My Personal Research Journey

The topic which I have chosen to research is Diversity in early childhood education. I chose this topic because I want to learn more strategies to use to help with my diverse children and families in the classroom.I also chose this topic because in today's society we are seeing more young children and families that are diverse entering into the schools every school year and early childhood educators have to know how to build relationships with diverse children and families. I see so many children and parents that speak different languages especially Spanish which is the most dominant one I hear a lot.I have found that being able to communicate appropriately and being able to teach diverse children effectively helps them to be able to learn and be successful through out their journey in school. For example, I have two Hispanics in my classroom this year and both of them are speaking primarily English at school and Spanish at home so I am happy that they know both languages.They are both are progressing very well and I know they will do even better in kindergarten next school year.

The process on researching Diversity has been interesting.There are a lot of great resources available that support Diversity in early childhood education. According to Barrera, Corso, and Macpherson understanding how to respond to cultural diversity is one key to successful interaction with young children and their families (Barrera, Corso, and Macpherson, 2003).We are approaching the end of week two in this course and I am getting more knowledgeable about researching resources and expanding on the learning resources weekly. Check out this link that talks about "Supporting cultural and linguistic diversity in early childhood "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWg-ZrV3wPk this is a great video on how teachers around the world are opening up with diverse children in their classrooms.

I am interested in finding out more helpful ways with diverse children and families in early childhood. I ask that if any of my colleagues are able to find additional resources that is related to my topic to please share the information with me. I promise it will be beneficial.

Reference

Barrera, I., Corso, R. M., & Macpherson, D. (2003). Skilled Dialogue: Strategies for Responding to Cultural Diversity in Early Childhood. Brookes Publishing, PO Box 10624, Baltimore, MD 21285-0624.

http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=548