Thank You!

 As we move forward in our journey to our degrees, I want to say thank you to my colleagues that I have been working with along the way. You all have helped me learn and grow and I feel that I have changed my outlook on life with your assistance and guidance. I've learned several lessons along the way, especially through this last course together. Collaboration and communication are important in all aspects of life, but especially in early childhood and throughout our classes together.

I look forward to working with you all again in the future.

Team Building and Collaboration, Part 1

 My hardest goodbye was leaving the group of teachers that I had worked with for nine years. We had grown up together: attended each other’s weddings, met new babies, helped during troubling times. When I decided to leave this school, it was as if I was leaving my extended family. They had all taken such good care of my daughter through the years, and I was extremely sad to not be able to give them the chance to help me raise my son.  We had been there for the best times together, and pulled together when times were tough: not having enough staff, or a director, or experiences with awful parents.

When I left, we cried, hugged, told stories from over the years, and just loved each other. I knew I was making the right choice by leaving the company that I was working for, but leaving the people was the hardest part. The environment was toxic, but my co-workers are what kept me there for so long.

I think the reason this was the hardest was that we had grown together. We knew how to make the school operate without even trying. We were a well-oiled machine.  

My hope after working with people for so long is that we can stay in touch throughout the years. Social media has been extremely helpful in reconnecting with friends and colleagues from the past. Also, our blogs have been helpful in getting to know each other. I would hope that we can continue to be a part of each other’s lives since we have shared so much together.

Adjourning is so important because it is the closing chapter of a book series. We work together and grow together and when finishing, we write our final chapter together and are able to close the back cover of the book. The finality of the experience is there but friendships do not have to end.

Nonviolent Communication and Conflict Management

I love my job. I am confident in my work and I am able to really relate to the teachers that I am working with. As the assistant director of the school, it is my job to intake new families, tour potential families, and assist teachers in their classrooms with issues. I speak to the teachers on the regular and often give messages to them from families that have emailed and from the executive director, with who I share an office. 

Today, I had a disagreement with a teacher because I told her she could leave early! I had previously told three other teachers that they could give breaks to their co-teachers and leave early as numbers were low and I didn't need them for the afternoon. This teacher, our infant lead teacher, began arguing with me in the classroom. I made sure to be positive when I gave her the news (because who doesn't love to leave early on a Friday?!) and I was not met with the reaction that I had expected. She began arguing with me that she did not want to lose her hours and that it wasn't fair to bring in the afternoon teacher early so she would have to leave early. I told her I would see what I could do but didn't make any promises. 

Personally, I hate when teachers argue with me in the classroom. It is extremely disrespectful and inappropriate for the classroom. I have no problem with a teacher coming to me and discussing an issue, but I do not like when they argue in front of the children and other teachers.

After I walked out of the room, I sat in my office and seethed for a few minutes. I had not handled the situation exactly how I should have, as I do not like conflict and I completely shut down.

Later in the morning, the teacher actually came to me to apologize for her reaction. I used skills from NVC expression to explain to her my reasoning for having her leave early. I also explained my feelings about her initial reaction to me. It had upset me and I wanted her to know that it was not an appropriate way for her to react.

I also remembered the requests vs. demands list from CNC. I was able to explain my feelings and her reaction. In the end, we hugged after our conversation and there were never any hard feelings from either of us. Perception is reality and going back to what we learned about in weeks prior about the platinum rule, I had to treat her the way that she wanted to be treated. 

My final thought is, would you have done anything differently? 

Who I am as a Communicator

 This week, I've learned a lot about my communication style. Based on the Communication Anxiety Inventory quiz that I took about myself, my score indicates that I have "situational" anxiety. I feel that this is extremely true about me. When I am comfortable and in my element, I am extremely comfortable with communicating with others. When I am unsure or doubting myself, I do tend to freeze up and have extreme anxiety. My throat gets tight, my mouth goes dry, I start to sweat. 

My colleagues that took these quizzes about me also agreed with me. My score from one was mild, that I tend to be uneasy in some situations, and confident in others. This also rings true for me. The other colleague's quiz estimated the same result as myself. How interesting that the people around me know me as well as they do. That is my first insight. I am allowing myself to be readable by the people around me. I am learning that I might need to cover up my feelings a little better because the people around me can see that I am nervous and scared and anxious. 

If I want to continue to grow in this field, I will need to become more confident in socially and work related communicative situations. 

