Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

Personal life often intersects with professional life. The pressure, hardships, and difficulty one experiences in their personal life often affects the productivity of ones professional life. “When one or more of our social identities are shared with many of the people around us, we may be unaware of having been shaped by those identities” (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010, p. 22). The biases we encounter, the stereotypes and prejudices we experience as adults affect our work with children as educators.

Being a woman I would anticipate experiencing sexism in my day to day life. Feelings of inferiority expressed by males and even females may give me feelings of being less than I am. As a female I feel confident that I can accomplish anything a man can with hard work and dedication. Feelings of inadequacy may affect my interactions with the children in my care. Children are keen observers, they follow the temperament exhibited by the teacher. Increased anxiety brought on by the experience of sexism would definitely interfere with my effectiveness as a teacher. Children would feel the anxiety and stress I am feeling in my personal and react to it in a negative way. Lessons may be less effective, my responses to the children may be less sensitive and the overall welcoming feeling of the atmosphere may be diminished.

Even though it is inevitable that there will be stress, anxiety, and hardships in my personal life, it is my responsibility as an educator to leave theses feelings at the door of my classroom and focus solely on the success of the children in my care.

Reference:

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).