Multicultural community event reflection 1

Multicultural Community Event Reflection

Sarah Mercurio

Cal State Dominguez Hills

April 4, 2017
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Multicultural Community Event Reflection

Within the head building of LACOE, Los Angeles Education Department, I attended a

parent conference, empowering parents of all backgrounds with the resources and tools

accessible to them and their students. This conference focused on teaching parents their

childs educational rights, while highlighting students achievement through award and

motivational speaking. Various members of the LACOE staff including the superintendent, in

addition to professors and their students from different undergraduate and graduate programs

ran the event. This event more specifically catered to those parents whose children are

incarcerated and in different camp educational settings. This even showed to be multicultural

because of its various language and acceptance the coordinators made strides to incorporate

in both the presentation and materials used. This event did not necessarily celebrate culture

outright and purposely, but it created a space in which there was social equity for all parents,

which in turn celebrated all types of American families education in an equal form to those

of native English language speakers.

I though the event was very well done. It was evidently clear how vital this information

was for the parents. It made me feel proud to be able to make people feel invited and

important. I very much enjoyed making friends with a little boy named Edwin and his like

brother Jose. They were excited to be there for their parents and they gained a little bit more

freedom that this event because they didnt have to stand next to their parents and translate

for them at the young age of eleven. Without the multicultural resources and acceptance of

multiple languages, they would have not had the opportunities young kids their age should

have had in that situation.

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This event met each of the goals of anti-bias education for not only the students that were

there but also the parents who were there for the better of their students. Through family

pride, comfort in diversity, recognition of unfairness in language, and empowerment, all

goals of anti-biased education, the event catered to the good of the community (Derman-

Sparks & Edwards, 2010). In inviting parents that typically would not feel wanted to

participate, in addition to allocating power to them through survey and recognition of

positive aspects of their students this even created pride to be in these families who are

seeking more in their education. In creating such strives to create a fluent community of

speakers for the parents, parents felt a comfort in their diversity. In this, there was also

evidence of unfairness in language. Parents in this community seldom came to these events

because of the language barrier, not because they were uninterested in helping their child

succeed. Because of the resources used by the administrators and officials running the event,

parents of this community were empowered in their strives towards better education for their

students of various backgrounds.

This event opened my eyes back up to the idea that education extends much further than

the classroom and parent involvement and empowerment should be a key aspect of my

personal goals in my future classroom. Education is much more than systematic test and

rudimentary skills, it is about functionality translated into social and life experiences. This

conference showed me how students can be failed, how this system excludes some without

any explanation other than inadvertent bias. Unfortunately, it is a broken system, but every

stride towards acceptance, each conference that is inviting and accepting like the last is a step

towards social equity for the parents and students of every community, not just the ones that

are easiest to cater to.

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Bibliography

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and

ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.