Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

During lunch time, Ms. Beeman, an American teacher, came to our classroom to take on her lunch duty while she was not the classroom teacher in our class. Lassya, an Indian girl, was eating her lunch with her right hand in my class. When Ms. Beeman witnessed this, she went to get a spoon for Lassya and said, "Please use the spoon, it is good manners to use a spoon and it won't make your hands dirty." In this example, Ms. Beeman was not the classroom teacher in this class, which means that she does not know much about the children in this class and about their family culture and tradition, either. She does not know that Lassya was from India where eating with hands is one of the culture. As to Lassya, when she heard that eating with hands was not appropriate, this would make her feel confused about what she had been doing in her family and feel lost about who she was. The microaggression happened because Ms. Beeman did not know much about the child and did not take into consideration different cultures of eating habits. When I observed this, I felt embarrassed for Lassya, and sorry that I did not inform the teacher of Lassya's case before hand.

My observation experiences this week affect my perception of the effects of discrimination, prejudice and stereotypes on people. I realize that actually every minute our own beliefs, culture, tradition, and way of life, etc, affect our ways of communication with others and views on people and about things happening around. If we don't hold an open-minded attitude and get to know more about different cultures, we might impose our discriminative, prejudiced and stereotypical views on people, which cause intentionally or unintentionally microaggression towards others and show inequity.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

This week, I am asked to call, write to, or talk to at least three friends, family members, acquaintances, and/or colleagues, to ask each person to share their definition of culture and diversity.

The three colleagues, Ann, Al Joseph, and Cheryl, are from different countries with different cultures. One of them, Al Joseph, is a male teacher and almost every Sunday will go to church. Cheryl has a same religious belief with Al Joseph. I asked them to share their definition of culture and diversity and they were so supportive. Their definitions are as follows:

Ann Lopez, an early childhood teacher with 4-5 years old children, she responded:

"Could you imagine the world without diversity? Diversity that makes us different and adds color and spice into this challenging and transforming world we live in. There are a lot of differences in our beliefs, culture, and traditions, but these should not to hinder us from being good to one another. In addition, diversity makes us unique individuals who contribute and find solutions to the issues we face in the school, community, or even the nation that we belong to, and most of all, the difference we make to others" (Lopez, personal conversation about DIVERSITY, November 13, 2014).

" For me, it is the culture that made me. Through culture, I learned what is right and what is wrong. I live with the saying that 'Do not do unto others what you do not want other do unto you'. In addition, through culture I have learned how to meet my needs. So, as teacher I greatly respect student's unique culture and their learning styles, and bringing it in to the classroom makes learning more meaningful and lasting. An example, is celebrating uniqueness during International week. We invite families to share about their culture and experience things just like we are in their home country" (Lopez, personal conversation about CULTURE, November 13, 2014)

Aljo Cruz, shared his insights of what culture and diversity meant to him:

" For me, culture is what a person, or a group of persons are accustomed to do. an activity, activities or way of life that is unique to an individual or a social group. It can be as profound as worshiping on temples or churches, celebrating a certain event or as simple as having lunch together every day or having karaoke or massage weekly. it is something practiced and have been set in stone as something a group of people do. Diversity is the wonderful realization of the state that different people or groups of people have different cultures, different taste in music, different inclination to certain food, different way of life. it is a beautiful thing" (Cruz, Personal conversation, November 14, 2014 )

Cheryl shared her definitions of culture and diversity from the perspective of being an early childhood teacher:

"Culture is the total collection of a common belief, tradition, moral concepts, art, music, clothing, food of a particular group of people/society or era. The environment plays a very important role in the formation of a society's culture - as it will dictate how the people will adapt in order to survive & live amicably within the group. Diversity, from the word 'diverse' it means different. Diverse culture means a collection of many cultures in one environment. Fortunate enough to work in an international school, I relish the opportunity to learn about the diverse cultures of the children who attend our school. While it is important to learn about & understand each culture, as an educator in an international school, it is imperative to RESPECT and TOLERATE each unique culture to better serve this culturally diverse community. We also have to remember that aside from recognizing the diverse ethnic cultures, we should also be mindful that each family (though may be ethnically the same) also has their own home culture which will be different from the school culture as well. An educator's ability to embrace (with respect & tolerance) a culturally diverse community will greatly benefit the students - the main reason why we are here in school" (Cheryl, personal conversation, November 15, 2014)

Which aspects of culture and diversity that I have studied in this course are included in the answers I received—and what are some examples?

Some aspects of culture and diversity that I have studied in this course are included in the answer I received, such as the surface culture, the deep culture as well as the family culture. For the surface culture, Al Joseph and Cheryl mentioned that culture includes food, music, clothing and so on. For the deep culture, the three colleagues mentioned that culture is also about the beliefs, traditions, moral concepts, ways of life, and so on. For the family culture, both Ann and Cheryl mentioned that as early childhood teachers, we should pay attention to the family culture, to know about it and as what Cheryl said, to embrace and tolerate diverse family cultures. 

Which aspects have been omitted—and what are some examples of such omission?

Actually, I think the three teachers are aware of not only the surface culture and the deep culture, but also the family culture that makes diversity. However, when they talked about diversity, they did not mention the importance of diversity to the formations of social identities.

In what ways has thinking about other people’s definitions of culture and diversity influenced my own thinking about these topics?

Thanks to my three colleagues, they strengthened my understanding of culture and diversity. In the same environment, groups of people gather together with different diverse social identities, which result from their own diverse cultures especially the family culture. Therefore, early childhood educators should pay attention to children's family culture that to most extent forms their personalized social identities. To better support the development of children's self-identification, one thing we should do is to get to know the family culture.

My family culture

Imagine the following:

A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of your country. The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees. You and your immediate family are among the survivors of this catastrophic event. However, you have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. You are told that your host country’s culture is completely different from your own, and that you might have to stay there permanently. You are further told that, in addition to one change of clothes, you can only take 3 small items with you. You decide to take three items that you hold dear and that represent your family culture.

Chinese dictionary

The three items that I would choose are a Chinese Dictionary, a Chinese knot and a pair of chopsticks. In the Chinese dictionary, it includes the Pinyin/pronunciation, the meaning and the usage of each Chinese character, which is very useful for learning Chinese. The Chinese knot is made by using only one piece of thread; It can be in a variety of figures. Chopsticks are a pair of about pinky-finger-sized sticks with the length of around 23cm and can be made from bamboo, wood, metal and china.

Chinese Knot

Chinese characters have been existing for more than 7 thousand years, which represent our literacy, our culture, our civilization and our intelligence. I would like to take a Chinese dictionary with me because I want my next generations to talk, read and write in Chinese, thus maintaining our civilization. The Chinese knot means unity and happiness in China, which my parents always advocate for and is part of my family culture. The Chinese knot would give me courage and hope when I was in the host country. Chopsticks are a typical part of the food culture in China and a lifestyle for our family as Chinese.

chopsticks

If I was told that I had to give any of these items, I could not imagine how my life would be like because I would lose who I am, what I believe in and the ways I live as a Chinese. I would feel get lost and not completed because these items are part of me.

I think the daily items, the daily behaviors and the ways how I live are my culture and my family culture, which become who I am and are inseparable of self. Just as NADIYAH TAYLOR said, "Everything that we do, I think, is related to culture. You know, the gestures that we make, how we make eye contact or don't make eye contact, the way we hold our bodies, how we perceive the world, all of those things for me are cultural, and so I think it's really just our way of being in the world and very personal." (Laureate Education, 2011)

Reference: 

Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Family cultures: Dynamic interactions [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu