Professional Hopes and Goals

Believe it or not we are in our final week of this eight week journey on Perspectives on Diversity and Equity! The past eight weeks have flown by and while they have been extremely challenging and exhausting, they have always been very eye opening and enlightening. I feel as though I have learned a great deal about myself, my colleagues, my field, and society. There is still so much more to learn and this journey to becoming an anti-bias educator will be long and eventful! In this last week's blog entry, I need to reflect on my learning and create one hope and one goal around the issues discussed throughout the course.


My hope for the future for working with children and families of diverse backgrounds is to make them feel appreciated, respected, welcomed, comfortable being who they are and understand that it will be celebrated. My hope is to make them realize they have so much to offer, just as EVERY child from EVERY diverse background does. My hope is to help them acclimate to the culture of society while preserving and celebrating their own culture at the same time. I truly wish to work hand in hand with the families and children to create opportunities for a bright future for ALL children in my classroom. I think I can do this based upon the knowledge I have gained in this course, my caring and nurturing demeanor, and the journey I will continue to take towards anti-bias education.


Additionally, one goal I would hope to create for the field of Early Childhood Education in relation to the issues of diversity, equity, and social justice would be a tiered goal. First of all, I would like all educators to be properly trained, as we are being trained through these courses at Walden, to begin a journey towards anti-bias education and ways in which to include and incorporate children and families from all cultures and backgrounds. Secondly, families need to be more involved and included more often in early childhood programs for their children, regardless of their diverse backgrounds, allowing for ALL parents and families to build a strong partnership with the educators and their children from the start of their child's educational career.


Lastly, I would like to extend my thanks to my colleagues for all of your continued support in this course, as well as our prior courses together. I have had the honor and privilege of working with many of you repeatedly throughout our journey through this program and I smile each time I begin a course and see a familiar name. While the idea of online courses seemed disconnected and distant prior to beginning, I realize now how inaccurate that truly is based upon the bonds and friendships I feel lucky enough to have formed so far in this journey. This course was not our easiest; the workload and content was exhausting, challenging, flat out DAUNTING and OVERWHELMING….BUT we have survived yet again! We are coming to the finish line of another course in the program and I couldn't be more proud to have colleagues as supportive, knowledgeable, and caring as each of you. Here's to each of you and our next adventures together! :)


--Ashley