Thinking over this blog assignment, I realized that I had
blocked out a bias/prejudice situation that I dealt with all of last year. I
honestly have not thought of this situation before this week.
My teacher assistant from last year was new to education.
She had never worked in the field prior to being hired as my preschool teacher assistant.
She started with me in August and I quickly learned about her beliefs. Her
beliefs did not match mine, but I was hoping that would not matter or affect
our working relationship. By September, I knew that it was going to be a long
year. My assistant was starting to make comments about the children we work
with and those comments were offensive. She blamed parents for a child’s disability.
She frequently made her opinions known about government assistance, and many of
my families receive government assistance. She also frequently remarked about
some of my families needing to learn English. I am not going to go into all the
details of her comments, but I think you can get a good picture of what she was
like.
I had meetings with her going over protocol of our place of
employment as well as my views and beliefs about the students and families in
this classroom. She did not agree with anything I said and made that very
clear. I started to document her behaviors and what she said, because she was
no longer keeping her thoughts and opinions to herself in my classroom, she was
taking them out to the whole school. I was getting very concerned about this.
By December, I realized I could not be the change agent I was hoping I could
be, so I went to my supervisors. Unfortunately they were not very helpful. From
December to the end of the year they did not step foot in my classroom to
discuss my concerns or even make my assistant aware of my concerns.
I was so offended by her comments and beliefs not only
personally but professionally. Our classroom was in an urban setting and I
think we had three “white” students. This was clearly not the classroom for
her. I just hoped she was smart enough not to make any comments in front of
parents, which she was.
The one good thing is that she was moved to a rural school
for this school year. I do hear that she is still up to her old tricks, but I
am happy she is no longer in my classroom voicing her opinions.
Your assistance teacher when she was blamed parents for a child’s disability, that a prejudice towards this child. Instead of blaming the child disabilities she needs to be a professional to include this child in the program. In her conversation with the family, she needs to ask about task regard how she can help with his disability.
ReplyDeleteI think we all have our biases in regards to families at times but to be so open about them is just disgusting. This past week I shared Dr. Parrish's post about low-income families and material items with my staff. I am saddened that not one of them emailed me back. I think I will follow up with them this week. I do have to say that this type of judgement is not allowed in our work place and that person would have been quickly terminated. I would just suggest not just dealing with that type of madness. If your supervisor won't listen I would keep going up the chain of command until someone does.
ReplyDeleteI used to work with someone who was much like your coworker. She was always speaking her mind about families and she no longer works with us. She spoke to loudly one day and a parent heard her and went to the Director. I would agree we do have our on biases about the families but we are their to guide and teach the children in our classrooms, no matter what their home life or how the pay for child care.
ReplyDeleteThat is so sad. This is the ignorance that our children have to deal with from people who are suppose to teach them how to be fairness and acceptance. As I stated in the discussion, these classes we are taking in this degree program should be mandatory for working with the public, especially children. People are entitled to their opinions but if your opinions are offense to people you are constantly engaging with, you should change your beliefs or go somewhere else. I am glad you do not have to put up with that assistant any longer. This would have been the perfect opportunity for your director to incorporate diversity training into the program.
ReplyDeleteOne of the video's we watched with Eugene Garcia he talked about respect something your assistant as well as some administrators do not understand. People do have a right to their opinion, but if they feel they can't adjust then need to have some place else to go. If we don't have children and families to come to our programs we don't have programs. It is unfortunate this person was transferred it doesn't same she was given any training support and the families really don't need someone like this in the lives of their children.
ReplyDeleteHello Emily,
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to hear about your negative experience. This past week, our school held a professional development on culture in primary education. One of the topics discussed were we our school more of. They parted educators into groups to collaborate on what our school need more of. We came up with various concerns/goals. Case in point, we confirm that teachers should be more respectful to all children and families. They are times when a teacher express judgmental views and tends to provide non-equity teaching, as oppose to equity teaching. In my belief, they (some educators) are focus more on their salaries, instead of being an actual teacher.
Tanya Terrell
Hi ladies- thanks for all of you feedback! I am pleased to hear you all agree that this assistant was unprofessional. Part of my end of the year evaluation on her was to have more diversity "work." I really feel that it is important for educators to have continued professional development in regards to diversity.
ReplyDelete