The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

 

 

When my older sister’s fiancé visited her at home, it was not unusual for the two of us to play. He would take on the role of big brother playing with his younger brother. Then, I grew up and was not enticed to play like a boy anymore. Having lost a playmate, I understood that my sister’s fiancé could be disappointed. However, the way he expressed his disappointment made me feel that he had lost any interest in me and that I had become invisible because I was a girl. This is what he said or what I remember him saying “It’s too bad that I can’t play with Marie anymore the way I did before when I could play with her like a boy.” This gender microaggression exemplifies an institutional prejudice toward girls/women: girls/women measure less than boys/men, and boys/men represent the valuable segment of society. A little later, the same young man not liking the cleanliness of the bathroom exclaimed “With three girls in the house, how can the bathroom not be clean?” Thanks to my future brother in law, my future was clearly outlined and I had better start right learning the ropes of a perfect house wife. Unfortunately, each incident struck me with full force and I was unable to turn them into opportunities for greater equity.  It is only after turning forty that I started to empower myself and whenever I felt strong enough attempted to change incidents of that sort into teaching moments for equity. For example, one of my daughter’s friends whose family enjoyed the help of a hired woman remarked one day as I was cleaning behind the kitchen sink tap “You are finally cleaning this” and I assured him that he could feel free to take care of this whenever he felt like it. Not highlighting the young man’s rudeness and offering him to notice his prejudice provided a better teaching opportunity.

 With the knowledge of how I have been influenced to believe prejudices toward women in my childhood, as an educator I strive to recognize gender prejudices in children’s literature, movies, and television shows. Although raising questions each time I witness an inequity, I have to be mindful not to impose my views on others since my personal views would then become biases. Rather, engaging a conversation on the meaning and purpose of a page in a book may help raise awareness and shift behaviors. In these interactions, my own biases are kept in balance, enriched, and redefined with other people’s views.      

 

Another example of institutional prejudice can be found in the movie “Men of Honor” (2000) where Carl Brashear, an African-American, dreams to become a Master Chief Navy Diver.  Brashear is confronted with racism and has to overcome many hardships and obstacles.  As I was looking for information on the movie and the book written by David Robbins, I came upon a TV review raising a doubt about the main character’s integrity, therefore invalidating the purpose of the movie which to my understanding was to increase awareness on an American coming from a minority group whose dedication to his country and his courage would take him against all odds to the top level of his military career.  Here is the quote from Simels’ review in TVGuide:

“Heroes are hard to find, so it feels churlish to carp about a film that tells the true story of sailor Carl Brashear (Cuba Gooding Jr.), who overcame systemic racism to become the U.S. Navy's first African-American deep-sea diver. On the other hand, it's a little odd that nobody involved — certainly not screenwriter Scott Marshall Smith or director George Tillman Jr. — seems to have noticed that it's also the story of a guy who literally cut off a limb to achieve a career goal. No disrespect to the real-life Brashear intended, but reasonable viewers might see this act as more masochistic and creepy than uplifting (Simels, n.a.)”

Interestingly, this article weaves biases and prejudices with positive comments and succeeds in creating a doubt in readers’ mind as to Brashear’s actual intention and the validity of his racial struggle.

Reference Simels, S. (n.a.). TV Guide. Retrieved from:  http://movies.tvguide.com/men-of-honor/review/134888

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

 

 

 

Surely providing students with a safe environment means teaching them what to do and when to do things. There exists a fine line between teaching guidelines and imposing power over them. In a combined first and second class this week, a female first grader was subjected to the microaggression of a female second grader. Although this interaction involved two young girls, the issue at stake involving power puts weight in the scale of gender microaggression.

At the end of class, the teacher calls students one by one and asks them to get up, push in their chairs, and get in line, all in the target language. Most of the children are in line and the teacher calls the third to last student, a first grade girl. After giving her instructions to this student, the teacher directs her attention to a student who was engaging a conversation with a peer. Then, the teacher hearing “Yes, the teacher told me” and seeing that the student whom she had asked to get in line was standing in the middle of the classroom asked what the problem was. The first grade student answered that a (second grade) peer was saying that the teacher had not asked her to get in line and that she was not following instructions. The teacher confirmed that she had given her permission to join the line. Once in line, the teacher asked the first grader if the teacher had given instructions to get in line and the first grader acquiesced. The teacher continued and asked the student if she was doing the right thing by getting in line, and she replied yes. Then, the teacher encouraged her to continue to do what she was doing if she knew she was doing what she was supposed to and not give up her position of power.

