Microaggressions

This week I paid attention to my interactions with others, as well as the interactions of the people around me.  However, I did not have any situations with microaggressions.  So, I had to think of one I had seen in the past.  

As a high school volleyball coach I had the opportunity to coach many players with varied family cultures.  One player I had was a tall African American girl.  One day while practicing a player's dad came over to this young lady and said, you should play basketball, you are bred for it.  I didn't hear the whole exchange, but the player later mentioned what was said.  Her first question was, what does it mean to be bred to play basketball?  Was he saying that because she was tall, or because she was black, or both?  He meant it as a compliment, but it had caused her to think twice about what was said.  This is a perfect example of a microinsult.

Diversity in my Community

For this blog I asked three people about what diversity and culture meant to them.

I asked my husband, my friend, and a coworker.

My husband defined culture as who we are, and diversity as how we are different.

My friend defined culture as what makes us tick, and diversity the same things that make up our culture.

My coworker defined culture as those things that make us fit in with others, and diversity as the other attributes that make us

I was supprised that the definitions that each of them made were very similiar to the definition I have learned.   It made me think about how much I had shared about what I was learning throughout the last couple of weeks.  I asked the three people I interact with the most, and I think my conversationbs with them may have influenced their responses.  Each definition includes the comment that culture makes us who we are.  This goes right with what the women in the multimedia presentation said. Each of these were simple definitions, so they omitted any deeper defintions including much differetiation between cultures or diversity.  

In asking others about their definitions I realized how much what I am learning influences the other people in my life.  This may be part of my culture, or possibly diversity.

Family Culture in Crisis

Faced with the situation of having to evacuate the United States with only my family and three items to represent our family culture.  The three items I would take would be a Bible, our family yearbook, and a quilt we have had handed down in our family for years. 

My first item the Bible is the road map for my family.  It is what drives us to be the people who we are.  The second item the family year book is a book of our years as a family.  It is something that we can look back on to give our family perspective.  The third and final is the family heirloom quilt.  This represents generations that have come before us and paved the way for how we live now.

If when I arrived we could only keep one I item it would not be difficult for me.  It was actually difficult for me to think of three items, as I feel most of our belonging are just that simple material objects.  I can live without almost all things I have, but the one item I would want to keep is the Bible.  This is the one item that defines my life, and gives my family the road map for how to live.  Given the circumstances for being relocated the Bible and my family are all I need.

This exercise showed me that my family is all I need.  With faith and family I can go through anything.

Insights from EDUC 6163

What insights have you gained about research from taking this course?
Insights I have gained about research from taking this course is that not all research is created equal.  There is so much that goes into a research study, that each is unique, which allows for a lot of interpretation.  This can be both a good thing as well as a cause for concern.  It is refreshing to see safe guards in place to ensure ethical studies as well as to ensure validity.
In what ways have your ideas about the nature of doing research changed?
 My ideas about the nature of doing research have changed because I now know what goes into a research study.  There is so much in just the planning and beginning research let alone the actual collecting of data and then the interpretation of the data. 
What lessons about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood did you learn?
Through this class I have learned a lot about what goes into a research study including the planning, designing, and conducting of the research.  I learned the difference between equity and equality as well as how validity is achieved through triangulation.  
What were some of the challenges you encountered—and in what ways did you meet them?
Some challenges I encountered are learning the difference between qualitative and quantitative.  The two words are so similar it was difficult for me to differentiate between them until I looked at the root of the word.  Then it became much easier to remember quantity verses quality.  

As always thank you to all that have read and commented during this class. Your comments and insights are always helpful.