A second insight that I realized about myself is that I am truly people oriented with my listening style. Both my colleagues and myself all scored me in the People-oriented category. I do tend to care about the emotions of others. I love people and I guess I could be considered a people pleaser. I care about what people think of me. Even going through my divorce, I am worried about how my estranged husband will feel about me when everything is finalized. It shouldn't matter in this situation, but because I care so much, it does. 

As we continue to move through this course, I hope that I can continue to learn more about myself and my communication style so I can better myself for the future.

Communication and Culture

"Misunderstanding and miscommunication occur between people from different cultures because of different coding rules and cultural norms, which play a major role in shaping patterns of interaction. The greater the difference between the cultures, the more likely it is that they will use different verbal and nonverbal codes" (Beebe, Beebe, & Redmond, 2011).

When communicating with the different groups of people that I work with, I tend to change my language based on who I am speaking with. I always have the same outcome in mind when I am discussing something, but my approach is different based on each individual's personality. I know who I can joke with, who I have to be more matter of fact with, and who needs to hear the reason for my interaction. 

I work with all women, except for one male assistant teacher and our male owner. I can approach the male assistant teacher differently than I would approach our male owner. Although I know that I can be a sarcastic and jovial person, I tend to tone it back with our owner because he is my boss, technically, and is more into business than joking. He can have fun, but it is not a common occurrence. I have a great relationship with the female teachers and I like to think that I have figured out each of their personalities so I know how to approach each of them. It is almost like learning the personalities of each child in your class at the beginning of the school year. There is a learning curve, but once you know how each child learns, you can adapt your teaching style for them to learn best. Same goes with staff members. 

I try to use comic relief when I converse with most people I meet. I find that if I can make someone smile, I can connect with them better. I also try to share similarities with them and relate a situation that I was in with something they are going through. When I can relate to them, we can communicate better and have a better connection. 

Finally, I like to connect with people by asking questions and listening to what the person is actually saying. I try not to read too far into their responses and take them for the words they are providing. This of course goes hand in hand with making a similar connection and relating together. 

Ultimately, I like to listen and actually hear what the other person is saying. When you look too far into it, you end up misinterpreting the end result.

Resource

Beebe, S., Beebe, S., & Redmond, M. (2011). Interpersonal Communication and Diversity: Adapting to Others. In Interpersonal communication: relating to others (pp. 85–114). essay, Pearson. 

Communication Skills: Language, Nonverbal, Listening

This week, I chose to watch an episode of the show "Dynasty." It is not something that I usually would watch or have an interest in. I assumed since it is a soap opera, it would be something that I would be able to see a good amount of interaction with. 

When the show starts, there are two people texting back and forth. It seems that there are many characters. Some look like they are not "good people."  While watching the interaction between mos of the characters, there seems to be a lot of sexual innuendos occurring between them. There is a driver that looks to be flirting with a younger blonde woman. There is an older man that looks to be the "boss" in some company. A dark-haired woman dressed in expensive clothes shows up at his office and they begin to kiss on his desk. The younger blonde woman enters the room with a younger man and they all look surprised to see each other. 

The story continues with interactions happening and eventually cuts to the dark-haired woman in a dark alley, meeting another man in a car. He looks concerned and surprised to see her. They have an in-depth conversation and the woman leaves. The show cuts to the older man and the dark-haired woman in bed together. She looks to be in distress and gets out of bed. The older man looks at his phone after she leaves the room and he looks concerned. He signs heavily and rolls over in bed. This body language tells me that something has been sent to him that has immediately caused him stress. 

The show continues and the dark-haired woman meets the younger man at her home(?) and the older man introduces them. They appear to be faking that they have not met before. The younger blonde woman notices this interaction and her eyebrows raise. 

They all move to dinner and the blonde-haired woman looks to go on a rant and the dark-haired woman and older man do not look happy with what is being said. It looks to be an intense conversation.

It's extremely interesting to watch the body language and facial expressions that are taking place between all the characters. I was expecting soap opera drama, but I hadn't realized how dramatic some of these shows really are.

My ultimate prediction about each character is that the older man is some type of boss of a company. The dark-haired woman is his wife, or girlfriend, or mistress. The blonde woman is somehow related to the older man, and the younger man is an acquaintance that is somehow roped into the family.

OKAY- having watched the episode now, the younger blonde woman (Fallon) is the older man's (Blake) daughter.and she is hoping for a promotion to run the family business. The dark haired woman is Crystal and she is the older man's fiancee. The driver that picked Fallon up from the airport seems to be a boyfriend of some type to Fallon.