 

 

Since the second grader had engaged in a power struggle with the first grader, the teacher needed the situation so the microaggression could be turned into a positive outcome. Rather than focusing on the second grader’s point of view, the teacher chose to help the first grader empower herself when she knows she is doing the right thing, not give up her rights, and stand tall.

Was it appropriate to disregard the second grader’s behavior in that case and risk making the student feel dismissed in what she thought was right? Since the second grader took upon her to take a leader’s role and boss her classmate, the teacher not paying attention to her attempt of gaining power stopped the student’s behavior. Also, not giving the second grader any attention turned the focus back on the first grader who was doing the right thing, and allowed her to feel proud of herself.

Microaggressions can take many forms namely racial, gender discrimination, sexual orientation, and are frequently unconscious and unintentional. However, those unconscious and unintentional microaggressionss are the most damaging. In this light, it is important to learn to recognize microaggressions in school and address them immediately.  Teaching children how to empower themselves may palliate a future where they will have to deal with discrimination, prejudice and stereotypes.

Reference

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Microaggressions in Everyday Life [Video webcast]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/

 

 

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

Before taking the class on “Culture, Diversity & Equity", my definition of culture and diversity would have been short because I would not have dared or thought to include the many influences listed in chapter one of Gonzalez-Mena’s book Diversity in Early Care and Education (2008):
“Race
Gender
Age
Abilities and disabilities
Language
Social class including status and economic level
Ethnicity and national origin
Religion and/or spiritual practice
Original geographic location of family, where I grew up, and present location (if different),
Sexuality, including sexual orientation” (p.9)

Even though I was aware of two levels of understanding for the term “identity” namely conscious (name, nationality, ethnicity, etc.) and the unconscious identity that one builds throughout their life developing their true identity, I did not apply this understanding to the word culture.   

Asking three of my friends what their definition of culture and diversity was, confirmed that we first consider others according to what surface culture reveals about others i.e. gender and assumptions from skin color such as ethnicity and religion which categorizes people into political camps (Ngo, 2008).

It was fun to sift through my friends list to select three of them that offer a different background, and I feel lucky that only one could not get back to me. The first set of definitions comes from a music teacher, an Asian-American woman in her twenties. Since we have had a few laughs on the account of misleading term Asian-American, it is best to express one of my friend’s identity as Taiwanese- American, since she was born in the United States of Taiwanese parents. The following is her definition of culture and diversity:

“Culture is the unique combination of one's heritage through the parents (past) and the forces of society that the individual has grown up in (present).”
“Diversity is the culmination of a vast range of different people from all backgrounds and ethnic groups.”

Clearly, her definition of culture includes interactions between the past and the present, the microcosm of family bathing in the macrocosm of society. I would say that the overarching unconscious force within each individual is missing from this definition.

Following is a second set of definitions from a nurse, a Caucasian woman in her sixties. Since we also shared good laughs around the misleading term Caucasian, it is fair to say that my friend is Italian-American being born in the U. S. from Italian parents. This is what she wrote regarding the terms culture and diversity:

“Thinking about culture; the environment/atmosphere that provides a reference for attitudes, ways of living, ways of thinking, ways of doing things, etc. Culture can be inborn, adopted, expanded, and changed. It’s not stagnant.”
“Diversity is the presence of many different cultures.”

