Well.. the end of the semester has arrived! I have learned so much about being culturally competent in this course that will help me as I enter the Child and Youth Worker field.
One of the first class trips that I went on in the course was to Quinte Mohawk which was my first "out of my comfort zone" kind of experience. The class got to help celebrate a day of thanks with the students and staff at the school. One of my favorite things beside turkey dinner was learning two of the dances. I remember doing the duck dance with one of the students and she showed me how to do the dance. I really enjoyed the welcoming atmosphere and I learned a lot about the school and their focus on respect.
Another assignment that I learned a lot from was when I went with a group of my classmates to a restaurant in Toronto called the O'Noir. This restaurant is a pitch black room where you are served by people who are blind. I did this assignment with an open mind and I learned what it might be like to eat a meal with no vision. This experience really opened my eyes to some of the "blind culture" and I am already applying that knowledge to volunteer work. I am an on-ice coach for a special needs hockey team called the Kawartha Komets. This season we got a new goalie named Robbie. Robbie has been diagnosed with Non Hodgkens Lymphoma and he is legally blind. He has always wanted to play goalie and this is his first season playing hockey. Two coaches stand on either side of him while he plays in the net and stops puck for the Komets. My experience dining in the dark taught me about how losing vision strengthens other senses. I use that to help Robbie on the ice by making sure that only one coach is talking at a time. I know that Robbie can hear the players coming towards him when he is on the ice which helps him save the puck. Here is a video from a fundraiser game on December 8th, 2013 when the Komets played the Peterborough Petes and the game lead to a shoot out with Robbie in net.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3MUhsgNfdg
Something that helped my learning in this course was when we had guest speakers talk to us about the LGTBQ community. Our guests were so open and willing to teach us anything that we wanted to know and they made us feel comfortable. I really enjoyed listening to what they had to say and I learned lots of new terms from their presentation. After listening to our guest speakers, I was invited to the Loyalist College Rainbow Group's movie night. I had a great time making new friends and watching a movie with a positive message. I would like to go to more Rainbow Group meetings either at the college or in Peterborough because I realize the importance of being an ally.
I was really looking forward to our field trip to Sir James Whitney this semester, and I was not disappointed! We got a tour of the school and the residence and we got to learn about the "deaf culture". I learned how to clap in sign language which was really cool! It was interesting to learn about the number of schools for deaf children and other resources in the community that I will remember when I am working with families.
This course has taught me so much about taking off my "cultural lenses" and being open to learning new things. I am so pleased with the learning that this course has provided me with as I prepare to start a career as a Child and Youth Worker. Although I am not an expert on other cultures, I have learned a few things that will help me in the future. I am aware that there are other cultures out there other than my own, and I am taking steps to understand cultures from around the world. I am committed to continuing my cultural learning and I look forward to the new experiences that are ahead!
Monday, 9 December 2013
Tuesday, 19 November 2013
Freedom Writers- From a CYW Perspective
This week in my Cultural Issues and Diversity class we watched the movie "Freedom Writers". I had never seen this movie before, and I found it very interesting because of the content relating to privilege and culture. The story is about a high school that is very separated because of gang violence. One of the characters talks about the day that she was initiated into the gang, and how she was the third generation in her family to be a member. Because of a persons ethnicity they were separated by gangs in the community and because of that there was conflict in the classroom.
Watching Erin Gruwell work with these students inspired me as a Child and Youth Worker. Erin was new to the school and appeared to be naive about the challenges she would be faced with in her English class. When her superiors had doubts about her skills to overcome these challenges, Erin persevered and went above and beyond to help her students. Erin was able to really connect with her students because she was genuine and listened to them. She showed her students that she really cared about their single story, and she never looked at them as just "gang members". Her students saw that she really cared about them, and they started to open up and listen to Erin. Erin found ways to reach out to her students and really connect with them, like when she took them to the Holocaust Museum. I noticed that Mrs. Gruwell used a lot of hope focused and solution focused brief therapy in her work at the school.
I admire Erin for her dedication to her work and what she accomplished with her class. I also noticed as a Child and Youth Worker that she was not practicing self care techniques to take care of herself. Because of Erin's dedication she spent all of her time talking about her work and making money to support extra curricular activities. This showed in Erin's relationship because her husband filed for a divorce. In the field of Child and Youth Work it is important to separate work from your home life. One technique for this is imagining a folder of your day closing in your mind and leaving it at work for the next day. At home it is important to self care if you have had a stressful day. Some people like to cook a nice meal, talk to a co worker, exercise, or watch their favorite TV show. If work beings to take over your home life, it is recommended to talk to someone such as a counselor to help develop a plan of action for self care and to talk about your feelings.
I really enjoyed watching this movie in class with my cultural lenses off, because it caused me to think more about what was really happening. I found it interesting to make connections from the movie to the field of Child and Youth Work. I hope that when I graduate, I can make as much of a difference as Erin Gruwell made in her classroom.
