The Evolution of Beliefs and Practices Around Issues of Race and Racism Among Early Childhood Education Majors/Graduates: A Longitudinal Study

• In Event: Big Conversations on Early Childhood Praxis

Abstract

This study presents a longitudinal (from junior year of an undergraduate program through the third year of in-service teaching), mixed-methods examination of Early Childhood Education (ECE) majors’/teachers’ beliefs (and ultimately practices) about race and culture before and after completing EDHD424: Culture and Community Perspectives: the Diverse World of the Child and during their yearlong internship. The instructor (first author) redesigned EDHD424 to confront issues of racism in American education, particularly against Black males, with the ultimate goal of preparing highly effective teachers as change agents. In order to do so, student thinking was destabilized through the review of research and the uncomfortable confrontation of belief systems associated with students’ miseducation (King, 1991) around issues of race and culture.

Authors

• Christy Tirrell-Corbin, University of Maryland - College Park

• Meryl Yoches Barofsky, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation

• Jeanne Galbraith, SUNY - College at Cortland