Course 6165-Week 1 Blog

     The person that I choose as someone who is competant in a particular context is my boyfriend, Shawn.  He is a Captain in the Army National Guard and has been in the Guard for over 12 years.  Anyone that knows anything about the military knows they pretty much speak their own language with all the acronyms and phrases that they use when they are speaking with each other and Shawn does this effortlessly.  I know this is because of his time spent in the Guard and how much he is required to know to perform his job well, but he is also a fast learner and really has worked hard and has had a lot of training to know the things he knows .  He is commander of his battery, which requires constant emails and phone calls, especially during drill weekends, to make sure that things are getting done and meetings with his NCO's to make sure the battery is running smoothly.  He also has a lot of meetings with those that are higher ranking than him and he does occasionally have to do public speaking assignments.  For example, he was commander during the unit's last deployment and he had to speak at the going away ceremony and at the welcome home ceremony to large crowds of people and he does great.  He has also gone to schools for Veteran's Day and spoke to an assembly of children about what it means to be a veteran.  He loves public speaking and can do it easily and sound great doing it.  Most of the time he will just have bullets on a notecard and just go with what is on his mind and his points are communicated very clearly and effectively. 
       I, on the otherhand, hate speaking in front of people, especially a crowd and I sometimes even get nervous in meetings with people that are higher up in my organization.  I can't figure out why I am nervous because I usually know the information we are discussing.  I would love to be a good public speaker and be able to get my message across to people without sounding nervous, sweating, and having my hands shake.  My brother got married this summer and I had to do a speech at the reception and I was dreading it!!  I wrote everything down word for word and read straight off the paper with little to no eye contact.  I knew my hands would be shaking too and I am not sure why I have such anxiety about this.  Maybe it is because I do not do it enough.  The irony is if you want me to teach a lesson in front of a group of kids, any age, I could do it, no problem, but adults and formal speaking situations make me so nervous. 
       I think the reason Shawn is so good at communicating in these contexts is because he knows the content of what he is going to say so well and he has had so much practice at it.  I also think for some people it comes very naturally to be a good speaker.  I can also tell that when Shawn speaks, people take notice and listen (which could be because of his rank), but I would love to be able to come across as someone who is a great public speaker and has a lot of confidence in what they are talking about, so people want to listen to what I have to say.


Shawn with my cousin at a Veteran's Day assembly last year.

Shawn and I at the unit's Family Christmas Dinner last Dec.

 

Professional Hopes and Goals

I first want to start out by thanking everyone for all of the comments, suggestions and insights throughout this course.  I really feel like we learned a lot about prejudice and stereotypes that we did not expect to learn and I am happy that I got to share in this journey with all of you. I enjoyed reading everyone positions during the discussions and I really feel like I learned a lot from all of you!!!  Good luck with your next courses and hopefully I will have more future courses with all of you!!

I have many hopes when it comes to working with families from diverse backgrounds because it is something I really feel like I am still learning and gaining knowledge about, but my one hope is that diverse families see me as someone who is trying to get to know them and their children and assist them with anything that they need.  I love learning new things, especially about different cultures, and researching new places I may know nothing about (like my post on Uganda) and I hope all of the extra work I would be willing to put in for families helps create partnerships with them that will help their child do well in my care.  I really like being able to help people and point them in the right direction if they need it, so I hope families see me as someone who is able to do this.

My goal for the Early Childhood field is to start recruiting more men to work in the field.  I think this is something that is very much lacking in our field and it is something our children really need.  Having a positive male role model in their lives at a young age is very important and it is also important for them to observe a positive relationship happening between male and female teachers, especially if this is something that is lacking in their home environment.  The few men we have that work in our center or come to work with the children every now and again are loved by the children and I think it would be great for them to have this experience more frequently.  With so many children in some kind of preschool or pre-k setting  before they move on to more formal schooling, it is important to break the stereotype young children have that only women are teachers like so many of them currently believe.  I am honestly not sure how to recruit these males to work with children at such a young age, but hopefully somewhere someone is coming up with solutions to this issue.

