Linda's ECE World

                                              Hope for the Future in Early Childhood Education


                Well it has been an eight week journey in to diversity.  We have reflected upon our own diversity and bias.  We have thought long and hard about how we will combat that in our lives and in our classrooms.  We have thought how to support the children and families in all of the varying ways the express the uniqueness of who they are and where they come from.  It has been a good time to travel.

               What will all this mean for me and the children I may work with in early childhood education?  For me it means I will have a deeper understanding of the personal relationship between identity and culture.  It will mean that as I see each child as an individual. I will also see him or her as a multi layered art piece and know that even though the top layer may be smooth and calm underneath is the possibility of a great storm and when I breaks I need to be ready to honor that instead of trying to put the tempest in the framework of what is the norm of the dominate culture.  I can frame what the expression of the child is in that moment in the light of seeing the multiple layers with the light of that person showing through.  Understanding that none of us had a static context for who we are and what we want in life I as the adult can help remove the lines we are not supposed to color out side of and let those colors blend and mix and swirl.  It has been said that children are resilient.  I think for the most part that is true however I also have seen who our bias can dampen the budding identity of a child and mute the expression of those colors, when enough people do that things get muddy colored and it looks like a mess.   Louise Derman -Sparks and Julie Edwards Olsen along with Maria Montessori have really brought home the importance of the spiritual preparation of the teacher. Unless this component is addressed in teaching programs children can not be well served.  I especially am concerned with children with a hidden disability such as autism, Asperger's, ADD and ADHD who have a hard time with social - emotional context will be left in the dust not only academically but on the level of functioning and being successful in the social world of work and play.   Having a challenging child in the class can be very frustrating for a teacher especially for the pre school teacher who may not have a great deal of training or experience.  One of the aims I would like to implement in the area where I live is some behavior management classes showing techniques on how to understand behavior and how to help the child with the challenging moments to work through them and successfully deal with what has gotten him or her off track.   The one thing I hope to use the philosophy of anti-bias for is to teach others when they are working with these children their bias can cloud the work they are doing and it is important for address that early on in their career.
Below I have included two articles that have come through my news feed on Face book that I thought were interesting in regards to anti-bias education and classroom management.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/16/us-usa-race-schooldiscipline http://www.technology.org/2015/04/21/study-shows-early-environment-has-a-lasting-impact-on-stress-response-systems/      

I want to thanks my cohort for dropping by and it has been a pleasure working with you all.  May you have a successful and enjoyable career.  See you in the Capstone class.

Peace and all good.