If the definition of culture also referenced the “set of often unconscious rules that govern everything we do, impacted by gender, race, ethnicity, abilities, etc.”, the definition of diversity would be succinct and to the point (Laureate, Inc. 2011)

A third set of definitions was provided by an American male in his fifties. Is it appropriate to say Caucasian-American? Is there a Caucasian continent, north or south? What follows are his definitions of culture and diversity:

“Culture is about traditions of beliefs passed on through different expressions of society, teaching, religious, and political organizations that are expressed in many different ways such as music, news, and other sources.
From a cultural aspect, diversity is good because it causes people to think beyond the world they create for themselves. Diversity allows one to participate in the global society. If one would live in an isolated world, one would be isolated from diversity and would not experience the fullness that life can offer. There are always two sides of the coin; if you live in a non-diverse area, there is a richer life because there is no competitive culture. In a non-diverse culture, roots go deeper and one can draw from the culture in fuller ways. When the culture is too diverse, there is a shallow way of living. For example, when indigenous tribes were toppled over by the dominant culture, they could not compete with the import of new ideas which ruined what they had. Indigenous ideas were no more holistic and the people could not put their ideas back together.”

This last comment exemplifies an Objective Family Diversity defendant scrupulously trying to justify how a culture, perhaps a dominant culture, was able to crush another or others.

Thanks to this reaching out exercise, I am humbled to have been the recipient of heartfelt thoughts regarding important topics such as culture and diversity; important topics because they are in direct correlation with the education of our youngest population.

References

Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2008). Diversity in Early Care and Education (5th ed., pp. 8–13). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.
Copyright 2008 by McGraw-Hill Education, Inc.. Reprinted by permission of McGraw-Hill Education, Inc. via the Copyright Clearance Center.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Culture and Diversity [Video webcast]. Retrieved on May 25, 2013 from https://class.waldenu.edu

Ngo, B. (2008). Beyond "culture clash": Understanding of immigrant experiences. Theory into Practice, 47(1), 4–11. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database.

 

 

 

 

 

My Family Culture

My father asked each of his daughters what they wanted to have from their mother. Our mother had just passed away. When my mother would wear her new watch, she was very proud and beamed of happiness as if the watch gave my mother renewed strength and hopes to better perform against her illness. The faithful tic-tac of my mom’s watch made feel close to her almost as if she was talking to me. Her passing taught me that even what you hold the dearest to your heart only lasts for a while and that no memorabilia can ever replace one’s loss. With this in mind, what 3 things would I take with me if I had to leave everything else behind? No doubt that I would take a picture of my family portraying my husband, my daughter and her husband, and my pets (2 of which were rescued by our daughter). Also, I would take a small round mirror with the picture of my 6 years old daughter wearing pig tails with red ribbons and a big smile with a missing tooth, and saying how much she loves life. The third thing I would want to travel with is a tiny envelop with ashes materialized by Sai Baba wrapped up with a horse hair that my daughter found on the ground of a ranch and offered me.    First, the photo of my family will remind me of my identity, who I am. It will also serve as my support in times of hardship when I think that nobody understands me and my life feels unreal. The photo will ground me, tell me that in the past I lived in circumstances where I had a family, with people who loved me and understood me. The photo of my family is a link to sanity. Perhaps, my hosts will be interested in learning about new ways and with this picture in hand; I will be able to explain my family culture and that of the dominant culture at the time. Secondly, the mirror connects to a past where my family had recently moved to California and we were all learning new ways. My daughter was wearing a charming white dress with tiny red dots that were passed on by the school director whose daughters had enjoyed wearing. This was a time of happiness, discovery, and learning. Third, my husband met our friend in an astronomy association in France. Both families shared similar interests and our relationship developed over the following six months after which we moved to the U.S. As a practitioner of Hinduism, he went to India a few times and once brought back a couple of tiny envelopes filled with ashes that Sai Baba manifested in one of his celebrations.  This item connects my family to the past and the future, to the visible and invisible, and is bound by a strong tie to life with the horse hair, a tie to our daughter who was then a teenager and on her way to becoming a responsible adult. In summary, the above represents what my family went through, the culture we have developed, and the ties that bound us together. If I had to involuntary leave my home for any reason, I would question the instructions. Therefore, if I were told that of the three items I could only bring one, I would be disappointed but not too surprised. Of the three items, I would cherish the most the photo of the people closest to me. By and large, this exercise revealed that my family’s culture is not centered on “race, ethnicity, religion, class, parenting patterns, economic, and language” as I used to think (Laureate, Inc, 2011). Undoubtedly, those aspects of culture are factored into my family’s culture but what came out of this exercise is that my family is more dependent on building relationships through interests in human nature, than on cultural differences. It seems to me that showing an interest in children and families’ culture should start from a genuine interest in people: children and their families. To my surprise, love of one’s family and relationships took the precedence over all other aspects of culture. What I learned from taking on the role of a refugee in a place where my culture and perhaps language were unknown highlighted that being recognized and valued as a whole complex human being was crucial to my well-being. Since I had lost everything else, my new hosts would serve me well if they showed genuine interest and compassion in everything I may represent for them. If they wanted to create another relationship where their culture and mine would mesh, I would be honored as being the foundation of our new relationship.