Tuesday, 29 October 2013
Ms. Jane Elliott in the 1960's
In class this week we talked about being born with privileges. A privilege is something is an advantage or an entitlement for a specific person or group. We talked about the ongoing issue of racism in today's society. Although racism is not nearly as brutal as it was in earlier generations, it is still a problem that society is working on erasing.
We began our reflection on privileges by watching Ms. Jane Elliott's classroom experiment from the 1960's. The link can be found below :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeK759FF84s
This video had a powerful impact on me because I had never seen young children talk hatefully about someone of another ethnicity. Jane's exercise had an impact on her students because at the end of the two days they understood what their words and hateful actions were doing to the people who were minorities. I think that this video is a good example of nature vs. nurture because the children in the video were raised by their parents to discriminate against people who were minorities. After learning what a privilege it was to be born into a Caucasian family in the 1960's the children realized that it was not appropriate to discriminate someone for being different. Their human nature came through when they completed the exercise because they were ready to treat everyone as an equal.
I found the exercise in this video so interesting that I went home and showed it to my boyfriend, Luke who was also impressed by it. We discussed the impact that the teacher had on those children and we were also able to identify teachers in our life who had a big impact on our lives.
We also found videos of Jane Elliott working with adults which were equally as interesting and impactful. It was surprising to see adults' reaction to racism when confronted by Jane.
I really enjoyed this video and it is something that I will always keep in mind while I am working in the field as a Child and Youth Worker.
We began our reflection on privileges by watching Ms. Jane Elliott's classroom experiment from the 1960's. The link can be found below :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeK759FF84s
This video had a powerful impact on me because I had never seen young children talk hatefully about someone of another ethnicity. Jane's exercise had an impact on her students because at the end of the two days they understood what their words and hateful actions were doing to the people who were minorities. I think that this video is a good example of nature vs. nurture because the children in the video were raised by their parents to discriminate against people who were minorities. After learning what a privilege it was to be born into a Caucasian family in the 1960's the children realized that it was not appropriate to discriminate someone for being different. Their human nature came through when they completed the exercise because they were ready to treat everyone as an equal.
I found the exercise in this video so interesting that I went home and showed it to my boyfriend, Luke who was also impressed by it. We discussed the impact that the teacher had on those children and we were also able to identify teachers in our life who had a big impact on our lives.
We also found videos of Jane Elliott working with adults which were equally as interesting and impactful. It was surprising to see adults' reaction to racism when confronted by Jane.
I really enjoyed this video and it is something that I will always keep in mind while I am working in the field as a Child and Youth Worker.
Monday, 7 October 2013
Single Story
This week in class my professor showed us a video from the TV show TED talks. The video is called "The Danger of a Single Story". The speaker in the video is a writer from Africa who grew up reading American literature.
The speaker talks about her experience moving to America and how it was different than her expectations based on the novels that she was reading. She also compares an American's expectation of her country of origin. She told a story of a student who told her that it was a shame that "all men from Africa are abusive".
When I heard this story, my eyes were immediately opened. For someone to assume that a culture does not go past what they have already heard it really shocks me. The author was also shocked by this person's misunderstanding of the country that she was born in.
It is dangerous when people only see their own culture, which is called the "single story". A "single story" means that you are only informed about your own culture and assume other things about new cultures. An example of this is saying that every person in Africa lives in poverty.
The speaker in the video talked about her own experience with a single story when she was living in Africa. She remembers meeting her cleaning boy's family and assumed that they were poor, and that is how she labelled them. She was surprised to see that the family was very artistic and had different talents. She had forgotten to look past the label and see the family for their strengths. As a Child and Youth Worker, looking past people's labels and focusing on strengths and resilience is part of every day practice.
I am very excited for this week because I am interviewing someone from another cultural background for an assignment. I am looking forward to learning about their story, and I will keep this video in mind as I ask questions!
As a Child and Youth Worker, I will be working with families from many different cultural backgrounds. This course is introducing me to many different cultures, and although I will not be an expert in every culture, I am taking small steps towards learning about other people's stories!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg
The speaker talks about her experience moving to America and how it was different than her expectations based on the novels that she was reading. She also compares an American's expectation of her country of origin. She told a story of a student who told her that it was a shame that "all men from Africa are abusive".
When I heard this story, my eyes were immediately opened. For someone to assume that a culture does not go past what they have already heard it really shocks me. The author was also shocked by this person's misunderstanding of the country that she was born in.
It is dangerous when people only see their own culture, which is called the "single story". A "single story" means that you are only informed about your own culture and assume other things about new cultures. An example of this is saying that every person in Africa lives in poverty.
