The Beginning of My Research Journey

                My passion is always in supporting cultural diversity in the early childhood field. As our society became more diverse, there is no doubt that racism and inequality exist along with the growing diverse population. As an early childhood educator, I believe we have a responsibility to provide a positive environment to support children to success. In additionally, it is important for educator to support this new trend of growing diversity population by helping children to learn and appreciate their identity while respecting other cultures. 

I am a true believer of play-based environment and believe that children learn the best in a secured environment that they are familiar with. The story that I am going to bring, push me more to promote diversity in the classroom. I had a Hispanic student, Osmar (fake name) who just moved from Mexico less than a year, he was a very social and happy boy always likes to ask questions and use his limited English vocabulary to communicate with his peers and teachers. In the second year, because of father’s job, the whole family needs to move to a different county. One day, Osmar’s mother called me and crying for help. She said Osmar did not talk as much now after he moved to a new preschool and Mom did not feel welcomed in the school. Mom expressed that the classroom has a very academic  setting which she somewhat like in the beginning, but later on she felt something wrong with the classroom as she does not see anything that she could relate to. Osmar does not speak much because the teacher does not encourage him to express himself. Mom felt like the teachers are not being patient with him as he is learning English. I helped Mom to find other school that value diversity but because it was almost the end of school year, there was no vacancy.  

This is a sad story, which also stimulates me to learn more about how a cultural diverse classroom supports children from diverse population. The research chart from last week’s assignment reduced my stress about research. A quality research should have a clear title for each key paragraph or task such as participant, methods, discussion etc. It helps audience to better understand the research and easier to find the information that they want to know. 

I am still learning how to narrow down my subtopics to make it measurable and wondering if my revised subtopic of “how a a cultural diverse classroom supports children from diverse population” is clear and measurable? Perhaps, the research could measure a classroom promote diversity and compare with a classroom who only focus on academic? I would really appreciate if anyone could share any article they know would support my research. Good luck everyone on your research!