Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

This week I explored the topic of gender and sexual orientation and how it relates to the early childhood field. I learned that beliefs about homophobia restrict people from allowing children to explore gender roles freely (Laureate Education, n.d.). I had a class discussion with a group of high school students learning about preschool growth and development on how young children learn gender roles. Often families have very different views about what is acceptable behavior for a girl and what is acceptable behavior for a boy. Students shared stories of family members making comments about boys not playing with baby dolls or wearing dresses because they don't want them to "turn out gay." This discussion reinforced my learnings from this week. Everyone in class was familiar with the common stereotypes, but what do we do about them? The first step is becoming aware of how our everyday comments and behavior influence a young child's gender identity.

 Children are influenced strongly by the people closest to them, but also by society- movies, books, television, toys, etc. Children are bombarded with the media, and gender roles become quite apparent when you look for them. Clothing, hairstyles, and toys are all examples of how we pass on gender stereotypes. If you walk down the toy aisles in a department store the princesses, dolls, barbies, and anything pink and purple is in one aisle. Then in another aisle are all the trucks, super heroes, transformers, and dinosaurs. The stores assume that depending on which sex the child is he/she only needs to walk down one aisle. Movies constantly depict the males as strong, intelligent and brave while the females are pretty, weak and need to be rescued. Young children soak it all in. 

As we learned last week, many different family structures exist and whether we believe the family structure is appropriate or not, a child's family plays a crucial role in his/her development. I think bringing books and other visual aides into the early childhood classroom that depict all family types is very important. It is our "duty to help all children develop a positive sense of self, no matter what our personal beliefs are" (Laureate Education, n.d.). Children need to be supported in their identity development and making them visible is a key component in that process (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). 

References:

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Start seeing diversity: Gender [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Start seeing diversity: Sexual orientation [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Thank you

I would like to say thank you to all my colleagues so far in the early childhood studies program at Walden University. It has helped me reach weekly goals, stay focused and try my hardest knowing that you all are out there doing the same thing. It is not easy balancing work, school and family, but knowing that I am not alone helped tremendously. I have learned so much already from reading all your discussion posts and blogs that I am sad that some of us will be parting ways. But I am also happy that we are about to enter into our focused areas. It is hard to believe that soon all the hard work will pay off!

Good luck finishing the program and thank you for all your support and help learning the material.

Saying Good-Bye to a Group

Reflecting on the groups that I have been a part of over the years, I realize that I have met a lot of people and developed friendships with many people that I began working in a group with. Working in a close group involves developing trust and respect for each other. it can be rewarding and challenging at the same time. The more active a role I played in the groups the more difficult it was to say good-bye at the end. The more involved I am, the more devoted and meaningful the experience. Sometimes the groups close after a big event or accomplishment, meeting one more time to reflect on successes and areas for improvement. Sometimes groups just end as the work ends without any pat on the back as a whole, but personal reflection and celebration is still important. For example, I appreciate all of my colleagues in the early childhood studies program but our ending celebrations will probably be with personal family and friends. I am planning to do something special with my family that is relaxing!

The final stage of a group, adjourning, is important for many reasons. It is very important to reflect on your work in order to identify ways to improve int he future and remember to repeat things that worked well. It is also very important to say thank you and appreciate the people you work with.

Handling Conflict

Currently, my husband and I disagree over whether or not to purchase something for our house. My husband wants to have a replica made of a large salmon that he caught in Alaska and hang it in the living room. It would take up most of the space on a very large wall and cost a lot of money. We have discussed the idea several times, but I still think that it would not look good in our house. My husband thinks it would look good, and he would enjoy reminiscing about that time in his career every time he looked at it (he is a fishing guide).

Cooperative strategies for resolving conflict involve pleasing both individuals involved and are beneficial to the relationship (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012). A couple cooperative strategies that may work for resolving this conflict are compromise and exploring all options. Compromise would mean both my husband and I giving a little to get a little (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012). I understand that my husband wants to save a memory so maybe we can find a solution that we both agree on. In order to find a solution it would help to brainstorm all of the options. "Offering--and potentially negotiating--alternatives is a useful tactic for cooperative conflict management" (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012, p. 240). Hopefully by exploring options and reaching a compromise, we will end up in a win-win situation--a result that pleases both of us (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012).

Essentially for compromise to work, both people need to remember to be respectful and open-minded. The 3R's are always important in any conflict.

Has anyone had a similar disagreement with a spouse or significant other? How did you resolve it?

Reference:

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction. New York:

Bedford/St. Martin's.

