Using VCE to Illuminate Young Children's Strategies for Learning About Race

• In Event: Reimagining Early Childhood Education Research Using Video-Cued Ethnography

Abstract

Despite recent legislation and discourse which treats learning about race and anti-racism as unsuitable for children in schools (Exum, 2021), children are already working to develop knowledge about race and ethnicity (Park, 2011). Students try out ideas about racial identities and racialized vocabulary in schools (Iruka et al., 2020; Van Ausdale & Feagin, 2001), experience racialized curriculum (Busey & Walker, 2017; Ighodaro & Wiggan, 2010), and engage in community and family racial socialization (Bartoli et al., 2016; Jones et al., 2020; Nash et al., 2017). However, little research exists chronicling the specific strategies that young children use to try and learn about race in a supportive classroom context. This presentation highlights the ways in which using an adapted form of video-cued ethnography (VCE) enabled the researcher to explore the strategies children in two early childhood classrooms used to learn about race on a day to day basis.
I draw on sociocultural theories of learning, particularly theories about how children draw on cultural repertoires of learning, or shared traditions of co-constructing knowledge (Gutiérrez & Rogoff, 2003). Children draw on community funds of knowledge (Moll et al., 1992) in other settings outside their home or community, such as school, to make sense of new concepts or ideas.
This study took place in two classrooms in a large city in the Southern United States. Ms. Mena identified as Hispanic, and her kindergarten class included Latinx, mixed race, Asian American, and white students. Ms. White identified as Afro-Latina, and her class included Black, mixed race, and Latinx students. I used a version of VCE built upon the work of Joseph Tobin (Tobin et al., 1989) and Jennifer Keys Adair (Adair & Kurban, 2019a). I conducted intensive ethnographic observations and collected data, including field notes, artifacts, and interviews. I then began to film the classes while continuing observations. In the final phase, I created and used short videos collected both in everyday contexts and in the three day full-day filming (per traditional VCE methodology) to conduct video-cued interviews and groups. I used an emergent approach to data analysis, particularly building upon the ideas, phrases, and questions from participants during observations, interviews, and focus groups.
In this presentation, I highlight the major categories of strategies that students across racialized groups used to build knowledge about race across the school days and how these were illuminated through VCE methods. These categories included pay close attention, choose a relevant resource, ask a question to gather information, share information/try out a theory, share your story, reference shared stories, create something, and use people as a resource. In viewing and reflecting on the video clips, teachers and students attended to which students used what strategies. They highlighted the collaborative nature of their inquiries and the importance of trusted resources, such as books and teachers, in children’s efforts to learn about race.
This presentation offers an opportunity to explore the strategies that children choose to use to learn about race and suggests ways that teachers may support children’s inquiry by creating opportunities for these strategies.

Author

• Anna Falkner, The University of Memphis