Early Care and Education Professionals Talk About Race

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Saturday 9:45 am
  In Poster Session: Learning Together: Collaboration, Teaching Strategies, and Identity in Classroom and Community Contexts

Abstract

The current study explores responses to an open-ended survey question intended to let ECE staff tell us what we should be trying to learn more about in order to understand racial and cultural socialization in early care and education settings. Children as young as two are able to participate in social discourses related to bias, discrimination, and prejudice. However, discomfort in discussing race and misconceptions about children cause some early educators to underestimate a child’s capability to understand race-related topics. Educators who are well prepared in general and have congruent values and ideas about many areas of their professional practice may nonetheless have an array of responses to helping young children develop critical consciousness surrounding issues of race and racism.

Authors

• Gisele Crawford, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Allison De Marco, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Clare Wongwai, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Iheoma U. Iruka, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Sandra L. Soliday Hong, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Laura Kuhn, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill