Advancing Equity and Embracing Diversity in Early Childhood Education: Elevating Voices and Actions

Iliana Alanis, Susan Friedman, Iheoma U. Iruka, Iheoma U. Iruka

• Publisher: The National Association for the Education of Young Children
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781938113796
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica multiculturale

2022 EXCEL Silver Award Winner. Together, the voices of early childhood educators, scholars, and professionals can sound the call to advance the profession toward more equitable educational experiences, systems, and practices for all children. This book showcases many of these voices from across the field of early childhood education and invites you to think about and discuss ways you can add your own voice to that call.

Expanding on recommendations from NAEYC's "Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education" position statement, the contributors to this invaluable resource navigate difficult and complex topics and offer guidance on how to apply more equitable pedagogical practices. Grounded in theoretical frameworks and current research, the chapters look at both the history of inequity in the profession and what the future of education can mean for all children.

Inside, you'll read the voices of

Teresa Acevedo ? Jennifer Keys Adair ? Rosemarie Allen ? Garnett S. Booker III ? Barbara T. Bowman ? Dina C. Castro ? Jie-Qi Chen ? Stephanie M. Curenton ? Felicia L. DeHaney ? Louise Derman-Sparks ? Lillian Durán ? Tonia R. Durden ? Isauro M. Escamilla ? Belinda Bustos Flores ? Janelle Beth Flores ? Ximena Franco ? Mimi Gray ? Socorro Herrera ? Zeynep Isik-Ercan ? Debbie LeeKeenan ? Junlei Li ? Daniel R. Meier ? Jen Neitzel ? John Nimmo ? Iliana Reyes ? Shubhi Sachdeva ? Hilary Seitz ? Dorothy L. Shapland ? Carla Thompson Payton ? Alandra Washington ? Dana Winters ? Brian L. Wright... and many more!

Part 1 Reflections on Equity

1. Section 1: Reflections on Ourselves
2. Chapter 1 Looking Inward: Reflections from Early Education Professionals on Their Journey to Reduce Bias and Racism
3. Iheoma U. Iruka, with Anthony Broughton, Michael Gonzalez, Jillian Herink, Steven Hicks, Tamara Johnson, Jen Neitzel, Karen Nemeth, Nicol Russell, and Shannon Wanless
4. Section 2: Reflections on Our Profession
5. Chapter 2 Why History? Educating the Early Childhood Workforce for Equity
6. Barbara T. Bowman
7. Chapter 3 Quality Includes Removing Bias from Early Childhood Education Environments
8. Felicia L. DeHaney, Carla Thompson Payton, and Alandra Washington
9. Chapter 4 Being an Equity Leader
10. John Nimmo, Debbie LeeKeenan, and Louise Derman-Sparks
11. Chapter 5 Recognizing Shortcomings of a Traditional Professional Knowledge Base
12. Tonia R. Durden and Stephanie M. Curenton

This part of the book is divided into two sections. “Section 1: Reflections on Ourselves” is a collection of personal reflections from educators, NAEYC affiliate leaders, and NAEYC Governing Board members on their own experiences with bias and racism, and how they work toward equity in their daily lives. Each responded to a series of questions about their backgrounds, experiences, and methods for working toward a more equitable early childhood education system.

“Section 2: Reflections on Our Profession” is a collection of chapters that provides historical and present-day contexts for early childhood education’s role in anti-bias and anti-racist education. To begin this discussion and set the stage for the rest of the book, the first chapter in this part, written by Barbara Bowman, calls attention to how history helps to form the present and the future, and by ignoring the history one ignores the pain, trauma, and culture that make up the current experiences of children, families, and communities. For example, she provides a history of how African American English Vernacular (AAEV), or Black English, developed through the enslavement period. That is, AAEV was created by enslaved Africans who came from different tribes with different languages to help them communicate with each other. By dismissing Black English as less than disregards the pain and history of Black people and supports a deficit lens that views people speaking this language as unintelligent, though there is evidence that AAEV contains elements of many languages and is a language system (Craig et al. 2003; Washington & Craig 2002).

Reflection Questions

As you read the chapters in Part 1, we encourage you to reflect on the following questions:

1. How does history shape current and future practices in early childhood?
2. How has language changed to reflect a strengths-based perspective rather than a deficit perspective?
3. What vocabulary have educators incorporated into how they describe their teaching (such as funds of knowledge or anti-racist teaching) which reflect an evolving perspective?

References

• Craig, H.K., C.A. Thompson, J.A. Washington, & S.L. Potter. 2003. “Phonological Features of Child African American English.” Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 46 (3): 623–635. doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2003/049).
• Washington, J.A., & H.K. Craig. 2002. “Morphosyntactic Forms of African American English Used by Young Children and Their Caregivers.” Applied Psycholinguistics 23 (2): 209–231. doi:10.1017/S0142716402002035.

SECTION 1 Reflections on Ourselves

CHAPTER 1 Looking Inward

Reflections from Early Education Professionals on Their Journey to Reduce Bias and Racism

Iheoma U. Iruka, with Anthony Broughton, Michael Gonzalez, Jillian Herink, Steven Hicks, Tamara Johnson, Jen Neitzel, Karen Nemeth, Nicol Russell, and Shannon Wanless

NAEYC’s “Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education” position statement provides a blueprint for what the early childhood education system needs to do to ensure that all children have access to high-quality, culturally affirming, and sustaining early learning experiences. This position statement also underscores how the broader societal context in the United States, including historical and current inequities, shape the field and the profession, as well as the nation. It also recognizes that educators cannot address inequities by trying to “fix” children and their families; rather the work must start with individuals looking inward:

Our recommendations begin with a focus on individual reflection. Across all roles and settings, advancing equity requires a dedication to self-reflection, a willingness to respectfully listen to others’ perspectives without interruption or defensiveness, and a commitment to continuous learning to improve practice. (NAEYC 2019, 5)

One of the first recommendations from the position statement is for everyone to

Build awareness and understanding of your culture, personal beliefs, values, and biases. Recognize that everyone holds some types of bias based on their personal background and experiences. Even if you think of yourself as unbiased, reflect on the impacts of racism, sexism, classism, ableism, heterosexism, xenophobia, and other systems of oppression affecting you and the people around you. Identify where your varied social identities have provided strengths and understandings based on your experiences of both injustice and privilege. (NAEYC 2019, 6)

For this chapter, the book editors asked a group of diverse early childhood education professionals to walk us through their journey of self-reflection about their roles and approaches in ensuring a more equitable early education system by answering a set of questions. The questions were designed to help the education professionals think more intentionally about these issues. In their answers, they talk about their own experiences with marginalization and privilege, provide some information about bias and how to become aware of and counter it, and share lessons to help others in their own journeys. The book editors encourage others to reflect on these questions as they engage in this work with their colleagues, friends, and other professional groups.

A note from the editors: The contributors and their contributions, which appear in alphabetical order, provide many perspectives on what equity means. We appreciate their reflections and candor as they help us understand their culture, personal beliefs, values, and biases. We also acknowledge their continual personal engagement with this important work.

The Questions

1. What is your area of work and expertise?
2. Why are you engaged in this work? What do you see as the outcome for children?
3. How do you define equity? What do you see as the markers of equity?
4. When did the issue of equity (and anti-bias/anti-racist education) become a focus of your work?
5. Are there particular incidents or experiences that made you more focused on the issue of equity? What privilege do you have and how does it play out in your work or daily experiences?
6. What tools or strategies do you use in your work or personal life that strengthen your knowledge and behavior regarding equity (and anti-bias/anti-racism)?
7. What, if anything, do you do to strengthen equity and counter anti-bias/anti-racism in your work?
8. Are there tools, strategies, workshops, or readings that you would suggest to early childhood professionals to strengthen their knowledge and skills in this area?

