Confronting Racism at an Early Age by Jill Anderson
Article was published on August 28th, 2017
“Kids get it, even as little as the first grade. They are more likely to understand than most adults, especially white adults, where the socialization has been that if you mention race, it might get you in trouble.”
As a (white) early childhood educator working, in an urban district with many children from many different cultures and races other than white, this topic has become quite important to me. Early on in this class, having read Lisa Delpit's article, "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children", and learning about the five tenets of the culture of power, opened up a discussion on power. I am part of the group, in this society, that has power. I am an educated, white woman teaching in a classroom where the majority of my students and families are People of Color and not native born.
In this article, Jill Anderson offers five suggestions to those who want to bring a curriculum about racism to their school. Below comes directly from the article and credit goes to Jill Anderson.
- Begin with your staff and yourself. Before bringing lessons about race to the classroom, Anton and her staff focused on creating a more diverse staff and understanding different cultures. “You don’t want groups of people who haven’t examined their own bias to go off and do this work without being able to think about their own power in the situation,” she says. Educate yourself and the staff on the cultural groups within your school. Understand how culture shapes learning, and how discourse can shape or shut down lessons in school.
- Assess. Assess. Assess. Conduct an assessment to discover what you and your staff already know about race and culture. Notice staff’s response — what's the energy like, who is reluctant, and who is ready for the work. Consider consulting an organization like RIDES, which offers tools of assessment to determine where your school may be in this work.
- Identify the materials that you’ll use. Determine whether your school will use a curriculum that already exists or craft one around your specific needs.
- Consider the terms and definitions you’ll use. A big decision for elementary-aged children is around language and word choice. The Bowman School decided to use real vocabulary terms, since staff concluded that if students can learn complicated concepts like "metamorphosis," they can also learn "race," "power," and "oppression." Still, she advises figuring out a kid-friendly approach.
- Designate support staff. Remember that not every teacher will be comfortable implementing such a curriculum or determining the right words to say to students. Support staff within the school can be called upon to help when needed.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ787759.pdf
Confronting Prejudice in the Early Childhood Classroom
by Luisa Araujo and Janis Strasser
Article published 2003
"When teachers confront prejudice actively in early childhood settings, the classroom can be a place where children celebrate diversity".
How do we address prejudice in an early childhood classroom? As we talk about tolerance, understanding, and address stereotypical comments, it is imperative to first acknowledge that young children can make damning comments.
Where do children pick up on such racist comments like, "Black people are bad".
As educators we need to recognize racist comments when we hear them and then learn how to to address them in a meaningful way. It is not enough to say that is 'not a nice thing to say'. As educators we have a great responsibility to show children why that statement is wrong. We also have a responsibility to help children understand what they are saying and show them a different way.
For my TEACH OUT Project, I would like to explore this topic of racism in the early childhood classroom. In the early stages of planning out this project, I am considering interviewing an educator in an urban district as well as a a student from an urban district as well as a student who is in a class that is not culture or race diverse.
It will be interesting to see the varying perspectives of those I interview regarding the issue of prejudice in the classroom and how it is addressed. Once those interviews are conducted, I would like to discuss with our class the findings and possible course of action moving forward.
As I have mentioned, I teach kindergarten in an urban district. My school, my class, and the district as a whole, serve a diverse population. Most of my colleagues are white. I am very interested to see if the person I interview recognizes the culture of power and her place in it.
As for the children I will be interviewing, I am eager to learn of their impressions of racism and prejudices in the classroom, both from classmates and from the teacher.
I love how you have been inspired by johnson and Delpit and Armstrong and WIldman, as well as ths piece by Anderson. Taking up issues of RACE in the kindergarten classroom is a great project for you. Let's talk more about how to use interviews to get you where you hope to go. Are the interviews a space for you to learn about the status quo, or are they a place for you to teach some of the things you have learned? Either would work, I think, but we should talk about the end goals here. Great start!
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