Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

I used to have a friend who is a gay man. I haven't seen him in years but we used to spend a lot of time together. This week I saw a scenario play out that reminded me of something that used to happen to him all the time. I was in a store this week and I overheard a conversation between a man and a woman. He was telling her about someone he knew that he wanted to fix her up with. I heard him say "He's single, you're single, why wouldn't it work?" I was doing my shopping so I moved on without hearing the rest of the conversation.

However, this reminded me of a number of times when I would be with my friend and someone, often someone he barely knew, would tell him they had the perfect guy for him. It was like because he was gay they thought any other gay man was "his type" or "the perfect guy" for him. He and I talked about it a couple of times and although he was a very strong person he said it kind of hurt that people who barely knew him thought they could fix him up just because they knew another gay guy (to use his words). This example of microaggression was one I had forgotten all about until I read the discussion prompts this week and then I overheard the conversation in the grocery store.

If I'm being honest, I never could understand the hurt that my friend experienced because I am not a gay man and I don't know what it feels like to be discriminated against in that way. However, I was once a single woman and I have experienced the situation I saw unfold this week. As I thought about it in the context of microaggression I realized that when this happened to me I did feel insulted. I can only imagine how it must feel to be marginalized and discounted as a human who wants specific things in a mate when you are already a person who experiences outward and intentionally hurtful discrimination because of your sexual orientation.

As I observed those around me this week with a focus on trying to pick out microaggressions it helped me to be more aware of discrimination and prejudice especially as it has to do with power incongruence. When power is in a person's corner, so to speak, they can engage in microaggressions. Often, these microaggressions are not meant to be hurtful or to perpetuate stereotypes but they do. However, we also have to be careful not to make assumptions about our view of what is happening to others. Perhaps the microaggressions I think I see do not cause any harm to the person they are directed toward. If this is the case then are they microaggressions at all? Only the person who receives the message can truly know if they feel that there is a hidden, unintended message that causes them harm.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture: The Viewpoint of Family and Friends

I asked 3 of my friends/family, who prefer to remain unnamed, their definition of culture and diversity. Here, I want to give you a sense of their answers and the impression I got while they answered. One of my interviewees was fairly stumped and said that it was hard to put into words. Another said they had never been asked that question before. I purposely chose people who do not work in any kind of social service or humanity fields. I guess I expected a lot of answers about race, religion, or ethnicity. However, I was pleasantly surprised when each of them gave me an answer that was far from what I expected.

Here are some of the key words they used to explain culture:

• background, upbringing, surroundings, family, extended family, community, the things that influence you

And diversity:

• wide range of differences, many variables, not the same pattern

As I said, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the friends and family I spoke to included many of the aspects of culture that go beyond what we see on the surface. In this course, we have discussed deep vs. surface culture and the aspects of deep culture that were mentioned during my conversations with my friends and family impressed me. Particularly when I heard "the things that influence you" it made a connection to what I have studied throughout my formal and informal educational journey.

Strangely to answer the portion of this assignment that asks about what has been omitted from the definitions it brings me back to the surface culture aspects. No one mentioned race, or dress, or holidays/traditions. I was truly shocked by this! I wonder if they have been listening in on my own thoughts.


As I reflected on what each of the interviewees shared with me it caused me to reaffirm what my own beliefs are about culture. However, it also helped me realize that the surface culture is important too. Those surface aspects of culture are important because they symbolize the outward representation of what is lurking below the surface. The below graphic is one of many that I have found and used this week but this one does not point to the exact things that fit into each level. I found that important because what is surface and what is deep could vary from person to person. I also really like how it shows 3 layers of culture, not just 2. It shows that the deeper you go the more ingrained and instinctual the cultural aspects of a person become.

My Family Culture

The following blog is in response to this scenario:


A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of your country. The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees. You and your immediate family are among the survivors of this catastrophic event. However, you have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. You are told that your host country’s culture is completely different from your own, and that you might have to stay there permanently. You are further told that, in addition to one change of clothes, you can only take 3 small items with you. You decide to take three items that you hold dear and that represent your family culture.



What I would bring with me if I had to evacuate...

Photographs: The first item I would choose would be a thumb drive with all of my photographs. Especially those of family and friends.

Music: I would want to have all of my favorite music with me.

Kindle: Books, books, and more books!

To explain to someone else what these items mean to me seems simple. Photographs and music are connected to memories of the time I have spent with loved ones. This is why they are both so important to me. I could use them to escape into my memories; they evoke feelings of love and connectedness.

