Professional Hopes and Goals

First and foremost I would like to thank my colleagues that I have been sharing this tremendous journey with for the past year!! It has been a challenging and rewarding experience so far, and I am so thankful to be able to learn from your vast experience and knowledge!!

Going forward it is my hope that I will become a better person everyday. I hope to see individuals not just people. I hope to treat every child and family with respect and appreciation for who they are. I hope to be a caring advocate and resource for all children and families, and I hope to increase other's knowledge so that within my community and organization there is an increase awareness and acceptance for diversity.

My professional goal with respect to diversity, equity, and social justice would be to be on the diversity committee within my professional organization. I would then like to organize events both within my organization and also in the community to increase in awareness, equity, and acceptance of all individuals. I believe in this capacity I can be an advocate and a resource.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

I will be welcoming a family from the country of Estonia. I have no knowledge of the cultural values of Estonians, therefore this will be a challenge for me. To prepare for the arrival of the family I will be working with, I will first learn about the primary language of Estonians and work to establish a point of contact that will be able to offer translation or linguistic help as needed. It has been stated throughout the duration of this course that language is often abandoned as it does not fit with the language of the dominant culture. I would like to establish the native language as a rich learning experience for the center in which I work as well as the new family. Next, I would learn about the history of Estonia. This would give me insight into the evolution of the Estonian culture and society. I would also try to discover the family culture and family structure of Estonians, as working with families and children this is a key component to successfully communicating and respecting the family values. I believe that determining what type of social policies Estonia subscribes to would be important as well to help link the new family to social resources without impeding upon cultural values if necessary. Determining the values placed on physical and emotional interaction would be necessary as well, such as eye contact, handshakes, tone of voice, or physical proximity. This would allow for boundaries to be established and maintained without invalidated or insulting the family. I believe that determining religious values as well as ethnic values would be imperative as well. Throughout the course of preparation for the family I hope to learn how I can be supportive to the family, welcoming in an unobtrusive manner, as well as respectful of their family culture and individual cultures as well. This will allow me to learn from the family as well as to be a supportive resources as the family transitions. It is my hope that the family will feel values and respected in order to maintain their cultural and social identities as they establish themselves in a new country and environment.

Bias and Oppression

Early on in my undergraduate program I took a Sociology course. Part of the course was responding to discussion posts of other classmates, however, our instructor wanted us to present new information or challenge information presented in our classmates discussion post. I remember the topic was not a hot button topic at all, but one of my classmates accused me of being closed minded and racist. It was a very demeaning response to my post and not even on topic of what we were discussing. I was very hurt by the remarks as they were completely unfounded and off base. We had not had any formal or informal discussions with one another prior to this and I was shocked by her response to me. My instructor actually removed her post and issued a very stern comment in regards to her post. Later the student emailed me saying she just needed someone to challenge as she felt that the instructor wanted us to do that. While this may be a cloudy example of bias and oppression it sticks with me. I don't understand why this classmate didn't like me and felt that she needed to attack my character, but it was very hurtful to me. After this occurrence I did my best to avoid this classmate and made sure I didn't not comment to her for fear of retribution or retaliation.I think she made me feel inferior in some way, as if I presented myself as lacking integrity. From that point on I did not feel as though she was a classmate or colleague. I think in order to grow and increase equity it takes both parties being willing to compromise. There was a lack of trust built, but over time I believe with commitment from myself and my classmate to improve communication and acceptance of one another this could have been resolved. Upon thinking of this further I wonder based on her email to me if she thought I was someone that would just accept this model of communication without being hurt by her comments?

The Trouble with "isms"

I work at a community college and spend most of my time on campus. I wasn't sure how this week would go as far as trying to detect "isms". I felt like I may really be surprised with all of the microaggressions I ignore each day, or I may hear relatively few. This week I noticed that the primary "isms" I heard, which included very few I may add, were targeted towards ageism, classism,  and ableism. The one that really struck me was when someone said to me, "I am not working dead end jobs, that's okay for some people but not me...I don't want to live poor". I was speaking with a student regarding his career plan and path to reach that goal. I noticed I immediately became defensive when he stated it, yet I tried to remain professional. He then stated it again, at which point I reminded him that every situation in life can be looked at as a learning experience. My perception is that there is a divide amongst the classes, and a disagreement about how we can all work together to reach a common goal. Is poverty okay for some, but just not others? I think that was the implication. Overall this week when I began to really look, listen, and be aware I was shocked by the acceptance of certain microaggressions. I also feel that populations that do not fit within the dominant culture and are therefore vulnerable may be more at risk of being the target of a microaggresion.