The man in the dark alley is Matthew, Crystal's ex-boyfriend. Now I understand why she was so careful about meeting him: she already knew him. When Blake checks his phone, he is actually looking for an itinerary for the engagement photos that have to be taken. In actuality, Fallon has sent him pictures of Crystal and Matthew together during their meeting. 

Based upon what I have watched, I believe that some of my predictions were correct because of their communication styles. Others were not correct. If I had been watching a different show that I usually watch, I am sure that I would have been able to figure out what was happening. I have watched all 17 seasons of Grey's Anatomy and although the storyline changes, I still would have been able to follow the episode without volume. 

This was a fun experiment but I will stick to the sound on. And I might just continue watching Dynasty now.

Communication Skills in Action

This week, I would like to write about my father. He is an expert mechanic and chassis builder. He is very mechanically minded and is very thorough when discussing information about cars, plumbing, electrical, carpentry, and anything science-related. My father has an associate's degree in business, as he has his own business now for almost 30 years. He lights up when he talks about something that he is passionate about, and not always things that he is passionate about. He is animated and will over-explain things to help make sure that you understand what he is trying to describe/explain. As an Italian man, he is extremely animated with his gestures and drawings and intonation of his voice. It's actually quite comical sometimes. I know that no matter what I need, I can ask him for his help and his explanation will help me learn.

I feel that as his daughter, I do tend to explain things with my hands and pictures just like him. I also like to help whoever I am talking to to understand my explanation so I tend to overexplain as well. Since he is so passionate about everything he talks about, it would be an honor to model his communicative skills after him. 

This is my father. My maiden name is Luciano, so my father has always been called Lucky as his nickname. 

This is my father in his racecar that he built. As a chassis builder, he builds the entire inside frame and chassis of the car. 

Since we drag race as a hobby, my father is always helping other teams with their program. He loves to work! In this photo, he is helping a car back up down the track so they are lined up straight.

A Final Word on Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

First, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my classmates for their support throughout the past 8 weeks. You have truly helped open my eyes to seeing this differently. I will admit that I did struggle at some points to see different perspectives and I realize that I will never understand how your lives are different from mine, but I appreciate your insights and thoughts. You are a great crew and I am glad that we can go through this journey together!

One hope that I have moving forward in my career with regard to working with diverse children and families is that I can remain open minded. I have been the new parent in a classroom and I have also been the seasoned parent in a classroom. I realize that both of these "roles" take an enormous amount of time to get used to change. I have also been the new teacher in a school and I am currently the seasoned educator in the school. I believe that I am extremely open to welcoming new families, but I am not always open to change. Therefore, my hope for myself is that I continue to stay on the path I have set for myself and continue to be open to accepting new children families and that I can learn something new about the new cultures that I may encounter. By learning something new, I can tuck it into my back pocket for use in the future. We all have those pieces of information that we store in our brains for just the exact moment it is needed.

A goal that I have for the early education field in regards to diversity is similar to my personal goal. Not all teachers think like those of us in this class, and I would like to think that as teachers we can be accepting of everyone in our classroom: Seasoned teachers are more accepting of change and open minded to new ideas and that new teachers are able to bring something new that they have learned to the school to teach everyone.  I realize that this could be useful for any topic, but especially with the state of our nation right now, I feel that it is extremely important. If we all had the same mentality that we preach in my school that everyone is everyone's friend, and that we can all play together no matter what color your skin or hair color is, the world would be a better place. I think my final word on this topic is that we all need to follow the golden rule and remember to treat people the way that we would want to be treated. 

Welcoming Families From Around the World

My new family is from Vietnam.

There are many ways that I can prepare to welcome this new family to my classroom. I will first begin by familiarizing myself with the cultures in Vietnam. I will need to learn about the family culture of Vietnamese families. I have learned already that in Vietnam, extended family is very important. As the new family will be moving here, they will most likely have a multigenerational structure in their home. (Thuong, 2019)

"“Khiêm tốn” (humbling and self-restraint) is the most important value in Vietnamese society. If a child has ideological or moral opinions that differ from those of their superiors, he will mostly likely to keep them to himself" (Thuong, 2019).

Knowing this fact about Vietnamese culture will help me to understand how the child will interact with myself and the other children. This is something that they have been taught throughout their life so knowing this fact will help me to understand his mentality of respect for his elders.

