Rachel Gillen's Blog

My hope while working with children and families is that I can create a program where diversity is accepted and celebrated. A program where bias, prejudice, and oppression is not ignored but, there is awareness around it as I feel this will help make a long lasting change in oppression, bias and prejudice on a larger scale.  One goal I would like to set comes from the article we read about the school that built its program around diversity and social justice. I would like to be an advocate to build programs like this in all early childhood programs. Thank you to all of my peers for sharing your thoughts, feeling, and experiences. This class asked us to discuss many different things that are not always comfortable to share and it felt like a safe space to do so. I wish you all the best of luck in your future endeavors!

Name of Country: Ethiopia Five ways in which I will prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family:  Research and locate local agencies that support families from Ethiopia. Visit these agencies to to learn more about the culture and resources that may be provided for families. Reach out to the family prior to them joining the program to begin an open line of communication. Locate and put in place any resources needed like translators.  Prepare staff and the program environment to be welcoming culturally to this family.  Conduct research to increase my knowledge and my staff's knowledge around the Ethiopian culture.  A brief statement describing in what ways I hope that these preparations will benefit both myself and the family: I think preparation to work with families from different cultures is extremely important. This will allow myself and staff to be fully aware of the families initial beliefs and values which I believe will allow for a relation

·        What memory do you have of an incident when you experienced bias, prejudice, and/or oppression, or witnessed someone else as the target of bias, prejudice, and/or oppression? Keep in mind that one can encounter such incidents in real contexts, including online environments, as well as in fictional ones, such as movies, books, television shows, and the like. Outside of my early childhood job, I judge high school dance competitions. The hip-hop division is still relatively new in Colorado but, growing rapidly. Last year, at the state competition, we had two teams that were tied for the final competition. Although, both teams were very talented, they were also very different. It was clear that one team had more access to dance resources due to program funding as their costumes, choreography, formations, etc. were more technical then the other team who came from a school in a lower income area. The school from a lower income area had great choreography but, they