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.