Growing up in a lower economic class with a big family left me a victim to many isms. People face isms all around us. In my experience a lot of people have difficulty with change. Without change we cannot break the cycle of isms, bias, or prejudice. Isms can be taught to us in a covert or overt manner (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2012). Often we do not even realize that we are being stereotyped when it happens naturally in your culture. For example I was always called a tomboy and often dressed and acted the part. I was always teased about it. The one thing that really got me as a young teenager was when my cousins and uncle called me Cindy the cow because they used to have a cow named Cindy and my nickname was Cindy. I refused to answer to Cindy anymore and often thought of myself as fat. Talk about self-esteem issues.
I think that if we as professionals were the victim of isms it would affect how we function in our life and in our classroom. Being the victim of an ism would harm our self-esteem and self-worth. This would make us unsure of our teaching and communications with families. Without being able to build trusting and reliable relationships with the children in our care and their families we would not be able to partner up with them and provide a safe learning environment. We might pass on the bias, stereotype, or prejudge on to the children without even realizing that it was happening. This would be detrimental in our work to become anti-bias educators. As professionals we need to work to overcome isms, biases, stereotypes, and prejudges so that we can help children to become anti-bias.
Reference
Derman-Sparks, L. & Edwards, J. (2012). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: NAEYC.
Hi Luci, Good thing is we do not allow what people say to us to define us. Microaggressions do negatively affect self esteem and we need to prevent that from happening to children because we have experienced it and we know it its effect.
ReplyDeleteHi Luci,
ReplyDeleteYou raise an important point when you discuss being the victim of microaggressions and isms. Knowing firsthand how these affect us, I think this is why advocacy for children is so important. I also agree that overcoming bias, prejudice, and stereotypes in our own lives can only make us a stronger educator and person. I enjoyed your post!
Kristi
Evening Luci,
ReplyDeleteMicroaggressions tend to have a negative affect. As early childhood professionals with experience in this area, it is our responsibility to assure that the children we teach do not have to experience the affects of microaggressions.