This week I
spoke with three of my friends and colleagues to get their definitions of
culture and diversity. I was given an array of answers from listings of their genealogy
to their language. All three people that I interviewed spoke English and identified
themselves as American partly because of that fact. I found it interesting that the women (2 of the 3) used descriptors
of gender such as mom and daughter while the male did not, designate or
identify his gender. A personal thought causes me to wonder if this has to do
with most men or should I say that the dominate culture’s influence on males
being so self assured that it doesn’t need to be stated?
One of my colleagues
described his self as American-Mexican. He explained that both of his parents
are Mexican but all three boys were born in the US and were raised American. He
says that they do enjoy traditional Mexican recipes but that is about the
extent of their old heritage that they bring forward. He knows very little
Spanish and does say that he regrets not having more of the language, but his
parents came here for the opportunity to have a career, make money and they
needed the family to speak English in order to fit in.
None of the
people that I interviewed brought up environment, values, health, community or
education (directly). However, all three stated their career choice as part of
their culture. I would say over all most of what was discussed was what we have
learned as surface culture.
One interviewee
was honest about some biases (relating to personality types) that she struggles
with when we were discussing diversity. The other two considered themselves to
be pretty diverse thinkers and knowing them I would have to agree. They live
the motto of working from on open mind. All three agreed that coming from a
family of money or from a family that was poor was seen as being diverse. The
example that I was given as two different cultures was a ranching family and a blue-collar
family.
Had we talked
for a longer period of time we may have gotten deeper into the description and
meaning of culture and diversity but as a fact gathering, what’s your first
thoughts questioning, most of the answers as I have already mentioned were
surface and not really deep. I feel that this exercise gave me a good insight
into what the majority of parents might be coming from. As an early childhood educator
it is important to remember the family when working with the children. We want
to give the children opportunities to learn and practice open thinking and be
diverse thinkers but we must be respectful and knowledgeable in the
presentation of information.
Jenn Pore`
I found the responses from your 3 people very interesting. I am trying to get a better understanding of diversity and culture myself. I am learning to think deeper in this course and I am learning more about myself. I have friends who are of a different culture and do not know how to speak their home language well because they were born here in the U.S. and they went to schools with English speaking teachers and classmates. They had to conform to our way because we are the dominant culture.
ReplyDeleteJennifer I could't agree with you more about your statement "It is important to remember the family when working with children." This statement is very important; however, I also feel that we should not just define children by their families culture and diversity because our students can see the world differently then their family in some aspects. We, teachers, are constantly thinking about the individual child in their learning style, level, and personality. It should be natural to include culture and diversity in that list.
ReplyDelete