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

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

Early Childhood Education is not “pre-race” but an active socializing force that transmits larger social ideas about race to young children. This session examines how racial tensions affection young children in early childhood settings and how our understanding of children and race can and should better support children’s identity development. Papers draw upon Critical Race Theory as well as theoretical frameworks from developmental, cognitive, and social psychology, multicultural education, anthropology, critical cultural studies of education, discourse analysis and racial identity formation studies. Collectively, this session challenges widely held beliefs that racialized discussions or even racial identity formation is not an early childhood issue.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Critical Perspectives on Early Childhood Education

Chair

• Timber Dove Washington, Teachers College, Columbia University

Papers

• Teaching and Learning About Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Early Childhood Classrooms - Caryn C. Park, University of Massachusetts - Boston

• Toward a Multidisciplinary Perspective on the Role of Early Childhood Education in the Formation of Broader Racial/Ethnic Relations and Ideologies - Mariajose Romero, LaGuardia Community College -CUNY

• Preservice Teachers’ Love/Hate Relationship With a Racial/Cultural Self and Society - Lucinda G. Heimer, Wheelock College

• Young Children’s Racial Development: The Process of Learning Who Was and Was Not a Slave - Jennifer Keys Adair, The University of Texas - Austin

Discussant

• Celia S. Genishi, Teachers College, Columbia University