Books are also sometimes about making connections between my own life and the characters. But I think the reason I love books most is that I was taught to enjoy and appreciate them from a very young age. My mom was always taking us to the library and bookstores. She read to us often and encouraged us to read on our own, as well. She modeled that reading is important and enjoyable. Whenever I talk with my mom we always discuss what we are currently reading. Reading has always been an engrained part of my life. In fact, my sister is an author, taking her love of books to the next level to pursue it as a profession.

The most important realization that I had while working through what I wanted to take with me on this imaginary journey was that all of the things I would take are important because they hold memories of important times in my life. I came to realize that my family culture is immersed in making memories together. We cherish the experiences that bond us together much more than any material possessions.

So, if I found upon arriving that I could keep only one item it would be hard but the memories could not be erased. I would still be able to remember the times I spent with my family and friends that those material items would remind me of. Those memories are the most important thing I could take along with me.

When I Think of Research...

What insights have you gained about research from taking this course?
The biggest insight I gained about conducting research is that it takes a lot of planning and preparation to format a worthy research study. I had no idea that so much time and attention needed to be paid to determining the design alone. Learning about the different aspects of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches was sometimes overwhelming but also intriguing.

In what ways have your ideas about the nature of doing research changed?

I could not say that my ideas about the nature of doing research have changed. I had no preconceived notions about conducting research prior to this course. However, what I can admit is that I thought I had a strong grasp on how to read and use research prior to this course. I now realized that while I had a reasonable understanding of research I now have a much stronger understanding of what I am reading and I can determine if the research meets my needs more quickly.

What lessons about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood did you learn?

Much like I mentioned in my section above about the insights I have gained, I learned a valuable lesson about the amount of time and effort that goes into conducting research. Each of the steps of planning, designing, proposing, and conducting research must be considered thoroughly before any one of them can be carried out. I also learned that there is a lot of research available about conducting research. Simply typing a prompt (about how to conduct research) into the search bar reveals many published research articles on the topic. So, while the task might be daunting there is also a world of information available about how to go about each of the steps of the research process.

What were some of the challenges you encountered—and in what ways did you meet them?

One challenge I encountered was of my own creation. I am a bit of a perfectionist and, some would say, an over-achiever when it comes to my own academics. I was continually trying to perfect my ability to conduct actual research even though I am not nearly ready to take on a study of my own.

One example was in developing the research question for each of the weeks in which we were required to develop one. I did a lot of additional research on how to format questions for different types of research. I fumbled, I typed, I deleted, and typed again. One article I found finally helped me to align my efforts with my actual experience. "Good questions can grow out of initial curiosity or ideas for a qualitative study, but at the early stages most questions are rough drafts" (Agee, 2009, p. 433). This helped me to put into perspective my experience with developing research questions- it started in week 1 of this course. I was able to let go of needing to develop the perfect research question and instead to focus on learning more about how to develop one. I had to cut myself some slack!

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

I don't think my perception of early childhood professionals has changed. Rather, I have grown a deeper respect for those who take on the task of doing the research so that I can use it in my own work. So that we all can use it in our daily work with children, families, and other professionals in the field.

I want to thank each of you who wrote thoughtful blog and discussion posts. Those who challenged me to think about research in new and different ways. Those who helped me to consider how to conduct my own research and encouraged me through your comments on previous posts in this blog. I wish each of you the best in your continued journey to becoming master of the early childhood field. I hope we will meet again in future courses.

References

Agee, J. (2009) Developing qualitative research questions: A reflective process. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 22, 431-447. DOI: 10.1080/09518390902736512

Research Around the World

Any of you who have read my blog regularly over the past several months (or courses) know that I am interested in knowing more about the ECE field in Australia and New Zealand. So when one of the options to write about this week was the website of Early Childhood Australia (ECA) I was excited. What I found there was a place for advocacy efforts, professional development, publications for professionals, and resources for parents.


When I delved deeper into the research into international topics of early childhood I found a resource that I was particularly interested in. It is a book titled Practitioner Research in Early Childhood: International Issues and Perspectives. Who knew? A whole book

dedicated to precisely the topic I was trying to find more information about. Although I have not ordered the book, and therefore have not read it, I was able to discover some of the international research topics of importance that the book addresses:

• the contribution of practitioner research to curriculum and social change. Professional development and strengthening learning communities

– how practitioners can be supported in documenting and articulating their work
– the relationships between the research community and field of practice through practitioner research projects
– contemporary problems and issues that frame the practices of early childhood educators
– case studies from Australia, South Africa, Sweden and Chile

• A diverse range of case studies that use a range of internationally recognised (sp) research methods are presented. The book offers guidance, support and inspiration to practitioners on how to research their implementation of meaningful and sustainable changes in early childhood contexts (ECA Shop, 2017, para. 2).

