AANHPI Thought Leaders Advancing Diversity-Informed Practice
Knowing your value. Speaking your truth. Practicing humility. Being confident yet compassionate in your work. Read what our founder Nat Vikitsreth has to say about advancing diversity informed practice.
“Humility helps us remember that the families’ stories and children’s emerging skills carry as much weight as our professional training.” - Nat Vikitsreth, LCSW, DT, CEIM
Why is cultural competence and diversity-informed practice vital for early childhood professionals to understand?
There’s a phrase in Thai, my mother tongue, “Tua Mae,” which colloquially describes someone who knows their craft wholeheartedly and practices it fiercely. When I see early childhood professionals with cultural competence, they’re the real deal or “Tua Mae” and I can’t help but smile at them in admiration.
With cultural competence, we show up to families and children with humility, audacity, and- dare I say- joy!
We need humility to fully be with the families and children we work with, and to remember that multiple truths exist. Humility helps us remember that the families’ stories and children’s emerging skills carry as much weight as our professional training.
We need audacity to de-center our Euro-American oriented professional training and widen the center to include voices that are pushed to the margins by the dominant norms. That means the audacity to compassionately agitate business as usual and ask “Why doesn’t our agency have more providers who look like the families we’re serving?” or “How can we adjust the workshop schedules to accommodate caregivers who work double shifts?”
Lastly the joy comes from continuously being a learner, from fumbling through our mistakes and making (lots of) repairs on our way to equity.
There’s never a dull moment in our early childhood work, right?
What 3 words best describe your approach to your work?
Decolonized. Embodied. Intergenerational.
Advice to other AANHPI professionals in the field:
Comfort isn’t the same as harmony. Blending in and people pleasing aren’t the same as belonging. Please trust your inner wisdom and discernment. You have SO much to offer to the families and children you’re working with.
What's your favorite childhood memory?
Picking jasmine flowers with my grandmother for our ancestors’ altar.
Learn more from the full list of full power house professionals - experienced and inspirational early childhood and their perspectives on how their Asian American, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander heritage influences their approach to diversity-informed practice and the services they provide to young children and their families.