The speaker in the video talked about her own experience with a single story when she was living in Africa. She remembers meeting her cleaning boy's family and assumed that they were poor, and that is how she labelled them. She was surprised to see that the family was very artistic and had different talents. She had forgotten to look past the label and see the family for their strengths. As a Child and Youth Worker, looking past people's labels and focusing on strengths and resilience is part of every day practice.
I am very excited for this week because I am interviewing someone from another cultural background for an assignment. I am looking forward to learning about their story, and I will keep this video in mind as I ask questions!
As a Child and Youth Worker, I will be working with families from many different cultural backgrounds. This course is introducing me to many different cultures, and although I will not be an expert in every culture, I am taking small steps towards learning about other people's stories!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg
Wednesday, 2 October 2013
Understanding Cultural Differences as a CYW
My professor started this week's class by handing out a case study and we were divided into groups to decide what we would do as Child and Youth Workers. The case study was about a child who was showing up to school with unexplained bruises. The case worker in the scenario went to the family's home and began to ask questions about the bruises. The mother pointed to bamboo and a bag with rocks, and said something in her own language which the case worker did not understand.
My first reaction to this scenario without doing any research was to inform the parents of the children's rights in Canada. After researching the meaning of the bamboo and rocks, our class learned that they were used for a healing ceremony performed in their culture.
It is a hard position as a case worker, because the child's well being comes first and although the family is not trying to harm their child, it is important to make sure that the child is safe at home. A possible solution that my class came up with to solve this dilemma was to see if there were any services in the community that would preform these healing ceremonies in a less harmful way that would not leave bruises or be painful.
We also watched a scene from Grey's Anatomy where a youth was sick and needed surgery and her parents wanted to take her home despite her urgent need for medical care. Her culture involved respecting elders, and her father wanted to have a healing ritual done before her surgery. The hospital realized why the family wanted to take their daughter home, and the doctor made a proposition to the father. The doctor had someone fly to the hospital to perform the healing ritual and they were able to proceed with surgery when it was finished.
As a Child and Youth Worker, I learned from the doctor's actions that it is important to understand and respect people's culture when asking to help someone.When the doctor catered to the family's cultural needs, he was able to gain their trust and perform the surgery with the family's permission. In the field it is important to go the extra mile and be open to other cultures so that we can connect with our clients and help them to the best of our ability.
I am looking forward to our next class to continue expanding my cultural awareness!
My first reaction to this scenario without doing any research was to inform the parents of the children's rights in Canada. After researching the meaning of the bamboo and rocks, our class learned that they were used for a healing ceremony performed in their culture.
It is a hard position as a case worker, because the child's well being comes first and although the family is not trying to harm their child, it is important to make sure that the child is safe at home. A possible solution that my class came up with to solve this dilemma was to see if there were any services in the community that would preform these healing ceremonies in a less harmful way that would not leave bruises or be painful.
We also watched a scene from Grey's Anatomy where a youth was sick and needed surgery and her parents wanted to take her home despite her urgent need for medical care. Her culture involved respecting elders, and her father wanted to have a healing ritual done before her surgery. The hospital realized why the family wanted to take their daughter home, and the doctor made a proposition to the father. The doctor had someone fly to the hospital to perform the healing ritual and they were able to proceed with surgery when it was finished.
As a Child and Youth Worker, I learned from the doctor's actions that it is important to understand and respect people's culture when asking to help someone.When the doctor catered to the family's cultural needs, he was able to gain their trust and perform the surgery with the family's permission. In the field it is important to go the extra mile and be open to other cultures so that we can connect with our clients and help them to the best of our ability.
I am looking forward to our next class to continue expanding my cultural awareness!
Monday, 23 September 2013
Cultural Communication
In class this week, we learned a lot about cultural communication. My professor had us do an activity to simulate for a short amount of time what it might feel like to have a communication barrier. The class divided into small groups of 4, and split up into teams of 2. Each group of 4 was given a deck of cards, and a folder containing the rules for a card game. The rules stated that there was no verbal communication allowed, including mouthing words! Some of my classmates were designated to make sure that this rule was being enforced.
Once the card game got started, the rules were collected and put away. Our group played the game fairly quickly, because we had understood the rules. When my partner and I won the match, we rotated to another group to play against someone else. When we got to the other table, we smiled and waved, not being able to say anything. When the game got started there was some confusion because my partner and I seemed to disagree with our opponents on what the correct rules were. After playing the game with a few other pairs, we realized that each group was given a different set of rules, and we were all trying to play the same game!
Looking back at the exercise, I remember the frustration of not being able to communicate what I wanted to say to the other group. I really wanted to let them know that we had different rules but I couldn't without speaking or moving my mouth. I felt misunderstood when I tried to communicate and the people around me could not guess what I was trying to say. I also felt very confused when the other team thought that they were winning, and we thought we were winning as well. As the game went on with each team, my partner and I began adapting to the rules of the table that we were at. I became good at reading people's reaction after each card was played.
