Anti-Bias Education in the Early Childhood Classroom
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Anti-Bias Education in the Early Childhood Classroom

Hand in Hand, Step by Step

Katie Kissinger

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eBook - ePub

Anti-Bias Education in the Early Childhood Classroom

Hand in Hand, Step by Step

Katie Kissinger

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About This Book

Anti-Bias Education in the Early Childhood Classroom provides a useful, clearly outlined guide for implementing anti-bias and anti-oppression practices in early childhood education settings. Throughout the book, you'll find:

  • Stories from the field
  • Strategies for keeping teaching practices in touch with growing social justice movements
  • Tasks and questions to spark your professional growth in this important area

Katie Kissinger uses her personal experience as a longtime educator to highlight both the challenges and the potential for transformative learning in the anti-bias classroom, and gives other teachers the tools they need to create classrooms that welcome all students and families.

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Information

Publisher
Routledge
Year
2017
ISBN
9781317229803
Topic
Bildung
Edition
1

1

Getting Started: Identity Work and the Personal Journey

We used to tell people that the anti-bias/anti-oppression journey begins with transforming our early childhood classrooms. We advocated for adding more materials that reflect diversity, addressing items that represent stereotypes, and buying great new books. What we realized is that in too many circumstances those classroom transformations were the only actions taken.
The heart and soul of this journey is in the work of the human mind and spirit: It is in our day-to-day interactions with each other, adults with children, children with children, adults with adults, and in our responses when bias comes up.
This chapter will highlight the basics of the identity work that is a path towards our full humanity and can be a starting place for this life-long justice journey for each of us, for this work of the human mind and spirit, and for our work with children, families, and each other.
While we are all in this together, we start from different places. Each of us has a unique experience in life. Even children who grow up in the same family internalize different messages about who they are and who other people are. In addition, some of us are new to the exploration of the concept of anti-bias and anti-oppression education, and others have long been aware of and working to resist bias and oppression. One of the hardest parts of this journey is staying grounded in compassion for other people, rather than judging them.
In this book, I have tried to recognize three levels where people who want to make the world fairer and more just might work: beginners, allies, and activists. You will note that I have not mentioned people who do not want a fairer or more just world, or whose vision of what that entails is about exclusion, deportation, incarceration, and hate. I am guessing they will not be reading this book.
  • What does it mean to be a beginner?
    To be a beginner in this work means you are just now hearing the terms ā€œanti-biasā€ or ā€œanti-oppressionā€ education. It means you care about joining others in an effort to create a society (and a world) where every person, and especially every child, can feel safe and welcome to be who they are. It means you are open to engaging in an experience that will challenge your thinking and open your heart.
  • What does it mean to be an ally?
    To be an ally means that you are already familiar with anti-bias or anti-oppression education and that you want to do more. It means you are willing to step up, speak out, support, and challenge yourself and others more in this journey. It means you are in this for the long haul and that you recognize continuing in this life-long journey is a path to human liberation. It means you want to be an ally to others you meet along the way.
  • What does it mean to be an activist?
    To be an activist means that you have put working for social justice at the forefront of your life. It means that in the relationships, the organizations, and the institutions you participate in, you are constantly working to examine and dismantle the dynamics and impact of oppression. It means you are also always working as an ally and sometimes you are momentarily back at the beginning, and have to face your own participation in the oppression of others.
Now, many of us believe that the place to start the journey into anti-bias education is by identifying at least one person in your life who will support you in this work. Whether your support person is in your personal or professional life, they should be someone able to listen well and who is willing to tell you the truth. It should be someone caring and willing to hold you accountable.

The Parallel Process: Doing Anti-Bias Work With Children at the Same Time as We Work on Ourselves

Doing anti-bias work with children is challenging. It brings unexpected ideas and questions when you feel the least prepared. Overall, my experience working with children in this anti-bias journey has been filled with lessons about the authenticity, joy, and curiosity that children bring to this topic. It is work that fills the spirit. Working with children brings us laughter and lessons about life and liberation every day. That is the welcome component of this important parallel process.
Less joyous, but, I have to say, equally liberating, is doing anti-bias work on ourselves and the other adults in the lives of young children (parents, co-workers, and colleagues). The good news when doing this work with other adults is that it is not our job to fix other people. We really cannot do anyone elseā€™s work in the exploration of identity and internalization of bias for them. Learning that can be both frustrating and freeing. It can be frustrating that we are each 100% responsible for our own behavior, our own work in the exploration of identity and internalization of bias and practice of oppression over others. That focus is enough to keep most of us busy for a lifetime. An element of freeing news is that we do not have to be perfect. We just have to be honest and vigilant in our effort. Finally, we are all in this together. No one escapes the impact of bias, prejudice, stereotyping, and oppression. The more we can practice and have compassion for each other in our flawed but genuine efforts, the more effective we will be in creating the world we want for our children.

Identity Work

To be able to support fully the positive identity development of children, we, as adults in their lives, must examine and understand our own identity. We have to delve into the messages and socialization from which we operate on a daily basis. We have to understand the ways that we have internalized oppression and superiority in the core social identity categories of gender, racial identity/skin color, culture, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, family structure, and able-ness.
The following sections will provide a framework for working your way through the identity process, and for thinking about the core social identity categories that are the foundation of anti-bias education. In this reflective process, it is helpful to think about your earliest memories and the messages that you received in childhood regarding these identity categories. Some categories will be easier than others to recall and identify. Remember that silence, or the absence of messages and experiences in an identity category, is another form of internalization or socialization; i.e., as white people, we do not always grow up hearing people talk about whiteness. That does not mean white people do not have a racial or skin color identity, but the absence of conversations about skin color and whiteness can mean that we internalize the idea that whiteness is the norm, which can also mean putting people of color in the category of ā€œother.ā€

What Is Gender?

