What I have learned

One hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that I stay committed to learning everything that I possibly can to be the best anti-bias educator that I can be and to continue to be increasingly passionate about creating a world of justice and peace for children and their families as I do my part to ensure that all children receive a quality education with equity, appreciation of culture and social justice.

One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is that all early childhood professionals and staff be trained and educated on issues of diversity, equity, and social justice.  All early childhood professionals need to be knowledgeable in these areas because every child and family is different and in order to serve all children and families with genuine respect and understanding, it is important that we develop an understanding of what it means to be a family from a variety of perspectives and the ways in which family influences identity.  I plan to share the knowledge that I have acquired with other professionals so we can support each other in our professional and personal growth.

I want to personally thank you all for your kind comments and encouragement throughout this course as we explored issues related to self-identity, diversity, equity and social justice.  For me, exploring these issues made me feel a little uncomfortable at times, but you sharing your personal stories and experiences helped to make this part of my educational journey easier and more interesting. I have enjoyed getting to know each of you through your blogs and discussion posts.  I learned a lot from each of you as you contributed ideas and perspectives to our group each week.  I would also like to thank our professor for all of her positive feedback and words of encouragement as she guided us through this course over the past eight weeks.