What Was Learned

Wow, what a course.  This “Influences of Families, Cultures, and Society on Early Childhood” course certainly lived up to its name.  The narrative of the trials and triumphs of those involved with the Hmong family (Fadiman, 2012) certainly was an excellent way to jumpstart the goal of the course, which I took to be more in-depth inquiry into how our own assumptions and biases can affect how we do our jobs.  The texts were also very informative, and enlightening, regarding things that have already been researched, proven, disproven, researched again, and disproven or proven about stereotypes, micro and macro-aggressions, assumptions, identity development, and many, many other facets of early childhood education (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010) (Hanson & Lynch, 2013).  Ultimately, however, the resources that I enjoyed the most and was the media presentation interviews with Marsha Hawley and Shon-Adrien Hofla.  Each interviewee had such different life experiences to learn from, and were able to offer firsthand insight into the aftereffects of traumatic situations, and the necessity for resilience that followed.

As someone aspiring to become a more devout scholar-practitioner, however, I realize that on-the-job applicability from this course mostly comes from the texts.  They provide explanations, methods, strategies, data, and ready-to-use references for future research, which could only cause forward motion.  In fact, after reading the texts, I found myself inadvertently applying my understandings when interacting with parents and students, and seeing only benefit.  Knowing that every child has a progression for identity development, and that each one is similar but oh, so different, and that there is literature available to help me gives me the confidence that, no matter what questions come up, there is an answer somewhere.  If there seems to not be one, there is a path to one.   

References

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves.Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Fadiman, A. (2012). The spirit catches you and you fall down: A Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Hanson, M. J., & Lynch, E. W. (2013). Understanding families: Approaches to diversity, disability, and risk. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.