The way children think and perceive things around them is a subject I would like to pursue and learn. I realize that my future career as an ECE teacher is very important in shaping the perceptions and values of children from an early stage. I strongly believe that for me to attain a positive influence on how the children perceive their world, the foundation needs to start with social interactions, modeling, as well as positive views of their environments and daily lifestyle. Children adopt set minds depending on the environment in which they are brought up, home setting and are as well influenced by their caregiver’s perceptions of the world in which they live. I reckon that is where my responsibility has a tremendous effect on the anti-bias development of children in my care setting. I understand that my role is not just teaching the child; rather, I am a care-giver in a broader sense. As an ECE teacher, I will participate in daily interactions such as social, verbal and nonverbal interactions as well as play to help inculcate a sense of acceptance and trust towards each other both inside the classroom and outside. Previously, I thought that being anti-bias means we automatically accept everyone because of their racial backgrounds. Now I realize that it means helping children to respect and accept everyone’s differences and similarities. To achieve that, it requires critical thinking by teachers, children, and families.
I have learnt many critical concepts in my field of development and in my education that have equipped me with the necessary tools to guide children in their interaction with people different ethnic, sexual, social, and economic diversities. At tender ages, children can be seen playing and interacting with their peers, regardless of their skin color or cultural differences. However, as they grow, they begin to notice the differences and they are bound to ask why they are different from their peers or people around them. How we answer these questions could have a lasting bearing on the perceptions of children. We cannot run away from the questions because they are important, no matter how sensitive they may appear. If we ignore them, children will always learn from somewhere, which might be dangerous to the way they think. Besides, it is not prudent to lie to them when they can clearly see the differences. I have learnt in this class that we should always answer children’s questions on matters of race, skin color and gender differences. The visual elements in the classroom such as posters and books need to portray human diversity and physical differences, so that they grow up knowing and coping with the differences.
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The classroom has a very significant influence on the perceptions of children on matters diversity. I think it is important to have toys or play tools in the classroom that are all-inclusive. We can have toys showing disability to reflect the society. Children will learn to accommodate people living with disabilities from an early stage. As a teacher, I also realize that I have had a bias of my own, especially before starting this class. It resulted from the obsession of my own background, and definitely I saw people from backgrounds other than my own differently. However, throughout the class I questioned my perceptions and thought critically. Having a bias is not necessarily a bad thing because we were raised differently and some of the people we interacted with might have either negatively or positively contributed to the bias. However, it is important to overcome the bias. I have learnt to accept people for who they are and I want to help children learn to accept the beauty of their differences and be proud of their diverse cultural differences.