I can see how this activity relates to different cultures while trying to communicate, and I was able to experience some of the feelings associated with cultural communication barriers. This was very helpful to me as a future professional working with people because it enforced the importance of patience and understanding.
Once the card game got started, the rules were collected and put away. Our group played the game fairly quickly, because we had understood the rules. When my partner and I won the match, we rotated to another group to play against someone else. When we got to the other table, we smiled and waved, not being able to say anything. When the game got started there was some confusion because my partner and I seemed to disagree with our opponents on what the correct rules were. After playing the game with a few other pairs, we realized that each group was given a different set of rules, and we were all trying to play the same game!
Looking back at the exercise, I remember the frustration of not being able to communicate what I wanted to say to the other group. I really wanted to let them know that we had different rules but I couldn't without speaking or moving my mouth. I felt misunderstood when I tried to communicate and the people around me could not guess what I was trying to say. I also felt very confused when the other team thought that they were winning, and we thought we were winning as well. As the game went on with each team, my partner and I began adapting to the rules of the table that we were at. I became good at reading people's reaction after each card was played.
I can see how this activity relates to different cultures while trying to communicate, and I was able to experience some of the feelings associated with cultural communication barriers. This was very helpful to me as a future professional working with people because it enforced the importance of patience and understanding.
Tuesday, 10 September 2013
My First Post
Hello!
My name is Emily, and I am in my final year of the Child and Youth Work Program. I am taking a course this semester called "Cultural Issues and Diversity", which requires me to write a blog. I will be using this blog to reflect on my learning throughout the semester.
I am very excited to begin this course because I am a very open-minded person. I have always enjoyed learning about other people, and the way that they live. I have been fortunate enough to learn about my friends' different cultures, but I am really looking forward to learning about new things in this course.
Although I have a very open mind to learning new things, it does not mean that there isn't anything that is outside of my comfort zone. I am excited to learn about new things that are outside of my world, and I hope to take some of that learning and put it into my own culture.
In my world, I have always been interested in learning about the people around me. It is very difficult for me to pick one thing that I am looking forward to learning the most this semester. The one thing that stands out to me in this course that we will be learning about understanding Deaf Culture. I have always wanted to learn how to speak in Sign Language, and a trip to Sir James Whitney sounds like a great opportunity. Many of our course topics this semester are things that I have been exposed to before, but I am looking forward to the opportunity to learn more in depth about the cultures of the people around me.
The video that I have posted to my blog shows a few of the many cultures in our world. Watching the video made me think that there are so many cultures that I would really like to learn and understand. What stood out to me in this video was when the people are all shown with different pieces of people. I think that people take bits an pieces of their own culture, and mix it with other people's as we learn new ways. An example would be in our first class my teacher explained to us the meaning behind a wampum and we made our own with a class meaning behind it. My professor got this idea while visiting Quinte Mohawk School and we were able to use in in our classroom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8GDUIh_Tis
In closing, I am looking forward to diving into the course content this semester very much! I am excited to try new things that may be outside of my comfort zone, and more importantly to learn things about individuals.
- - Emily
My name is Emily, and I am in my final year of the Child and Youth Work Program. I am taking a course this semester called "Cultural Issues and Diversity", which requires me to write a blog. I will be using this blog to reflect on my learning throughout the semester.
I am very excited to begin this course because I am a very open-minded person. I have always enjoyed learning about other people, and the way that they live. I have been fortunate enough to learn about my friends' different cultures, but I am really looking forward to learning about new things in this course.
Although I have a very open mind to learning new things, it does not mean that there isn't anything that is outside of my comfort zone. I am excited to learn about new things that are outside of my world, and I hope to take some of that learning and put it into my own culture.
In my world, I have always been interested in learning about the people around me. It is very difficult for me to pick one thing that I am looking forward to learning the most this semester. The one thing that stands out to me in this course that we will be learning about understanding Deaf Culture. I have always wanted to learn how to speak in Sign Language, and a trip to Sir James Whitney sounds like a great opportunity. Many of our course topics this semester are things that I have been exposed to before, but I am looking forward to the opportunity to learn more in depth about the cultures of the people around me.
The video that I have posted to my blog shows a few of the many cultures in our world. Watching the video made me think that there are so many cultures that I would really like to learn and understand. What stood out to me in this video was when the people are all shown with different pieces of people. I think that people take bits an pieces of their own culture, and mix it with other people's as we learn new ways. An example would be in our first class my teacher explained to us the meaning behind a wampum and we made our own with a class meaning behind it. My professor got this idea while visiting Quinte Mohawk School and we were able to use in in our classroom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8GDUIh_Tis
In closing, I am looking forward to diving into the course content this semester very much! I am excited to try new things that may be outside of my comfort zone, and more importantly to learn things about individuals.
- - Emily
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