Toward Racial and Cultural Justice for Young Children: Naming Inequities, Problematizing Injustices in Pre-K

• In Event: Reconceptualizing "Diversity" for Socially Just Education: Research Themes From Early Childhood to Higher Education

Abstract

Racism is not a series of isolated acts, but it is endemic in the US; racist ideas are deeply ingrained legally, culturally, and psychologically in all aspects of society, including schooling (Kendi, 2016; Vaught, 2011). Although there are plenty of studies which document that racially diverse schools and classrooms can benefit all students (e.g., Mickelson, 2016; Wells et al., 2016), schooling in the US remains deeply segregated (Kucsera, 2014; Street, 2013). US public schools are more racially segregated today than they were in the 1970s (Orfield & Frankenberg, 2014; Potter, Quick, & Davies, 2016). This is not accidental; researchers have documented how this is a design feature of schools and schooling (e.g., Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Leigh, 1997; Mickelson et al., 2008). Even amidst efforts to make education more “accessible” and “universal,” in the US and elsewhere, racist ideas continue to sponsor and justify segregated and unequal educational opportunities (Rangvid, 2010; Valenzuela et al., 2014; West, 2014; Yun & Moreno, 2006).
It is within a highly racialized and deeply segregated context of schooling that this paper attends to a situated representation of segregation as a phenomenon in New York City’s Pre-K for All. We analyze two Pre-K classrooms located in a neighborhood characterized by “Hispanic isolation” (Fessenden, 2012), nearly double the percentage of Latinxs for the borough where it is located and for the city as a whole (US Census, 2000). Although located in adjacent city blocks, the two Pre-K classrooms served markedly different racial demographics: one Pre-K classroom was comprised of 90% Latinx children (located in a New York City Early Education Center, a NYCEEC) and the other is comprised of less than 40% Latinx children (located in a public school). And yet, despite such realities, whereas there is plenty of talk about the benefits of Pre-K and there have been strong calls (across the political spectrum) for “establishing universal access to prekindergarten as a constitutional right” (Rebell et al., 2014, p. 1), there is little acknowledgment or discussion pertaining to the extant segregation in universal Pre-K. With the understanding that “[t]he racial/ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of preschool classrooms is a key component of their educational quality” (Potter, 2016), this paper sheds light on segregation within the context of New York City’s Pre-K for All program.

Authors

• Mariana Souto-Manning, Erikson Institute
  Presenting Author

• Ayesha Rabadi-Raol, Sonoma State University
  Presenting Author