Rachel Gillen's Blog

My experience with microaggressions was not a recent event. Although, I am certain there were examples in my daily life this past week, this example sticks out in my memory. My first few years teaching, one of my coworkers, was a teacher from Ghana who had come to the United States when she was 13. This coworker spoke perfect English and without asking, I would've never known that she was born outside of the states but, she shared this fact with pride and we regularly heard her speak on the phone in her native language. One day, while completing a questionnaire for our quality rating, this coworker was asked what she considered her first language. She looked at out the staff completing the survey and responded that her first language was english and she looked extremely offended. The staff member specified that she meant the language she spoke before english. My coworker answered that her first language has always been english but she also speak her native language.  Like a few e...

When asking my three people their definitions of culture and diversity, the answers were quite similar and held aspects similar to definitions given in this course. Two of my coworkers had very similar definitions which included concepts like ethnicity, language, religion, values, beliefs, etc. My stepmom reminded me of one of the video clips we watched where they discussed how culture represent everything. It's connected to how we walk, talk, look at other people, etc. Diversity was included with culture in all the differences we have in our cultural items. What I thought was extremely interesting was my stepmom talked of culture in regards to the dominant culture, and discussed what her culture is. I found this interesting because she is the dominant culture and I have found in talking to other people that they don't really see themselves as having a culture if they come from the dominant culture, they see everyone else as having a culture. I think she omitted this because ...

The three items I would take with me that I hold dear and represent my family culture are a family picture, a quilt made by my Granny, a necklace my Dad gave me. My family picture would need to be a multi-picture frame as my parents are divorced and, at this point in life, the family is very separated into two separate families. The quilt made by my Granny is a quilt she made me when I was very little and I used all the time. All of the quilts my Granny made hold many memories and remind me of so much when I see the fabric or cover up with any of them. The necklace my Dad gave me, although materialistic, was given to me before his stroke. Now that my Dad can't say much due to his stroke, the necklace helps me remind me of the love and support he has always given me. I definitely think it would be extremely hard to pick one item to bring but, I think my Granny's quilt holds so much of my childhood memories that it would allow me to hold onto everything dear. I am not a mat...

I feel my simulation is important to the field of early childhood education because, I have seen first hand what can happen to a child if they don't have social emotional development at an early age. Children who did not have the experiences as a child that allowed them to develop in their social-emotional development struggle greatly later on in life and it's extremely hard to change their blue print. If we can intervene at an early age, my belief is we have a greater chance to make a lasting impact on their life.  If I were to conduct my research simulation I feel like early childhood professionals and mental health professionals would benefit. Children and families would benefit, and the the early childhood field and mental health field would benefit because there would be research showing what benefits children which could potentially mean more funding.  My perception has always been that there is more to early childhood professionals then teaching or taking care of...

The international research website I chose to look at was the European Early Childhood Education Research Association. While looking through this website I discovered this is a widely respected journal and includes articles on many different topics. Some of the topics I found were technology and children under five, parent partnerships and early childhood services, play versus academics in early childhood, the impact of policy changes on early childhood teachers in Australia, etc. It was so interesting for me to see how many topics are incredibly similar if not identical to research topics we see in the United States. I also found that they also release topic specific journals like an entire journal dedicated to mathematics in early childhood. Overall, I have discovered that many topics are the same across different countries and we should utilize research from other countries to broaden our perspectives. I also think would allow us to determine the wide spread issues that affect all c...

If I had the ability to conduct any research I wanted, I would look into a research study that would study the long-term effects of Early Childhood Education. Are there any? What are they? Are they positive or negative? Does it make a difference the type of program a child went to or different aspects of the program? I have always known that there are skeptics in our world about the benefits of Early Childhood Education but, I have always seen the positive effects on every child I work with. I gave a tour one time to a single mom who was worried about convincing her ex-husband to send their daughter to preschool. She informed me that he did not believe in early childhood education. This tour made me think about the lack of knowledge or understanding on all of the benefits early childhood programs bring for children. I know there have been studies that have looked into this but, I feel like there are not that many due to the challenges that come up with completing long-term research l...

Working with children in a residential treatment facility, I have become increasingly interested in mental health. All of the children we work with have had some form of trauma, abuse, or neglect in their early childhood years which has greatly affected their mental health. I see everyday the affect adverse experiences can have on our mental health. This Youtube video had a great impact on my overall interest in early childhood mental health. Due to my interest in mental health and the early childhood field, my research simulation topic is, if a child in a high-quality early education program that focuses on social emotional development, will see a positive impact on their mental health even if they are exposed to adverse experiences like the ones discussed in the video above? An insight I have gained so far through this course is the literature review. This has always been an extremely hard concept for me. I have always been the person who looks for articles and studies that are...