Uganda

      Even though I have heard of Uganda, I really knew nothing about it and I know that we do get some families from that region in our local schools, so I decided to pick a place I may actually need to know about someday.  I was surprised at how well off this country is compared to a lot of other African nations.  Here is what I found out: 
-Their government is pretty stable right now and overall, people seem to be doing well in this area.  Their government is set-up similiar to ours too with different branches.  Agriculture is the most important resource and where the most people make their living.  52% of the population live on less than $1.25/day (www.cia.gov).
-Uganda has four main ethnic groups and there is a wide variety of tribes in each of the ethnic groups. 
-Their school year runs from Jan.-Nov and education is very much encouraged in this country.  The government has a policy called Universal Primary Education Policy and the government subsidizes a families education costs in a government-run school if four children from that family attend a school.  They also have universities in the area.  The literacy rate for males is 76.8% and females is 57.7% (www.cia.gov).
-The constitution allows for freedom of religion and a lot of the people mix a more traditional religion with beliefs from their tribe.  41% are Roman Catholic, 42% are Protestant and 12% are Muslim (www.cia.gov).  Their holidays are similiar to ours and Christmas is the biggest and most important holiday they celebrate.
-Art and music are important to the different tribes.  Pottery, sculpture, oral poetry, dance and drama are important as are traditional and cultural music and singing.  Ugandans also enjoy soccer, boxing, basketball, golf and cricket.
-I was not able to find too many specifics on food, but common foods include bananas, corn, rice sweet potatoes, cassava, beans and indigenous vegetables (www.compassion.com).
-English is the official language and is taught in the schools, but there is a wide variety of other languages spoken such as the native language as the tribe, Ganda, Luganda, Swahihli, and Arabic (www.cia.gov).
-The AIDS virus creates a high mortality rate in this area.

      After reviewing all of the different information from Uganda, the first way I would be culturally responsive to this family is by learning what language they speak.  If they do not speak English, then I would work to find them language assistance for their transition to the US.  I know we have Arabic schools in this area and maybe that is something they would be interested in.  The second thing I would do is learn more specifics about their culture and the holidays they celebrate.  What kind of music or dance do they like or are they involved in?  When they felt comfortable, I could invite them into my classroom to share with other children about their culture.  When learning about their holidays, I would also want to learn about their religion to make sure it is included in my curriculum. If they are a Muslim family, this would also affect what they eat, since they do not eat pork products, so it would be important to make arrangements for this.  I would also be interested in what the parents did for work in Uganda.  Maybe I could assist them in finding jobs or at least set them up with different agencies that could assist them.  The last thing I would want to learn about this family is about the schooling the children received in Uganda.  Were they in school?  What were they learning about?  I would have to adapt my lessons to include this child, so it would be important to know what they came from.

By doing these preparations before the family came, it would show that I care about their family and want them to succeed here.  By including them and their child in my curriculum, it shows that even though they may be different, they are still important and I want to make them a part of my classroom.  It would be beneficial to me to know all of this information beforehand because I could be more culturally understanding of their lives and also learn new things to share with my other children, which is always a great learning experience.




Resources:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ug.html

http://www.compassion.com/about/where/uganda.htm?referer=124445&gclid=CKDuy-PZj7MCFRGqnQodsGAA2w

The personal side of bias, prejudice and oppression

     I am sure if I thought long and hard about it, I could come up with a personal example that has happened to me dealing with these issues.  However, I am going to focus on the woman who is my spin (cycling) instructor on Tuesday and Thursdays mornings and the few stories she has shared with us in the past week about the men she works with because I think they fit perfectly with this topic.  I attend class at a local fitness center and this woman is in her late 50's-early 60's and teaches a variety of classes each day at the center.  I am not sure how long she has worked there, but judging from her physique and stories, she has worked there for quite a while.
        The first story she shared with us deals with microaggressions and sexism she has faced from the male instuctor that teaches a class after her.  I guess he speaks negatively about her and the classes she teaches and actually knocks over the stereo or fans, on purpose, that we use specifically for spin class because he knows it upsets her.  It is almost like he is trying to intimidate her.  That all seems minor and childish, but I guess he came in one day to get ready for class while she is in there by herself cleaning up some stuff and he went over to where she was and shoved her out of his way, even though the room is huge and he wouldn't need to be that close to her.  He didn't act like it was a big deal and just carried on with his business.  She reported it to the front desk and now he is required to wait at the desk until she is out of the room because he is so rude and aggressive towards her.  She isn't even sure why he is like that towards her and believes it is because she is a woman and he has anger issues towards females.  It is really strange to me and completely sexist, if that is the case.  I think she also felt it was unfair that more was not done to him based on his behavior and he is still allowed to work there, even though he has targeted her with his aggression. 
     The other inequities she talks about are how hard it is to be a female working in a predominately men's field (teaching fitness classes and being a personal trainer).  The fitness center just hired a new male instructor and she was commenting on how he has gotten to do a lot of new classes that she has been suggesting for awhile, but since he is a fresh face and he is male, he is being allowed to try these new things that she has not been able to get done.  She also mentioned that maybe if he requested to get things fixed it would get done faster because he is a male.  She doesn't sound bitter when she talks about it, but I could definately tell that there has been many instances for her when sexism has been a part of her work environment. 
    Now I realize that these are not major situations compared to what else goes on in the world, but I really thought it was interesting how she was discussing this with us and it fit right along with the topics we have been discussing in this course.  I think the director of the fitness center has the power to make these situations into more positive ones and make them more equitable for her.  I really think in the first situation the male should not have allowed to come back because what if he does this to someone else?  The fitness center could really be in a lot of trouble and another female should not have to face the aggressiveness of this man.