Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

According to Urie Bronfenbrenner, children should be viewed within the complex systems of their changing environment, such as family, extended family, school, friends, organization, government, and culture, which significantly affect children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development and the forming of social identities (Arndt & McGuire-Schwartz, 2008). From the complex systems, children learn about their own and others’ personal and social identities through both overt and covert messages, including some “-isms”, such as racism, gender stereotyping and sexism, classism, ableism, ageism and so on (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). 

As for me, the most obvious “-isms” that I have experienced and been experienced are sexism and racism. Sexism is prevalent in the environment where I grew up. People stereotypically thinks that men are stronger than women in any aspect; that they should be provided with better conditions to grow and develop so that they could take more responsibility for and contribute more to their family; that women should give up some chances and take care more of the family; and so on. For example, I have been spending more time pursuing my career as a teacher in an international school; relatively, I have spent less time considering my marriage, which worries my families who think that the better future for women is to have a good marriage rather than to have a good career. This is gender stereotyping and sexism. After learning about human diversity, “-isms” and anti-bias education, I pay more attention to the issues related to gender and sexism since I have experienced what impact this -ism has brought to me. Affected by sexism, I feel my gender identity is devalued and unrecognized, which has a negative impact on my emotional and social development. I felt less confident when collaborating with men, or emotionally hurt when compared with men. My personal experience of sexism makes me realize that I should be on my guard against what children, parents and teachers communicate and interact, to see if sexism exists in their messages in a overt or covert way. If so, I would use an anti-bias approach to address this issue, such as using a persona dolls, reading books without gender stereotyping words, thoughts and illustrations, or some follow-up activities to let children find out both girls and boys are equitable.

Racism exists mostly in my workplace, which actually is conveyed unnoticeably by other international teachers with good intentions. For example, in order for children to learn English better, some teachers would stress more on speaking English rather than their home languages, which makes children’s home culture invisible and shows bias toward their languages. One experience that I had regarding racism is when I had lunch with another teacher from other country. She commented that how come Chinese people can eat fish with bones. Her facial expression and words made me feel discomfort and biased. Several experiences that I had were related to Chinese food and culture. This kind of experiences make me think that each person and each culture has its own way, that what we should do is to recognize those differences, value them and respect them, instead of bringing in stereotyping thoughts and attitudes, which I gain from learning these courses related to diversity. Therefore, when working with families and children, I would observe how children and families interact with each other; I would find ways to gain some information about their beliefs, values and home culture; I would pay attention to my words to avoid stereotyping; I would listen to what children want to convey to check if there is racism hidden in their words.

As stated, “it is essential to becoming effective anti-biased educators that we examine each aspect of who we are in order to understand fully how our identities influence how we relate to people. Understanding these dynamics in your life will strengthen your awareness of, sensitivity to, and empathy for the personal and social identity development of children and families you serve” (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010, p.23).

References:

 

Arndt, J. S., & McGuire-Schwartz, M. (2008). Early childhood school success: Recognizing families as integral partners. Childhood Education, 84(5), 281. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database: http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/pqdweb?did=1507312931&sid=2&Fmt=3&clientId=70192&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).