Additionally, I was able to identify a Research Symposium that takes place every year in association with both Early Childhood Australia and the Australasian Journal of Early Childhood. The 2018 symposium theme is Politics, power, and agency in early childhood education. This would lead me to believe that, much like in the United States, the political and social climate surrounding ECE is an important topic to consider in research.

Something else I discovered on the website was very interesting to me. ECA has an entire Leadership Program that is offered to current and aspiring leaders in the field. 

" Founded on solid expert research and five years of sector consultation, this essential leadership framework has been designed by early childhood experts and quality assured by early childhood practising (sp) leaders. Our Leadership Program was specifically created as a strengths-based, self-directed, short-term program for both current and aspiring early childhood leaders in diverse settings." 

I found this to be very interesting since a passion and focus for me is in developing strong leadership in the early childhood field. Unfortunately, there is a fairly steep price tag of $599. In a field where income is always a concern that seems like a high price. However, if the program is of extremely high quality then it could be worth it!

Websites referenced:

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/shop/product/practitioner-research-early-childhood-international-issues-perspectives/

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/events/ajecsymposium/

http://leadership.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

Research that Benefits Children and Families- An Imaginary Research Topic

The scenario posed this week... Imagine that you possess the means and the knowledge to conduct research studies about any topic in the early childhood field. Imagine further that you are not restricted by the reality of the present. Imagine that your study will make a major positive contribution to the well-being of children and/or their families. What topic would you choose? What can you imagine the positive contribution(s) would be?

I think that if the reality of the present was not an obstacle I would choose to research collective leadership in the early childhood field. The reason I did not choose this topic for my research simulation in our course, Building Research Competencies, is that there is very little information out there about the topic. Also, I am passionate about professionalizing our field and decided that developing a research study about that topic would be beneficial to the providers I currently work with. Not all of them would be interested in collective leadership.

I have a strong belief in practices such as reflective supervision and collective leadership. I live in both of them in my job as a coach and am continually grateful for the fact that my supervisors have set up our team in this way. Even within a system that we cannot control or change (the funders of our program) we still work in a collective leadership model within our team.

I imagine the positive contributions of researching collective leadership in the early childhood field to be far reaching and extensive. I can imagine a world where teachers are respected and trusted to take a role in leading programs. When that happens they become empowered to view themselves as valuable; their work as important. That would trickle down to the families who would have confidence in the care and education their children are receiving. They would view teachers as professionals and it would begin to change the perception of the field. Of course, when teachers, families, and the field see positive impacts children naturally benefit. Programs that adopt a collective leadership approach would be able to trust that they were doing so based on

research about the benefits and value of the model.

My Personal Research Journey

           The topic I have chosen for my research simulation is professionalizing the field of early childhood education. I chose to focus on the subtopic of the influence of professionalizing the field on program quality. I chose this subtopic for a few reasons. First, my work centers around increasing quality in early childhood programs. As a coach I feel that the more research and information I can gather about the way that professionalism influences quality the more able I will be to help providers to see the connection. The second reason is that I have found very little research about this subtopic- or the more general topic of professionalizing the field of early childhood. I am approaching the research simulation as if I am actually going to conduct the research and data gathering. I expect that data collection would support the idea (or dispel it) that when those working with children focus on their work as professionals quality will increase and, of course, children, families, providers, and communities will benefit.

        As I completed the reading and research chart this week I realized that I still have a lot to learn about compiling a research design. I also have a lot to do before I can design my own simulation. I am still unsure what type of methodology will best fit my topic- inductive or deductive. Inductive is focused on qualitative research and deductive is focused on quantitative. Also, inductive methodology is more fluid in design as it can be adjusted along the way; deductive is rigid in the design and process and cannot be changed "midstream" if the data is to be reliable (Mac Naughton, Rolfe, & Siraj-Blatchford, 2010).

        So, I pose the question to all of you. Do you have suggestions about what type of methodology I should follow? Have you determined what method you will follow and have you had a chance to determine if there are pros or cons to either? Do you have any other advice or insights to share that have occurred to you during these first weeks of the course? Finally, I ask for any reliable resources you may have come across about what influences quality or the effects of professionalism on quality.

        At this point I am not sure how many resources I can share with you. I did find a helpful website from the University of Minnesota which describes several different types of research designs. You can access it here- https://hsl.lib.umn.edu/biomed/help/understanding-research-study-designs.

The design possibilities seem endless when I see graphics like this:

Although I am willing to support all of my colleagues in their search for information and resources I find it difficult to share additional resources without knowing your topics, hypotheses, and designs.

References


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.

University of Minnesota. (2017). Understanding research study designs. Retrieved from https://hsl.lib.umn.edu/biomed/help/understanding-research-study-designs