 

A Special Note of Thanks

Dear Dr. Kien,

This was an amazing journey! It provided me with tools to conduct a research and moreover challenged me to assess the kind of researcher I want to be. The task is intimidating, fascinating, and irresistible.

Thank you so much for your guidance, your research tips, and your trust!

Warmly,

MarieFrance

Thank You

Dear Early Childhood Colleagues,

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts in the discussions and have benefitted from your sharing your experience with young children. It has been very inspiring for me as the youngest children I teach are kindergarteners.

It would be great to work together in the next class and continue to grow into early childhood educators that can bring a change to our wonderful young friends and their families.

Fondly and best wishes,

MarieFrance

When I Think of Research

 

        As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think.

                                         Toni Morrison (Brainy Quotes)

 

 

Before starting the course on Building Research Competency, I had in mind that research was mainly about making a hypothesis, asking specific questions, sorting out the answers, and uncovering some kind of truth.  Little was I expecting to dive in a complex world comprised of many distinct yet overlapping methods such as quantitative, qualitative, theory research, mixed methods research, and the many different perspectives that a researcher may start from in order to conduct an ethical research (Mac Naughton, Rolfe, & Siraj-Blatchford, 2010). Since research’s ultimate goal is to be valid in order to be credible and to have results applied, it is important to embark on a project with another researcher to check the validity of the results as they come in. To that effect, having a design allowing for triangulation of methods ensures that research results can be trusted (Mac Naughton, Rolfe, & Siraj-Blatchford, 2010).

 What was most fascinating was the reflection on ethics and equity. When I scrolled a page on Google Images to find an illustration of equity, I was surprised to see that the word is mainly associated with money and profit out of something owned. Even though the definition of equity as “money value” comes in last position in the Merriam Webster online dictionary, it seems to rank first in people’s mind.  

Thanks to this course, I know that ethics and equity have to be weaved into the research as it is being designed and constantly evaluated during the research process. Researchers must efficiently conduct their research yet be wary of power relations especially when children participate in the research (Mac Naughton, Rolfe, & Siraj-Blatchford, 2010). In addition, researchers must carefully think through their design and avoid using a deficit model that would flaw the results in that results would take the perspective of the dominant Eurocentric culture and not give important information susceptible of helping children and families from the majority-minority (Barreto, Segura, Woods, 2004).

Clearly, the most daunting aspect of research is having present all the possible ways to approach it. Conversely, keeping research within ethical and equitable boundaries represent the more delicate and actual challenge because it implies being in tune with participants’ subtle reactions (Mac Naughton, Rolfe, & Siraj-Blatchford, 2010).

As I am getting deeper into the master of early childhood studies, the fascination for the field keeps growing and continues to surprise me as well as I continue to surprise myself as I go deeper into understanding the kind of early childhood educator I endeavor to be.

References

Barreto, M., A., Segura G., M., Woods, N., D. (2004). The Mobilizing Effect of Majority-Minority Districts on Latino Turnout. American Political Science Review. Vol. 98, No. 1 February. Retrieved from: http://209.235.207.196/imgtest/segura%20barreto%20APSR%20(feb%2004).pdf

Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S.A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood research: International perspectives on theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/equity

Brainy Quotes

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/tonimorris384459.html#EdqkH4FWiHiMasIQ.99