Practicing Awareness of Microagression

While listening to this week's video regarding microagression I began to think about a situation this past fall that I now would consider a form of microagression. One of the student's that I work with is from Haiti and speaks Hatian-Creole. We have had many issues communicating with this family going back to his past July. I had tried to discuss the language barrier issue with my supervisors, but with no success. Most of the resistance was because it would cost $45 an hour to use an interpreter. Side note- we had success in December meeting with the mother and interpreter and have two more meetings set up :)



        October rolls around and student A is starting to exhibit very unusual behaviors; sudden arm spasms, going cross-eyed, and mouth chewing. I am not a medical doctor, but those symptoms can be related to seizure activity. I observed these behaviors for two days and then went to the school nurse who came to observe. She saw the same unusual behaviors and told me that she recommended calling an ambulance because she thought this child was having seizures. I have to be honest, I did not do that because I had no way of communicating to the mother that her daughter was going to the hospital. I emailed my supervisor immediately to discuss the situation. In essence the response was, if she is not falling to the ground, don’t call because we can’t communicate. I was not happy with this response, but did as I was told. I sent a letter home to mother in French ( that was the closest to Hatian-Creole that Google translate could get me) and English about the unusual behaviors we were seeing, hoping mother would take her daughter to the doctor. All of October went by with no response back from mother and the unusual behaviors were still occurring. I again brought this to my supervisor’s attention with no answer about what I should be doing next. I just hoped nothing serious happened.

       In November our preschool program had an in-service about dual language and the topic of family culture came up. My student was an example. The associate supervisor out loud addressed the medical issue I thought my student was having and said that it is possible that because of the family’s culture, they may see this medical issue as voodoo. It took all I had not to get up and leave the in-service. How insensitive and inappropriate to say! It still makes my blood boil as I write this.


I feel that this situation could be viewed as a microinsult because the associate supervisor was questioning the families background/heritage.  I cannot tell you how upset I was on this in-service day, and how upset I am to this day that it took from July- December to actually be able to communicate with this mother. There should not be hoops to jump through at any time when it comes to communicating with parents.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

For this assignment I tried to really think about who to ask to define culture and diversity. I did not want anyone to be exactly like me.  I chose my assistant who is a recent college graduate,  the preschool interpreter I work with who is from Puerto Rico, and my mother who has recently retired after 36 years in education.



Assistant:
Family culture is where people come from and their beliefs that they have.

Diversity is when a whole bunch of differences come together in a positive way.

Preschool Interpreter:
To me, diversity and even culture means getting to know, understand, and respect other people's way of life. Their history, food, way of dressing, embracing the way of interacting with their friends and family and also their native language. Even if it's your native language. Since Spanish is spoken in several countries, but that also means knowing or expanding yourself to use those nuances instead of criticizing it or mocking because it is not said the way your used to hearing it. For me I have to apply it both of my native languages, because of being born in the states and growing up surrounded by my family from Puerto Rico.

Mother:
Culture is a small group of individuals who share similar beliefs.

Diversity is when you look at a community of people and recognize that within that community there are various cultures reflected in that community.




The aspects of diversity and culture that have been included in the three definitions are recognizing that people have their own beliefs and history. Respect is another aspect that was addressed in the definitions.

I cannot really identify any aspects of diversity and culture that have been omitted in the definitions.  It appears to me that the three people I have asked all have a common idea of what culture and diversity means.

What I did notice is that everyone brings their own backgrounds into a definition. No one made a standard dictionary definition of diversity and culture. It shows that even within two noted ideas, each individual makes the definition their own.

My Family Culture

The three items that I would take with me to a different country are:

A football- My family is a huge football fan so I would take a football to the new country and hopefully try to explain the sport.

A picture of my cats- My family is a big supporter of the SPCA and of cats as pets. I would be able to discuss the importance of rescuing animals and how cats are awesome.

A seashell- My family loves to travel, especially to beaches. I would take the seashell to represent traveling and something that comes from the beach.

If I had to choose one item to keep I would choose my cats because even just looking at them would bring me joy.