Start Seeing Diversity Blog: "We Don't Say Those Words in Class!"

 

 

 

Start Seeing Diversity Blog: "We Don't Say Those Words in Class!"

            I can recall greeting my Hispanic neighbor Maria about a month ago with my 5 year old niece Haidyn in tow.  Neighbor stopped down and in a friendly manner she greeted Haidyn and said “Hi! How are you doing?”  Haidyn remarked “I can’t understand what she’s saying because she talks funny”.  Maria explained to Haidyn that she was not talking funny and that she was speaking English.  I was so embarrassed and shocked at that moment but I did correct Haidyn and I told her that what she said was inappropriate and not nice.  Haidyn had a puzzled look on her face because she felt that she was just being honest but now she realized that she did something wrong but really had no explanation of why what she said was wrong. 

In retrospect I guess I should have shared with Haidyn different examples of various people who speak English with different accents explaining the beauty of diversity.  According to Harro’s "Cycle of Liberation" there is a continuous cycle that we endure when we are trying to break down our stereotypes and trying to rid ourselves of oppression (Harro, 2008).  As an anti-bias early childhood educator the teacher needs to listen to children and when they voice stereotypes it is helpful to address the issue right away and supply the student with resources (books, movies, recordings) that will help children to analyze the issue (Laureate Education, n.d.).   If a group of Caucasian girls announce that they are excluding an African American girl from playing with them because they feel she is not pretty enough.  The anti-bias teacher needs to step in and show them pictures of multicultural children playing together and do role play with persona dolls of various cultures in order to show these girls the correct way to welcome children that may not look like them.  Teacher’s can utilize read-alouds in the classroom to promote cultural diversity by selecting books that represent different cultures in the classroom and beyond because children really pay attention to what books teachers select (Hall, 2008).

 

 

References

Hall, K. W. (2008). Reflecting on our read-aloud practices: The importance of including culturally

            authentic literature. Young Children, 63(1), 80–86. Retrieved from the Walden Library

using the Education Search Complete database.
        http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=28334270&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Harro, Bobbie (2008). Readings For Diversity and Social Justice, Figure 7.1 on p. 53

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Start seeing diversity: Race/ethnicity [Video file].

            Retrieved from https://class.waldenu