Application: Reflective Journal

Throughout this course, you will be creating a Reflective Journal and required to write at least one entry at the conclusion of each week. The purpose of this journal is to help you make connections between your personal experiences and the important ideas presented in your coursework, articulate your perspectives and assumptions, and gain a better understanding of yourself. In the process of reflecting on your learning and writing about your thoughts, you may also become more insightful about how you developed attitudes and beliefs about different kinds of diversity, and how your attitudes and beliefs may relate to and affect the children and families with whom you will work as a professional in the early childhood field.

Your journal entry for this week will help you begin to understand who you are and articulate a dynamic and personal definition of culture and your cultural framework.

Part 1:

Review the responses you wrote earlier this week to the following question: Who am I? Add any other responses that come to mind at this point in the course.

Part 2:

Then summarize your current thinking with regard to:

1. How your life has been influenced by at least five of the following aspects of diversity:

a. Race

b. Gender

c. Age

d. Abilities and disabilities

e. Language

f. Social class, including status and economic level

g. Ethnicity and national origin

h. Religion and/or spiritual practice

i. Original geographic location of your family, where you grew up, and your present location (if different)

j. Sexuality, including sexual orientation

2. Your personal definition of culture/cultural framework.