Teaching and Learning About Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Early Childhood Classrooms

• In Event: Rethinking and Redoing Race in Early Childhood Education: Policies, Perspectives, and Pedagogy

Abstract

This paper draws a yearlong ethnographic study and data analysis using socio-cultural and discourse theory to focus on how different contexts and opportunities enable and constrain children’s learning about racial and ethnic differences in dynamic ways. Cochran-Smith, Davis, and Fries (2004) noted the scarcity of “data-based inquiries that describe or assess the actual practice of teacher candidates when they work in schools and classrooms” (p. 958). I address this gap through in-depth study of early childhood teachers and their students interacting around issues of racial and ethnic differences and then suggest directions for changes in teacher education for greater social and educational equality.

The method involved ethnographic methods of data collection, including participant observation, informal and semi-structured interviews, and documentation of classroom artifacts. Participants included representative teachers from early childhood programs at the following types of schools: urban independent, urban public, and racially integrated suburban independent. Each school communicated a strong commitment to diversity. The participating early childhood teachers (2 White, 2 Black, 1 Asian American) were all highly experienced and volunteered for the study because of their interest in engaging further with issues of diversity. The participating students (44 total, ages 4-6) came from diverse economic, ethnic, linguistic, national, and cultural backgrounds. This study used discourse analysis, which has been defined as the “analysis of language as it is used to enact activities, perspectives, and identities” (Gee, 1999, p. 4), to examine the various real-world effects of discourses, and to demonstrate how speakers exercised agency within structural limitations. The theoretical framework highlights the role of teachers, peers, and classroom and school communities in co-constructing the learning environments in which development occurs.

The ideas and values children espoused (e.g., individualism, racial affinity) echoed commonly circulating storylines that comprise racialized discourses in U.S. society. Their particular classroom contexts afforded students different opportunities to acquire, practice, and sometimes challenge or transform the discourses about race that circulated in preschool and kindergarten life. Though they rarely referred to specific education theory or research to rationalize their practices or philosophies, most of the teachers talked about the importance of making sure that diversity content was developmentally appropriate. By questioning whether a particular concept or topic was appropriate, the discourse of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP; Copple & Bredekamp, 2009) played a gate-keeping function, at times hindering the delivery of content. Although I observed the important role teachers had in providing children with the building blocks (language) for constructing deeper understandings, they often identified other sources such as families and media as having greater influence. Teachers lacked opportunities to engage in reflection or further learning with their colleagues and viewed the process of becoming a multicultural/anti-racist educator as a solitary journey.

Focusing on classroom diversity discourses suggests promising directions for teacher education. Few resources exist for practitioners that bridge multicultural and social justice education with DAP principles. When teachers have the necessary knowledge and tools, students have a fighting chance to experience equity and more positive intergroup relations in schools.

Author

• Caryn C. Park, University of Massachusetts - Boston