We will talk about this a great deal more in Chapter 5: ā€œDeconstructing the Gender Binary,ā€ but this identity category is one that is very fluid at this time in history and one that needs our attention and best thinking. In early childhood classrooms, and as parents, we have often given this simple explanation to children as they construct their identity related to gender: ā€œGirls have a vagina and boys have a penis.ā€ The underlying message here has been that those anatomical indicators are useful cues for defining gender and that other things like the length of your hair, the way you dress, or the toys you like should not define or limit girls or boys. Thanks to the LBGTQI (lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, questioning, and intersex) communities, we now have the opportunity and responsibility to reconsider the wording and the exclusion implied in this gender-binary thinking.
I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that the way I have invited people in anti-bias teaching to think about the gender identity category has been to say: ā€œThis identity category is usually one of the easiest for people to think about and recognize the messages because most of us grew up hearing and seeing pretty clear ideas about what it means to be a boy or a girl.ā€ My embarrassment comes not from the inaccuracy of that invitation, but in the exclusion of other possibilities for peopleā€™s experiences with gender identity. This is how I try to word the invitation now:
ā€œWhile most of us grew up hearing and seeing pretty clear and limiting ideas about what it means to be a boy or a girl, gender identity is much more complex. It can involve a great deal of exploration and questioning about if and how oneā€™s anatomy matches what their brain tells them about who they are.
ā€œDid your family talk about genitalia and body parts?
ā€œDid your family leave room for questioning or exploring the match between your brain and your body parts?ā€

What Are Our Goals for Children Regarding Gender Identity?

We want every child and every person to feel comfort, ease, and freedom when it comes to gender. We live in a society that begins a socializing process related to gender before birth, while embryos are still in the womb. These messages limit all of us based on many combinations and versions of cultural, stereotypical, religious, and institutionalized ideas regarding gender roles, anatomy, and sexuality. Adding to that already complex web, according to OII Intersex Network, as many as one in 300 people now identify as transgender. From the Organization of Intersex International, about 1.7% of births are intersex (Adm, 2012). It is clear we need a new way of thinking and socializing in this category. Gender-free thinking, writing, and talking encourages children to see themselves in any character and action.

What Is Race/Skin Color?

Race, and terminology to define race, is another complicated issue in our society, and one that is not separate from the long and painful history of racism in this country. Race is no longer considered a scientifically meaningful concept, and yet we cannot seem to let go of categorizing people as if it were.
One of my all-time favorite books is The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould. In this book, Gould documents the chronology and role of science in the attempt to justify the racial superiority of white people. It is an appalling history of science funded by some of the wealthiest and well-known families and corporations in the United States. The culminating premise of the book is that in spite of the money poured into the attempt to justify racism and white supremacy, none of this effort could provide evidence of any credible theory about a hierarchy of human intelligence or value based on skin color (Gould, 1981).
Yet, we cannot just discount the idea of race because, as I mentioned, it is rooted firmly into our thinking about identity. Without a doubt, people are treated differently in our society based on the color of their skin. In my work, I try to replace the term ā€œraceā€ with ā€œskin color.ā€ People come in many different colors. That affects our experiences in the world. I ask:
  • ā€œWhat messages did you get about the color of your skin?ā€
  • ā€œWhat messages did you get about people who have a different color of skin?ā€
  • ā€œDid your family talk about skin color? Yours? Other peopleā€™s?ā€
  • ā€œDo you remember being treated differently because of the color of your skin?ā€
There will be much more about skin color in Chapter 3, ā€œTalking With Children About Skin Color Differences.ā€

What Are Our Goals for Children Regarding Racial Identity?

We want every child to have the language to describe their special color of skin and to have the right to live proud and free without fear of violence, intimidation, and stereotyping based on skin color.

What Is Culture?

Culture is a complex tapestry. I often define it as ā€œthe shared traditions, values, and practices that were passed on to you.ā€ It is also useful to be more specific and add:
ā€œCulture is what you eat, how you eat, when you eat, where you eat. It is how long you let a baby cry, or how tightly you wrap them up. It is what your family celebrates, how they take vacations or spend their leisure time. It is your practice of religion or non-religion. It is the kinds of work you do and/or value. It is the way you take care of your elders or how you discipline the children. It may have a strong tie to a geographic place (a farm, a country, an ocean), it may involve a language or an accent, beliefs about money and what car to drive, whether or not to talk or to interrupt or to keep to yourself.ā€
The list could go on. Every one of us is a cultural being. You cannot grow up without learning cultural messages. We do not always hold on to all these cultural teachings as we become adults and can make our own choicesā€”but we are always impacted by our cultural teachings. We see and compare our own cultural teachings with other peopleā€™s all the time, even if we are not recognizing these teachings as cultural at that moment.

What Are Our Goals for Children Regarding Cultural Identity?

We want every child and family to understand that they are cultural beings and to feel proud of the traditions, language, practices, and hist...

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