Considering a Participatory Approach to Racial Literacies Development for a First-Year Teacher in Early Childhood

• In Event: Disrupting Discourses of White Supremacy in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Objective
This paper explores the possibilities and challenges afforded by approaching racial literacies development (RLD) as a university-school partnership to disrupt white supremacy in the early childhood classroom. Considering the lack of support for first year teachers, especially those oriented towards anti-racist and social justice teaching practices, this collaboration aimed to provide support for a first year teacher in a second grade classroom toward disrupting Eurocentric and colonizing narratives in the classroom curriculum.

Theoretical Framework
Sealey-Ruiz’s (2021) RLD framework guided our collaborative engagement. Price-Dennis and Sealey-Ruiz (2021) put forth three tenets of racial literacy: question, engage and reflect. With these three tenets in mind, Sealey-Ruiz puts forth a more detailed expectation for what components help address one’s RLD. This framework consists of six components: interruption, archaeology of the self, critical reflection, historical literacy, critical humility, and critical love. Each of these dispositions and practices help individuals develop their understanding of race, for the purposes of acting on that new learning towards disrupting racist narratives and systems. Using this framework, a doctoral student and first-year early childhood teacher engaged in collaboration toward their RLD.
Modes of Inquiry and Data
We engaged in participatory action research (PAR) to RLD. PAR is an “attempt to collaboratively generate knowledge (i.e., as a participatory process) for the purpose of both using that knowledge (i.e., acting upon it) and sharing potentially valuable lessons with others (i.e., disseminating the findings)” (Lake & Wendland, 2018, p. 12). PAR engages “people in processes of reflection, education, and change” (McIntyre, 2008, p. 79), thus showing great compatibility with Sealey-Ruiz’s (2021) RLD framework.

Over the course of 15 months, we engaged in three phases of meetings in a collaborative consisting of a doctoral student and three teachers, one of whom is an early childhood educator while two are upper elementary educators. Data sources included the following: text messages, interview transcripts, focus group transcripts, and publication writing. This presentation will highlight examples of the dialogic process as well as impact and outcomes of the process for this early childhood educators’ practice and commitment to racial literacy.

Insights and Scholarly Significance
Our paper asks questions about how white early childhood educators can become not only allies but co-conspirators (Love, 2019) for and with communities of color already working to disrupt white supremacy in schools. Although professional development sessions may have the goal of supporting teachers towards such ends, they often fall flat or have temporary impact. Thus, we believe taking a collaborative, participatory, and dialogical approach (Kohli et al., 2015) working with teachers will provide a great and lasting impact for pushing their practice forward.

The model we share in our presentation provides teachers with a place to start. Engagement in such work often provides numerous emotional, intellectual, and professional benefits (Picower, 2015) and considers teachers as the experts in their own contexts. However, teachers learn from the expertise of others when shared openly and for the sake of learning and supporting one another toward RLD.

Authors

• Mary Adu-Gyamfi, University of Missouri
  Presenting Author

• Rylie Kever, North Kansas City School District
  Presenting Author