Professional Hopes and Goals

The one hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds.

My one hope would be to create an environment where my children and families can feel accepted, embraced and celebrated for the similarities as well as their differences and to feel empowered by knowing that they are valued as members of the community, classroom and society.  I want to create an environment where diverse families feel respected and to build a relationship where we can share information, ideas, and hopes for their child’s educational success.

One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice.

The one goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field is to eliminate the many biases, prejudicial ideologies and inequities that exist in educational opportunities for all families regardless of ethnicity/cultural diversity, economics/class-ism, or ability/able-ism. I would like to study and research diversity issues more in-depth and to become more of an advocate for social justice and equity for all families so that when families face issues of discrimination, biases and injustice there will be legislature in place that prevents these issues from occurring.

A brief note of thanks to my colleagues

To each of my colleagues, I thank you.  I thank you for your many views on diversity, micro-aggressions and social justice.   I thank you for your knowledge and open communication during our discussions regarding our experiences with diversity, different and often difficult “isms” that we have suffered from others as well as our goals and visions for the future.  I am thankful that although it was sometimes difficult experiencing past hurts and disappointments we still maintained a positive outlook about life and our determination to prevent the same thing from happening to others.

To Dr. Snider, I thank you for the opportunity to develop my self-identity which I’m sure will change over the course of my studies.  I thank you for allowing me to reflect on my life journey and how it has had an overwhelming effect on the work and the passion I have for the children and families I serve.  I have truly enjoyed this course more than any I have taken during educational journey and I hope you continue the great work you do helping each of us take a closer look at ourselves and how we address diversity and equity for all children and families.