing alongside the dinner table, they had their hands behind their backs and no facial expressions. The other characters at the table did not stand that way and had facial expressions. It seems as if some of the women in the episode were submissive too. Not all of the women seemed this way since the Queen was the ruler. The women that I did notice had no facial expressions and stood very still next to the men. Based on the nonverbal behavior I was observing, it seemed as if the characters were feeling intense and passionate for what they believed in and each other. There seemed to be a lot of fighting and sexual interactions in the episode I watched.

                After watching the show with the sound turned off, I watched the same show with the sound turned on. The assumptions I made about the characters and plot based on the nonverbal communication while observing the show without sound seemed to be accurate. The nonverbal communication I believe was effective. The characters were able to get their point across using this communication skill and it was evident to the viewers. The relationships based on hierarchy were very intense, and passionate. My assumptions would not have been any more correct if I had been watching a show I know well, but I would have known more details about why some of the interactions were happening the way they did. It would be interesting to watch a show that I know well but a new episode without sound first to see if I could follow along and understand the plot.

                This activity was another great way of exploring communication. During this assignment, I found how powerful nonverbal communication can truly be. It can tell a story all by itself really! “You communicate nonverbally when you convey a message without using any words. But you also communicate nonverbally when you use nonverbal behaviors in addition to words: when you smile, frown, or gesture as you speak or when you use a particular tone of volume while talking (Giles & LePoire, 2006)” (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2015, p.94) This assignment along with the others has made me much more aware of my own communication style and my interactions with others.

References

O'Hair, D., Friedrich, G. W., & Dixon, L. D. (2011). Strategic communication in business and the professions. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Week 1 Effective Communication

Week 1- Effective Communication

     Reflecting on this week’s resources and assignments of effective and ineffective communication skills, the first person I think of who demonstrates competent communication within a particular context is my mother. She is a first-grade teacher and a mentor to university teacher interns. I have always looked up to her. She is a phenomenal person and professional. She has a passion for children and is respectful of every person she meets regardless of any type of diversity.  I am lucky to teach in the same building as her and have watched her in action. When she communicates she exhibits confidence, intelligence, clear articulation, honesty, states facts in a non-judgmental way, empathizes, and is a good listener.  "Truthfulness, fairness, responsibility, personal integrity, and respect for self and others" (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2015, p. 14) are always her first priorities when communicating with others. This is evident even in tough situations. She tries to put the receiver at ease. She lets families know that she is on their side and they can work as a team to help their children succeed. I have also witnessed interactions between her and university teacher interns. She mentors them as they learn how to become teachers. She teaches them how to communicate too. Our principal strategically places children in her classroom who have demanding parents because he knows she will be able to form a positive, healthy relationship with them. I am thankful I have her to learn from!

References

O'Hair, D., Wiemann, M., Mullin, D. I., & Teven, J.  (2015). Real communication (3rd. ed). New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.

Week 8 Professional Hopes and Goals

Wk8-Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that I continue to have an open mind and accept everyone for who they are. I feel as if I am always welcoming to my students and families that come into my classroom regardless of their culture. I provide all my students and families the same opportunities. I love each of my students for their special traits and for who they are. I make no judgements about my students based on diversity. I strive to make my classroom an environment where everyone feels safe, respected, and valued.

A goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is to advocate for diverse children and help better support their transitions. I feel as if I have many families that come to my classroom that really don’t know what to do to support their own children. A student I have this year is really struggling behaviorally and does not speak English. His mother is going to school full time at the University near my building and his father just left to go back to China. The student seems lost and confused in addition to his unique needs. His mother is also at a loss about how to better support him through this.

Thank you to all my colleagues for your responses and posts. Reading everyone’s thoughts and opinions made me really reflect on the course’s topics. I wish everyone the best of luck throughout the program and in your careers! 

Week 7- Welcoming Families From Around the World

Welcoming Families From Around the World

I am working in an early childhood setting and received word that a child of a family who has recently immigrated to the United States will be joining my group soon. I want to prepare myself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, I have been enrolled in this course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated I need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin. The student and her family have recently emigrated from the country of Nepal. Five ways in which I would prepared myself to be culturally responsive towards this family would be to research their customs/traditions, have pictures and art work up around the room reflecting Nepal’s customs, have common simply pictures with labels (using both languages), have all translation programs set and ready, find toys, music, books that the child would find familiar, and try to plan activities into the day that would reflect her culture. My hope is that these preparations will benefit my student, her family, and me. I believe that they will benefit my student because she will be around familiar things that she can relate to. The environment won’t seem so foreign to her. Her family should benefit as well from the familiar environment and also by seeing how I have invested my time and effort into learning about their country. Lastly, by investing time in the preparations, I should benefit by having a student who adjusts quicker with familiarity and by setting a positive tone with the family. A mutual trusting relationship should evolve between us all.

Week 6 The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

A memory I have of experiencing oppression, was growing up having a speech impediment. I was subjected to teasing and embarrassment in elementary school. There was one boy in particular that was cruel. This specific oppression diminished equity by isolating me from peers.  I avoided many social interactions and events because he made me feel “different”.  Reflecting on this brings back memories of embarrassment, anger, sadness. Growing up I was always afraid to speak aloud in class and be overly social with my peers. Family members thought it was cute and funny and even mimicked words I said. This hurt my feelings even more. My parents took me to different speech classes to try and help correct the problem. “While there is usually little impact on intelligibility, the impact of a lisp on a child's 'image' can be quite powerful. Of course, some children grow up in an environment where their lisp goes unnoticed, or where it is not regarded as cause for concern. Other children gain positive recognition because they lisp, particularly when the lisp is regarded as sweet, funny, or endearing. By contrast, others face criticism, ridicule, nagging and teasing” (Bowen, 2011). In order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity I had a lot of soul searching and maturing to do. It took a long time but I was able to overcome the inequity I felt. Now that I am an educator myself, I understand the impact speech impediments can have on a person’s self-worth. I am an advocate for students and families facing this and provide as much support as I can for them.

References

Bowen, C. (2011). Lisping: When /s/ and /z/ are hard to say. Retrieved from http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/ 

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.