EDUC 8853 Influences of Family, Culture, and Society in Early Childhood

Final Thoughts

Dear Colleagues,

When I started Walden’s Doctoral  program online I was expecting an “easy” program but instead I became engaged in a rigorous, demanding and extremely well planned program of doctoral studies. This course hasn’t been the exception. It has been as demanding and rigorous as any other. Nonetheless, it has positively challenged and changed my perception and conceptualization of my practice and my field. This course highlighted the amplitude of the field. It pointed out to many of the components such as the development of our identity and the effects of bias and microaggressions on it. It also provided us with essential concepts about family, cultural, linguistic, community and societal dynamics. Furthermore, this course brought to our attention the effects that risk, stress and trauma has on the children and families we serve and taught us effective strategies to ameliorate their effects and to help our children to develop resilience. It has been guiding me to a better understanding of the field in general, but to a deeper understanding of the issues and trends that are impacting my community of practice. As part of this new understanding, I will continue elaborating and applying the foundations acquired in this course to further my studies as I confront the problem of developing and/or finding solutions to these issues in my community.