Black Families "Re-Teaching" About Race in Early Childhood

• In Event: Racial Socialization of Black Children: Families' Sociopolitical Preparation in and out of Schools

Abstract

Children as young as three begin to notice differences in skin color (Wright, 1998). As early as four years old Black and White children can have racial preferences (Bogan & Slaughter-Defoe, 2012). Yet, the early childhood workforce provides limited support on preparing teachers to address race (Institute of Medicine & National Research Council, 2015). Black families are likely to employ ethnic-racial socialization practices with their young children and because of their lived experience (Bigler & Hughes 2011; Bogan & Slaughter-Defoe, 2012). These practices have benefits including, when mothers tell their children about their ethnicity, race, and cultural heritage their children have better academic skills than mothers who did not (O’Brien-Caughy, O’Campo, Randolph, & Nickerson, 2002). Also, racial socialization practices have a positive influence on student achievement (Constantine & Blackmon, 2002). This basic qualitative study seeks to understand how Black families educate their young children about race.

This study uses the Critical Race Theory (CRT) (Bell, 1992; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995) specifically the theme of centering the experiential knowledge of Black families (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Solorzano & Yosso, 2002; Carlton Parsons 2016) and the aspect of sociocultural learning theory focused on transformation and generating new knowledge (Engestrom, 2001; Nasir & Hand 2006; Rogoff, 2003;) as the theoretical framing. Sociocultural learning theories typically do not attend to issues of race and power and therefore perpetuate post-racial discourses (Nasir & Hand 2006; Carlton Parsons, 2016). A CRT perspective on how people learn in sociocultural contexts acknowledges the race and power present in the phenomena.

I conducted a basic qualitative study (Merriam, 2009) with four African American parents and six children ages twenty-one months to seven years old. Data included semi-structured interviews with each parent, a questionnaire about the ethnic-racial socialization practice and two observations conducted of children & their families reading children’s books about slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, and modern-day terrorism. The books and questionnaire were used as mediating objects to spark conversations about race.

When examining historical events or modern-day discrimination, the parents focused on character traits they want their children to have. The parents felt that the focus on fairness, character, and choices were developmentally and age appropriate concepts and serve as a means of shielding their young children from the truth of historical events. Parents expressed the need to supplement and correct their children’s education on historical topics and described an “alternative curriculum” where they reteach what is learned in the classroom. The “reteaching” presents reframed ways to conceptualize how race is addressed. In addition, parents wished that teachers would approach them when they did not know how to address a topic and encourage teachers to continually examine their own biases. The experiences and narratives African American parents in this study offer an important truth through their practice of “reteaching.” Their leadership and knowledge are contributions to the content needed in the early childhood workforce to address race with young children.

Author

• Dawn M Cameron Williams, University of Washington