Impeding Children's Flourishing: Considering Forced Changes to an Anti-Bias Curriculum Project (Poster 30)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Seven
  In Poster Session: Early Education and Child Development SIG Posters

Abstract

Schools have a responsibility to support children’s flourishing; they should assist children in understanding and appreciating who they are and help them identify other legitimate ways of being and thinking. Therefore, it is important for all early childhood education stakeholders to think carefully and critically before limiting children’s opportunities to explore their own identities and the identities of others–it is conceivable that doing so might slow or impede their flourishing. This theoretical paper considers how three specific changes to a civic-minded, anti-bias, early childhood curriculum–spurred by “anti-divisive concepts” legislation–constrained children’s opportunities for noticing and appreciating differences. Additionally, it serves as a call to action for conducting research into how these laws are impacting children’s developing capacities for autonomy.

Author

• Joy Dangora Erickson, Endicott College
  Presenting Author