Weaving Critical Epistemologies: A Black Feminist Disability Studies Critical Race Theory Praxis in Early Childhood Teacher Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Examinations of Dis/Ability in Early Childhood Practices and Pedagogies (Table 3)

Abstract

Authors argue the need for an Early Childhood BlackFem DisCrit praxis in teacher education to challenge ECE’s allegiance to white, monolingual English-speaking, neurotypical, middle-class standards of care, education, and child development. Authors critique 1) the ideology of a mythical white, neurotypical, monolingual English-speaking child 2) normative, spoken English as markers of success in children’s development and 3) ideologies that early childhood is “too young” for children–and their educators–to engage with issues of social justice and societal inequities. Transformational turns toward a BlackFem DisCrit recognize that 1) early childhood education is inherently political, 2) there is a legacy of critical, holistic thinking and activism and 3) the importance of disrupting the pervasive whiteness of early childhood teacher education programs.

Authors

• Crystasany R. Turner, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

• Lilly Padia, Erikson Institute