A Self-Evaluation of Communication

This week I completed three self-assessments concerning my communication skills in regard to the type of listener that I am, my verbal aggressiveness, and my communication anxiety levels. I asked my husband and a student that has been in three different classes that I teach at the high school level and is now my student aide to also complete the self-assessments for me. I was surprised to see that each of us evaluated my communication very similarly. My communication at work rated less aggressive and more confident than my communication at home but overall they were very close to the same. What surprised me the most was the listening style category that I fit into. I was rated a "people-oriented" listener (Rubin, Rubin, Graham, Perse & Seibold, 2009). The results suggest that I mainly focus on the feelings of the people that I communicate with and that although that may play a factor in strengthening relationships it may interfere with accurately judging a situation or a person’s motives (Rubin, Rubin, Graham, Perse & Seibold, 2009). I had never thought about how being focused on another person's emotions might stand in the way of seeing the whole picture clearly. Although I still think that it is very important to be an empathetic listener, I realize now that I need to make sure that I am clearly seeing the rest of the details as well.

This week I gained a few other insights about communication. First, I learned that perception and personal experiences or schemas play such a vital role in the way we communicate and interpret information around us. While completing the discussion assignment, I was surprised to learn that I could have an opinion about so many different things just by looking at a picture of someone. Perception can easily allow biased thoughts to stand in the way of accurate interpretations if we let it (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012). Second, I learned about the self-fulfilling prophecy which states that our own predictions of how things will happen lead to behaviors that make those predictions come true (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012). For example, "if your friend Josh goes to a party believing that others don't enjoy his company, he is more likely to stand in a corner, not talking to anyone and making no effort to be friendly. Thus, Josh's prophecy is fulfilled: others don't like him" (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012, p. 51). The self-fulfilling prophecy helps me see how anxiety about a situation may lead to failure and how confidence in a situation may lead to more successful outcomes.


Reference:

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction. New York: 

Bedford/St. Martin's.

Rubin, R. B., Rubin, A. M., Graham, E. E., Perse, E. M., & Seibold, D. R. (Eds.(2009). Communication research measures II: A sourcebook. New York: Routledge.

Making Adjustments to Communication

In order to effectively communicate in multiple settings, one must reflect on the various roles in which he or she identifies with (Vuckovic, 2008). For example, I take on many different roles throughout the day: a mother, a teacher, a wife, a director, and more depending on where I am and who I am communicating with. For each role that ensues, I make adjustments to the way that I communicate. "Communication success depends partially on being cognisant of the roles and identities one embodies at a given time and their influence on behavior" (Vuckovic, 2008, p. 56). When I am communicating with students I try to stay positive and friendly while remaining professional, unbiased and open-minded. I try not to reveal many of my personal views but help my students learn about facts and research in order to develop their own personal views. When I am communicating with friends and family I become much more opinionated and informal in my communication.

Similar adjustments must be made when I am communicating with people from different cultures. For example, when I am communicating with someone who does not speak English as their first language, I tend to repeat myself more, check for understanding more, and sometimes even speak louder. I notice myself doing these things without intentionally meaning to. Another example of communication adjustments is when I am interacting with young children. I tend to speak softer and at a higher pitch in more of a sing-song fashion. I also may be closer in proximity to the child and use more hand gestures.

In order to communicate more effectively with various groups of people it is important to keep an open-mind about other people's perspectives, not make assumptions about other people's beliefs or values, and be a good observer during communication. Try to read the nonverbal cues from the other person and make adjustments to communication as necessary.


Reference:

Vuckovic, A. (2008). Inter-cultural communication: A foundation of communicative action. Multicultural Education and Technology Journal, 2(1), 47–59.

An Experiment with Verbal Communication

This week, the blog assignment was to watch a television show that I was unfamiliar with, first without the sound and then with the sound. I was surprised to see how much I could understand without being able to hear anything. I was able to correctly identify emotions ranging from nervousness and frustration to disgust and grief. I was able to correctly identify the status and type of relationships the characters were involved in as well. Nonverbal communicators such as proximity, touch, body language, facial expressions, and physical actions helped send clear messages in terms of the emotions and feelings involved in each relationship. I found that in very important scenes during the show I could actually read lips to learn about what was happening.

Although I could still understand much about what was going on in the show, I found it a little boring to watch without the sound. I was missing out on the punch lines and the details that make life so interesting. Many of the important elements were lost in translation. Once I watched the same episode with the sound turned on, I was able to read into even more of the nonverbal signals than I was the first time. If I was watching a show that I was familiar with I probably would have been able to make even more accurate interpretations of what was happening the first time I watched.

Overall, I thought this assignment was fun and interesting. I learned how powerful nonverbal communication really is and how quickly one can adapt to life without sound. I also learned that I much prefer to hear people express themselves through words so that I don't have to guess at what they are trying to say.