Mother, Daughter, Sister, Friend, Teacher, Student

 One hope I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that I support their educational needs and provide them with an anti-biased learning environment and experience.  I strive to accomplish this by ensuring the classroom reflects the children and families enrolled; ensuring learning experiences are valuable and teach developmentally appropriate skills that also support the lives of the children and families.                                                     One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to the issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is to educate the teachers.  Educate them in how diversity, equity, and social justice impacts children and families, not just in the elementary and middle years of education, but also in preschool.  Show children an unbiased education; talk with them about diversity, equity, and social justice on their level.  Take the steps to positively change our world.

 Scenario: A child will be entering the class from a different country.  How can you prepare? I am selecting the country of Laos.  To prepare for this student entering my classroom, I would research the country to gain background information.  Laos is a country in Southeast Asia, with a population of 6.5 million people.  The languages spoken are Laotian and Thai.  Most people are farmers, and the most popular crop is rice.  Laos is considered to be the least developed country in Asia, and the population lives in rural areas.  According to the United Nations World Food Programme, 23 percent of the population is food insecure.  According to UNICEF, “40 percent of the population has no sanitation facilities.  Approximately 70 percent of five-year-old children do not have early childhood education opportunities”.   I would want to incorporate Laotian words into our classroom.  To do this, I would ask the family to help me write words to label our class in their home language.  I would ask

 The memory I have of an incident when I experience bias happened about 20 years.   I went on a ride-along with my husband at the time.  He was a police officer and an African American.  I am white.  We stopped at a Popeyes for dinner and went to the counter to place our order.  He placed his order first.  I then attempted to place my order.  The counter person, a female, told my husband his total.  I said that we were together, and I needed to place my order.  The counter person refused to look at me.  I explained I was his wife and needed to place my order.  At this point, my husband began to laugh.  After standing there for several minutes, he told the counter person to take my order.  I had never been treated that way, nor had I ever treated anyone that way.  I was embarrassed.  When we sat down to eat, I tried to discuss the situation with my husband.  He did not want to talk about it.  Many thoughts ran through my head after the situation ended.  Did she not take my order because