The following points from Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves (Louise Derman-Sparks & Julie Olsen Edwards, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, Washington: DC, 2009) can begin to help us understand:
Anti-bias/anti-racist education supports all children’s full development in our multiracial, multilingual, multicultural world and gives them the tools to stand up to prejudice, stereotyping, bias, and eventually to institutional “isms.” Click here to continue reading…
The underlying intent of anti-bias/anti-racist education is to foster the development of children who become adults with the have the personal strength, critical thinking-ability and activist skills to work with others to build caring, just diverse communities and societies for all.
Anti-bias/anti-racist education begins in the early years. Throughout our lives, beginning in the first year of life, we all actively construct our identities in a continually evolving understanding of ourselves and others. This process occurs in specific societal and cultural contexts and is strongly influenced by the prejudice, misinformation and discrimination that stem from racism and other “isms”.
Anti-bias/anti-racist education rests of four core goals, which interact with and build on one another. The specific learning tasks and teaching strategies for working toward these goals depend on children’s backgrounds, ages and life experiences.
The Four Core Goals of Anti-Bias Education:
ABE Goal 1 Each child will demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social (group) identities.
ABE Goal 2 Each child will express comfort and joy with human diversity; accurate language for human differences; and deep, caring human connections.
ABE Goal 3 Each child will increasingly recognize unfairness, have language to describe unfairness, and understand that unfairness hurts.
ABE Goal 4 Each child will demonstrate empowerment and the skills to act, with others or alone, against prejudice and/or discrimination.
The goals of anti-bias reflect a vision of a world in which all children are able to blossom, and each child’s particular abilities and gifts are able to flourish. In this world—
All children and families have a sense of belonging and experience the affirmation of their identities and cultural ways of being.
Children and adults know how live, learn, and work together in diverse and inclusive environments. All families have the resources they need to fully nurture their children.
All children and families live in safe, peaceful, healthy, comfortable housing and neighborhoods.
All children have access to and participate in the education they need to become successful, contributing members of their society.
Turning this vision into reality requires the elimination of racism and all other institutional forms of prejudice and discrimination (e.g. sexism, classism, heterosexism, and ableism. Theorem, the goals of anti-basic education is best understood using the lens of Crossroads’ Power Analysis and Racism’s Three Misuses of Power. Having a clear analysis of the systemic/ institutional dynamics of racism and other isms, as well as their social-psychological impact on people’s development of their identities and attitudes. Greatly strengthens educator’s ability to effectively do anti-bias education goals with children. So, too, does knowledge of the developmental journey and developmentally appropriate strategies for children at each step in their growth.”
The Perry Preschool Project – nearly Fifty Years Later
“The Perry Preschool Project is one of the most famous education experiments of the last 50 years. The study asked a question: Can preschool boost the IQ scores of poor African-American children and prevent them from failing in school? The surprising results are now challenging widely-held notions about what helps people succeed – in school, and in life.”
Louise Derman-Sparks, Crossroads Trainer, former board member, and noted authority in the field of early childhood first worked in Ypsilanti, Michigan at the Perry Preschool. Ms. Derman-Sparks recently participated in the American Radio Works documentary looking back over nearly 50 years since the Perry Preschool Project’s pioneering work began.
Listen to the entire documentary radio broadcast here:
During the 1940’s, renowned psychologists Kenneth B. Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark designed and conducted an experiment in order to test the psychological effects of segregation on African American children. Kenneth Clark documented this in a paper in 1950, which was cited by the Supreme Court in the landmark Brown vs. the Board of Education decision.
In 2005, then 18-year-old filmmaker Kiri Davis re-created this famous experiment and filmed the award winning documentary “A Girl Like Me” – just click here to view Kiri’s film.
Recommended Resources
Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves
Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards, 2nd Ed NAYEC (2009)
This book may be purchased from NAYEC: http://www.naeyc.org/store/node/17122