Thirdly, I will want to learn a few Vietnamese phrases that I can use to make the family and the child feel comfortable upon entering my classroom. By putting this effort into learning a little bit about their language, I am showing that I care about them. I will also learn how men and women tend to greet differently. Men will shake hands upon meeting and leaving and bow their heads, women will bow their heads and not shake hands. I will also learn the correct way to say 'hello' in Vietnamese. Xin chao. (2016)

I would also like to understand how gender roles work in the Vietnamese culture compared to the United States. "Even though the family is viewed as a unit, the father or an older male has the ultimate responsibility and acts as an authority leader while delegating tasks and involving others in the decision making. (See Gender Roles section). From a very young age the father and other family members educate the children on “filial piety,” a key part of Vietnamese culture which requires that children give parents and elders respect, love, and care" (LaBorde, 1996).

Finally, I need to know about the value of education in Vietnam. Expectations will be higher than that of Western culture. "Vietnamese place a higher value on education rather than on material success. That the reason why parents encourage their children to study and excel in their education. Vietnamese parents have a high regard for it which was considered a way for family advancement" (Tran, 2020).

My hope would be that this family would see that I put effort into learning about their culture and trying to make them feel as comfortable as possible in this new environment. Although I may not fully understand all of their cultures, I can try to make them feel as comfortable as possible while in my classroom. 

References

LaBorde, P. (1996). Vietnamese. Ethnomed. https://ethnomed.org/culture/vietnamese/.

Thuong, Y. (2019, May 21). Three Main Aspects of Family in Vietnamese Culture. Medium. https://medium.com/travel-is-to-think-in-terms-of-experiences-rather/three-main-aspects-of-family-in-vietnamese-culture-86bcb6010bb4.

Tran, R. (2020, February 18). Vietnamese Traditional Family Values! Vietnam Discovery Travel. https://vietnamdiscovery.com/culture-arts/vietnamese-traditional-family-values/#:~:text=Obedience%20and%20respect%20were%20the,gift%20of%20birth%20and%20upbringing.

Vietnam - Cultural Etiquette - e Diplomat. (2016). http://www.ediplomat.com/np/cultural_etiquette/ce_vn.htm.

 

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

My nephew had an incident with the police and his two friends. They were caught smoking pot in a park. The two boys were Mexican and black and my nephew is white. The two boys were fined for the marijuana offense and my nephew was not. He was given a warning and told to make better choices. Obviously, I am glad that B didn’t have any charges pressed against him, but it does make me wonder what the police officers thought when writing those tickets for the boys. What did their parents say when they heard that this had happened and B did not get a fine? I was ultimately upset with my nephew and made it known how disappointed I was with him, but we had a long discussion about what had happened and why. He is 16 and is old enough to understand what had happened with his friends and why they were fined and he wasn’t.

This incident diminished equity because it wasn’t not fair that everyone did not receive the same punishment. They all deserved to be fined and take the punishment.

I felt, and still feel bad for those boys and their parents. What an awful feeling for everyone, including my nephew.

For me, I would say that my sister and my nephew need to have a serious conversation about the choices he makes and puts himself in with his friends so this doesn’t happen again in the future. As a white “man,” he does have privilege and needs to remember that in order to keep his friends safe.

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

 This week, while scrolling on TikTok, (yes, I admit that I have lost hours on this app), I stumbled upon an extremely funny video about a mother and why she is constantly checking on her teenage children. She prefaced her response to the child about constantly being in his business by stating, "As a black mom, these are the reasons that I am always in your business." For me, it offended me a little. All mothers are constantly checking on their children when it is too quiet. When my daughter was four years old, she was extremely quiet in her bedroom and when I went in to check on her, she was coloring on all her Barbie dolls with a black sharpie. "I'm giving them make-up just like you wear, Mommy." We had to throw all those Barbies out. Now, when she is too quiet, I still check on her and she's never doing anything wrong. She's usually just watching TV, but I still feel the need to peak in.

I proceeded to leave a comment on this woman's video because she was hysterical. Her points were valid. She was right in saying that moms are always worried about their children, no matter their age. However, when she referred to herself as a black mom, it did bother me. I realize this is a silly thing to get offended about, but there was no reason to state that part. We can see that she was black. What she forgot is that not all moms are black, and therefore her statement was unnecessary.

