Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that you have when you think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds:

The one hope that I have when working with children and families from a diverse background is that they all feel welcome and comfortable in my classroom. Once I am teaching again, I hope to take all the information that I have learned from this course to make sure that I am culturally aware of all of my students. I know that in the past, I had a classroom of diverse students and didn’t do much about it. We made sure that their culture was displayed around the room, but i never took the time to get to know the families. Whether it be they never stayed in the classroom long enough to talk or something would happen with the children to where I didn’t have time to talk. I now know that I must find time to get to know my families and really pay attention to what the children are doing and saying.

One goal you would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice:

One goal that I have for the early childhood field is that it becomes a place for children to feel safe and encouraged to try new things. Children should not be judged by the color of their skin, their gender, or their economic status. Every child should have the same opportunities to learn and grow in the early childhood field.I think that Derman-Sparks (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011) picked a good quote from Raffi that stated:

We find these joys to be self evident that all children are created whole, endowed with innate intelligence, with dignity and wonder and worthy of respect, the embodiment of life, liberty and happiness. Every girl and boy is entitled to love, to dream and belong to a loving village and to pursue a life of purpose.

This is exactly what I want for all children!

I would like to thank my colleagues for helping me down this journey, called diversity. I learned a lot from each and every one of you, and value the experiences that you shared. Hopefully now, we all have the knowledge about diversity and equity that we can start standing up for our students. I wish you all the best of luck as you continue your journey to your master’s degree!

References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Diversity and equity work: Lessons learned. [Video webcast]. Retrieved from the Walden University website: http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=6488767&Survey=1&47=9303639&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1