The Voices

Anthony Broughton, NAEYC Governing Board member (2020) and Interim Department Chair at Claflin University, School of Education

Michael Gonzalez, President of the Governing Board of the Texas Association for the Education of Young Children

Jillian Herink, Executive Director for the Iowa Association for the Education of Young Children

Steven Hicks, NAEYC Governing Board member (2020) and Assistant State Superintendent for the Division of Early Childhood at the Maryland State Department of Education

Tamara Johnson, NAEYC Governing Board member (2020) and Executive Director of the Malaika Early Learning Center

Jen Neitzel, Executive Director of the Educational Equity Institute

Karen Nemeth, Senior Training and Technical Specialist — DLL for the National Center on Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning as part of Zero to Three

Nicol Russell, NAEYC Governing Board member (2020) and Vice President of Implementation Research for Teaching Strategies, LLC

Shannon Wanless, Associate Professor of Applied Developmental Psychology and Director of the Office of Child Development at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Education

For more information about these contributors, please see the Contributor List located in the front of the book.

Question 1: What is your area of work and expertise?

Anthony Broughton: My area of work is in equity and excellence in early childhood education and culturally responsive/sustaining pedagogies.

Michael Gonzalez: My area of work is in the early childhood field with professional development. My work began 20 years ago as a toddler teacher. My experiences as an administrator, parent, consultant, student, and educator made me who I am today and who I will become. I am now a coach for early childhood professionals in the Houston area.

Jillian Herink: Educational leadership is my area of expertise. Currently, my role is executive director for the Iowa Association for the Education of Young Children (Iowa AEYC). Prior to this position, I was the superintendent of the only Native American school in Iowa. In my educational leadership and teaching experience, I worked extensively with second language instructional practices and educational supports for least restrictive environments.

Steven Hicks: I oversee child care, mixed-delivery state pre-K, assessment, curriculum, Head Start Collaboration, early childhood advisory councils, Judy Center Early Learning Hubs, professional development and training, family engagement, early childhood systems, and Maryland EXCELS, the quality rating and improvement system. Prior to that, I served as senior advisor on early learning at the US Department of Education and was an early childhood educator for 20 years.

Tamara Johnson: My areas of work and expertise are leadership, organizational development, and empowering people, all of which focus on work with children and families.

Jen Neitzel: I am engaged in providing professional development to educators on implicit bias, structural racism, and culturally responsive anti-bias practices through a practice-based coaching train-the-trainer framework. With this approach, the system is altered in a way that practices are sustained over time, and policies can be changed to support implementation. I also have become more focused on addressing systems change through a community organizing approach in which power is shared across community members to produce meaningful change that is sustained over time.

Karen Nemeth: I am an author, consultant, and subject matter expert on early childhood education for children who are dual language learners (DLLs). My masters in learning, cognition, and development focused on first and second language acquisition. I have published more than 40 articles on this topic and more than 10 books including edited volumes, two NAEYC books, e-books for families, an app, and children’s storybooks. I currently work as the senior training and technical specialist — DLL for the National Center on Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning.

Nicol Russell: Currently, I work as a leader and researcher for an early childhood educational technology company. My expertise is in early childhood programming and policy, with a passion for supporting administrators with their implementation practices.

Shannon Wanless: All of my work focuses on the intersection between scholarship and practice. The translation from research findings to implementation can raise new issues that require the expertise of practitioners and policymakers to adapt and transform recommendations to be successful in real-world contexts serving a wide range of people. I focus my work on trying to push the world toward being a place where young children and their important adults can thrive. This means using social-emotional competence and cultural responsivity to address our collective need for humanity in schools and communities. It also means focusing on building adult capacity to see racism, power, and oppression happening in the systems they work in and to act to counter them. In Pittsburgh, like in many places, racial inequity is a major force driving the challenges children face in our city.

Question 2: Why are you engaged in this work? What do you see as the outco...