This week, we have learned a lot about prejudice and racism. It has upped my awareness of the comments that are being spoken around me. I am not out and about very much because of the pandemic, so the conversations I hear are always at work and since I work with a bunch of teachers, our conversations are pretty tame. There is occasionally a comment made, but it is followed up with a conversation and then squashed. What I also really like about the people I work with is that we can say things to each other and there is no offense taken. We banter back and forth and no one gets upset. If something is said, it is always in fun and there is no truth behind the statement. We all laugh at the end. 

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

 I spoke to three different people about their personal definitions of culture and diversity.

The first person I questioned is my "boss" at work. She is the Executive Director of the school and I am the assistant director. She is Puerto Rican and married with no children.

Her definition of culture is anything. Culture plays a big part in who a person is; their background, who they associate with, who they have to follow, and gender roles. She believes that culture is engrained in children as young as toddlers. And that is why people are the way they are. But, that your culture can change over time, especially if you are unhappy with it. 

Diversity to her means "Don't be a racist." (She laughed when she said this.) But continued on to say that diversity is a necessity. It is how we get to know worldly things. It is respecting everyone's cultural decisions. 

The second person I spoke to was a teacher at my school. She is older than me, has been divorced and re-married, and has several adult-aged children and stepchildren. She said that culture is who you are as a person. And Diversity is different experiences and acceptance of different kinds of people, not just racially, but gender vs sex.

The third person I spoke to is a friend that I recently reconnected with from high school. He is single and has no children. He states that culture is uniqueness among groups of people, places, and things. Diversity is differences in the masses.

An aspect of culture and diversity that I learned about in this course is the definitions and examples of a culture that my friends suggested. Culture really is everything about how a person lives (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). When Denise stated that culture is anything about a person's life, it circles back to everything that is stated in our textbook.

An aspect that was omitted was diversity. Diversity is such a broad word and I feel that the definitions that were given do not fully encompass the true definition of this word.

While thinking about my own definitions of culture and diversity, it was helpful to hear what my friends thought about these important concepts. I had similar thoughts about their definitions even before hearing theirs, but now feel that my thoughts are valid based on what I have learned previously and what I have heard from my friends. 

My Family Culture

In the event of an emergency, I would take these three items with me:a Hot Wheels car, a cross stitched bird picture that I made, and a book called The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don Wood.

I would choose to take a Hot Wheels car with me because drag racing is something that has been apart of my family culture since I was a little girl. We did not take vacations when I was younger; we went racing for long weekends. I have my extended family at the race track. Not only do I love racing now, but my children also love racing and my son is obsessed with cars. The racecar toy would be a consistent reminder of the love that I have for racing.

The cross stitched picture of a bird would be a choice for me because it is something that I made myself. I enjoy cross stitching. I currently have this picture hanging in my bathroom and when I look at it, it reminds me of my grandmother. Growing up, Grandma had finches as pets. We would visit her once a month. The first month, she would only have two birds. The next month, there would be 10 birds because they had laid eggs. The following month, there would be only two birds again and when we asked her about where they had gone, she would say that she let them go so they could be free. 

Birds have always been special to my mother, sister, and me. On the day that Grandma died, several hundred birds followed my mother home to her house from Grandma's house, about a 20 minute drive. They landed in my parent's yard and just sat there all day long. From that moment, 12 years ago, birds have meant more to us than they did growing up. Grandma always said that she wanted to be free like a bird. The bird picture that I cross stitched has dual meaning and makes me smile when I see it. 

Finally, I would take this fun children's book with me because it is one of our family's favorites. My kids love this book! We take turns acting out the way that the mouse reacts in the story. When I read it to children at my school, it makes me smile because I can see my own children being silly and laughing as we turn the pages.

If I could only choose one item, it would be the Hot Wheels car. I would be sad to not have the others with me. But racing has made me who I am today. I have a racing family that are not just close friends anymore. Racing is a lifestyle choice. 

I really took a look at who I am as a person and the culture of my family while writing this week's blog. I will admit, it took me a while to think of three items that would represent my family. I actually had to talk it out with my best friend because I struggled with choosing just three items. It was eye opening for me because I do have a culture for my children. I haven't ever thought of it as culture, but I do. We race. We love birds. We have true love for one other. And each of those items is something that shapes who we are. 

Final Post of EDUC-6163

When we survey high-class families about their involvement in their child's education, we can really see what is happening in their familial structure that could benefit other families that do not have much family involvement. It could really be helpful to this field because all teachers are always questioning why some families cannot be more involved. Even if it is a reason that cannot be controlled, it would be eye-opening for all involved. 

Early childhood education teachers, and really all teachers, up to the age of 8, or second/third grade, would be able to benefit from this simulation. As an early childhood educator, I would love to learn more about ways to help those children that do not have much parent involvement. I am realistic that this simulation might take a lot of time to 

What are some of the ways your perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of this course?

For me, personally, I realize how important research is to this profession. I understand why educators go through such rigorous training and how their personal research can help so many other educators in their classrooms. 

I want to thank all of my colleagues throughout the past 8 weeks. You all have been extremely helpful for me in understanding the research process.  I hope to work with you all again soon!

Research Around the World

What are some of the current international research topics?

I chose to explore the website, European Early Childhood Education Research Association, or EECERA. This website had great research topics that were explored in their journal publication. Many of the research topics were similar to ours here in America: COVID-19, how children are handling lockdown/quarantine, play-based learning during a pandemic, bullying, helping immigrant families, teachers' well being, and social-emotional learning in a preschool setting. I really liked that most of the international topics were so similar to ours. It was easy to relate to these topics. 

What surprising facts/insights/new ideas about early childhood did you gain from exploring this international early childhood website?

I really liked the article that I read about comparing cultural differences in Australia versus Japanese culture. In America, we assume that all international cultures are different from ours, but we forget that other countries feel the same way and are making the same comparisons as us. 

I also enjoyed reading about how teaching math to children under 3 is becoming a popular and successful trend in Australia. As someone who loves math, I find it to be a great idea and that we sometimes do not give children under 3 much credit in this department.

What other noteworthy information did you find on this website?

This website was extremely easy to navigate. Everything was formatted in a way that anyone could find what they were looking for. I also really liked that there were special issues that were targeted to specific trends. I will most definitely be adding this site to my favorites tab and using it in the future.

References

MacDonald, A. (2020) Mathematics education beliefs and practices of Under 3s educators in Australia. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 28:5, 758-769.

EECERA. (2019, February 05). European early childhood education research Journal (eecerj). Retrieved February 13, 2021, from https://www.eecera.org/journal/

Kim, S & Dreamson, N. (2020) Culturally inclusive early childhood education for sustainability: a comparative document analysis between Australian and Korean curricula. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 28:5, 712-730.

Uplifting Stories

For me, I do not have any real-life experience with research for children or adults. I would however enjoy letting my children participate in a research study that would benefit them or other children of their age range that are in our community. I feel that as a parent, I have the capability to do my own research for my children and then I can make an accurate decision as to whether or not they will participate. 

When I first became a teacher and began working at a preschool in the afternoons, I did speak with one family that had had their children in a research study about baby foods. They had done their background research for themselves and the parents decided that it was okay for their older infant to taste several different foods. The parents watched the child's reaction to the foods and then they reported back to the research team. They had a good experience and I appreciated that they made the conscious choice as adults and parents to allow their child to participate. 

The child did not have any after-effects and the parents were able to save a little money on food items for the week that they served the food. If there were more research opportunities available, I would most definitely allow my own children to be participants. At 7 years old, my daughter would enjoy being a participant, as she has her own opinion about many things. And my son is 2, and would not be able to give the best feedback, but we would be able to use his non-verbal cues to see his reaction. It would be good for all of us!

Personal Research Journey

 For my research simulation, I chose to explore the topic of family involvement in early childhood education based on socioeconomic status. I chose to write about this topic because it is something that I do not have a lot of experience with. I have always worked in middle to upper-class locations where family involvement occurs in a wide range. I like to believe that all parents want to be involved in their child's education, but I fear that that is not always the case. It hits close to home for me because my own parents were extremely involved in my education. Because of my current marital status, my children's father has not always been as involved as he should have been. He trusted me to make the "correct" decisions and now because of our situation, he has begun second-guessing all my choices. He never cared before and now he does. I realize that this is something that is not always based on socioeconomic status, but it does. White, blue-collar men, dads, often times leave the decisions about childcare and education to the mother. 

In Philadelphia, there are plenty of families that send their children to school hungry and tired and only because they have to. If their child presents issues in the classroom based on their behavior or attention to detail, the parents are not always around to assist teachers in helping their children. One reason could be because they do not care. Another reason could be because they are too busy working to keep the lights on in their home. They could be the only parent in the household and are just "too busy" to help their child. 

Ultimately, I want to explore the situational circumstances of a child's home and their parent involvement. I am looking forward to exploring this topic further with the help of my colleagues. If you have any suggestions for resources for this topic, I would greatly appreciate you sharing them with me.