This is a personal reflection
Explain a situation where you have had an ethical decision to make. Discuss how you weighed up the values involved in that decision, the decision you made, and the consequences of your action.
I highly value honesty and integrity. I believe this is the fundamental of my core values and this guide my every day actions and decisions.
I had a parent texting me accusing one of my male colleagues inappropriate practice towards her child as a Kaiako. Both this family and my colleague had good relationships with me. This parent’s child was a good friend of my boy, too. I knew this situation was beyond my ability so I turned to my head teacher for support. She suggested me to ask the parent contact her and follow the complaint process. This ended up with lots of conversations between the management team, all the Kaiako that might know something and the parents. At the end, even the police stepped in. The whole situation was very hard both on me, my team and this family. There was confidential requirements in this all investigation. I cannot talk any of these related topic with my colleagues and my parent friend. The investigation ended up with my colleague innocent and was able to come back to the workplace. However, the family chose to take this child out of our centre. As this child’s key teacher, I did the whole farewell party and process. I did not ask anything until now. But I did show my care and all my team members’s love to this family. It was a lovely party and this child had a happy goodbye. The Mum texted me again and appreciated me looking after her child.
In this situation, I was professional in my role and showed my respect to all the parties involved. Most of all, I did put the child’s well-being on top and did my job well. I was honest and did not gossip and protected everybody’s privacy. However, this was very very hard for me. It took me half a year to go through the inner struggle I had. I was just so sad about everything that happened and feel sorry for everybody that involved. I still miss this family and care about my colleague.
Describe how your culture has influenced your values and identity.
I came from China and grew up in a very competitive education system. This made me value integrity and hardworking. I also value the importance of a team as I grew up from a collectivism culture. But the more time I spend in the New Zealand, the more I am aware the well-being fo individuals as well. I have a more balanced view of individual and group needs now. I view myself as a capable learner and have high expectations of myself. Most of the time, my values and identity pushed me to make progress in my life. Sometimes I tend to focus too much on the future and forget to fully enjoy the present moment. Over time, I am learning to focus on the progress instead of the end results.
Evaluate your strengths and limitations in terms of your learning and career development
My strength is i am curious and hungry for new knowledge. I am also hardworking, resilient and good at time management. My limitation is that I have a young family with two little ones, I do not have too much time to dive in deep into a project in a short period of time.
Identify which of your strengths might help you in your learning journey and how they intersect with learning obstacles.
My good time management skill will definitely help with my learning journey. Because as a mum of a 6 year old and a new born. I have to make sure every minute I spend on studying is productive. I do not have any time to waste and I have to ask for help all the time. I use any time i can find to learn and make sure I have buffer time to handle any unexpected obstacles. It is also about prioritise as well, I need to break down my learning and know which task i can do immediately when I find time.
Share an example from your experience of where you were trying to work productively with others, but there was resistance or tension. Discuss the strategies you used at that time, how effective they were, and your reflections on what other strategies you would try now and why.
As an early childhood teacher, most of my colleagues are proactive and good communicators. However, my work involves a a lot working productively with children! As you can imagine, there was always resistance or tension. For example, we go to nature explore with six tamariki every week. Most of the children are over 3 and we encourage them to take their responsibility of packing their cloths or do what every they can do. They are encouraged to work alongside the kaiako to get ready for the trip. Not all children are into this kind of job. So I normally break down the tasks for them, such as finding your hat or shoes, and celebrate their participation every time they made an effort. I also ran through a checklist with them and let them do the ticks once they’ve done something from the list. I acknowledge and appreciate their mahi when they helped me, i genuinely say thank you to them.
My main strategy was to empower them and see them as capable individuals. Most of the time, those strategies were effective. Sometimes when a child did not have a close relationship with me, it was harder. So i normally seek out another kaiako who has a good relationship with child to do the communication. Over time, when our relationships are getting better, it gets easier. I was continuously reflecting my strategies and it became more and more effective.
What are your thoughts when writing your values and identities?
Everything became more clear for me when I wrote this down. I felt my brain is more clear and I believe I can pursuit a career in Tech.