From Anti-Bias to Antiracist: Challenges and Possibilities for Early Childhood Education

• In Event: Toward Antiracist Practices and Possibilities in Early Childhood Contexts

Abstract

Theory and Objectives

In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, there have been ever-increasing calls for anti-racism from educational institutions, academic organizations, and others. With the popularity of books such as How to be an anti-racist by Ibram X. Kendi, an increasing number of adults are asking how they can stop perpetuating racism and engage in anti-racist activism. The call for justice—and the impassioned pleas for structural change—has also attracted the professional attention of early childhood educators. Indeed, many are grappling with what it means to be an anti-racist early childhood educator and with what anti-racist early childhood education looks like in practice.

Similar to the general anti-racist education literature (Husband, 2012), in the early childhood field, there is a foundation of social justice focused scholarship, namely anti-bias education (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). The anti-bias approach advocates for the discussion of issues such as discrimination, privilege, and racism with young children so they can develop skills to identify and challenge injustices. This approach calls for educators to be proactive about addressing human diversity with young children. However, anti-bias work has been critiqued for eluding issues around anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and racial power and privilege (Escayg, 2019; Souto-Manning et al, 2019). Increasingly, scholars are calling for the field to move toward an explicitly anti-racist stance and praxis (Escayg, 2020, 2019, 2018; Iruka et al., 2020). The aim this paper is to distinguish anti-bias early childhood education from anti-racist early childhood education and to outline how the principles of anti-bias and anti-racist early childhood curricula may converge and diverge, including implications for classroom practice.

Methods and Data

Results from an open-ended online survey will be presented from 70 early childhood educators in the U.S. (47% BIPOC; 53% white) who primarily care for BIPOC children, to inform the challenges, joys, and possibilities of anti-racist early childhood pedagogy. The survey was conducted in collaboration with EmbraceRace, an organization providing professional development for parents and teachers committed to nurturing children who are race-brave and race-conscious.

Conclusions

Findings, via open coding, indicate that educators fostered positive racial identity in BIPOC children, in ways that affirmed children, represented children in classroom materials, and assisted children in developing racial pride. Many different methods were reported for fostering positive racial identity (e.g., fostering critical media literacy in children, fostering critical consciousness in children). Educators were concerned about nurturing respect, curiosity, and love for people of various races. Educators engaged in racial socialization practices such as preparing children for bias, racism, stereotypes, and for privilege and oppression. Findings will be discussed from an anti-racist perspective and will be analyzed to assist educators and educator preparators in applying anti-racist frameworks to their work with young children and their families. Findings illustrate how anti-racist education is not a “one size fits all” approach and how the racial identities of children and educators influence the ways in which anti-racist early childhood education is conceptualized and implemented in early years settings.

Authors

• Flora Farago, Stephen F. Austin State University

• Kerry-Ann Escayg, University of Nebraska - Omaha

• Darcy Heath