Disrupting Anti-Black Racism in Early Childhood Settings

A Pedagogy of Promise

Kerry-Ann Escayg, Beverly Jean-Daniel, Beverly-Jean M. Daniel

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040432242
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Developmental Psychology

This edited volume draws from a special issue published in the Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning, and Leadership in Education to explore children's perceptions, experiences, and handling of anti-racism approaches in the contexts of teaching, learning, and parenting.

Often marginalized and overlooked in the renewed vigor for racial justice is the lived experience of young Black children, with a critical focus on the unique ways anti-Black racism theorizing can shed light on innovative pedagogies and other practices aimed at improving their quality of life and early years experiences. By drawing on a diverse body of theoretical scholarship, including anti-racism and critical anti-Black racism, the authors not only bring much-needed perspectives on racism in relation to young children's daily lives but also discuss teaching and parenting practices as sites in which young children can ultimately adopt anti-racist beliefs, recognize their agency, and develop as global citizens committed to justice and racial equity. This text, one which builds on and expands the special issue, anchors Black epistemologies, focuses on the unique experiences Black children encounter in their larger social contexts as well as early childhood education (ECE) settings, and provides institutional and pedagogical strategies that center and amplify Black humanity and agency.

With a balance of conceptual and empirical chapters, the book provides a timely and interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological analysis of children and race. It will appeal to scholars and researchers working in fields across early childhood education and child development concerned with issues of diversity, equity, and social justice.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Contributors
• 1 Disrupting Anti-Black Racism in Early Childhood Settings: A Pedagogy of Promise
• 2 Using Diverse Children’s Literature to Develop a Critical Consciousness of Anti-Black Racism
• 3 Racial Vocabulary for Honest Discussions in the White Home: One Family’s Experience
• 4 Pro-Black Pedagogy in Early Years Education: A Personal Narrative of Black Motherhood
• 5 Dismantling Anti-Black Racism in Early Childhood and Care in Ontario, Canada: The Necessity of a Pro-Black Approach
• 6 Brilliant, Beautiful Children: Countering Anti-Blackness with Racially Affirming Practices
• 7 “Don’t Touch my Hair”: Young Children Resisting Anti-Black Racism with Their Classroom Community
• 8 Racial Fallacies and Erasures: A Critical Anti-Black Racism Analysis of Race and Racism in Early Childhood Education Classrooms in Ontario
• 9 “Resistance Matters, too”: Re-Theorizing Black Children’s Racial Identity
• 10 Conclusion—“What’s Next?”: Envisioning the Future of Anti-Racism by Centering the Realities of Black Children
• Index