supporting conversations about race and culture in early

Supporting Conversations about Race and Culture in Early Childhood Settings Module 3: Planning Supportive Environments for Children and Families (Part 1)

Module Description:

In this module participants will begin to examine ways in which to plan supportive environments for children and families. We will begin by examining young children’s identity development (e.g. social identity relative to race). Participants will identify and discuss classroom strategies for addressing biases. Quote: “Anything I try will be unsatisfactory to someone, make someone uncomfortable, or cause conflict. But if I try to meet every possible criticism before I take action, I will be paralyzed. So I’ve got to keep moving ahead with my best thinking, learn from the results, listen to criticism, and try again.” ‐‐ (quoted in Alvarado et al., p. 106)

Module Objectives:

This module will examine ways in which to plan supportive environments for children and families and identify strategies for addressing biases. • To examine young children’s identity development (e.g. social identity relative to race), and

adult perceptions about how children learn about race • To reflect on one’s own experiences regarding children’s understanding about race • To discuss strategies and participate in activities that will challenge biases and celebrate

differences • To examine/reflect on how one’s own program addresses or talks about sensitive topics

such as race, equity, diversity, etc.

Participant Outcomes:

As a result of this professional development event participants will: • Have a better understanding of factors influencing children’s construction of racial identity • Understand how they can begin to create an environment to support intentional

conversations about race with young children and respond to children’s inquiries and biases

Length of Module 3 hours Target Audience Early Childhood Practitioners

Presentation Techniques:

Lecturette, small group and partner discussions

Pennsylvania Early Learning Keys to Quality (11/09) 1



Materials: (e.g. chart paper, markers, projector, etc.)

Paper, flesh tone markers

Video clips Black Doll White Doll [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybDa0gSuAcg&feature=PlayList&p=72513296F8BA7986&index=4(1:38 min.)

Black Doll, White Doll. [Video file]. Which one is the nice doll? [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG7U1QsUd1g&feature=PlayList&p= 55D2D10DB2BD0435&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=9

A Girl Like Me [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjy9q8VekmE&feature=related (7:15 minutes) This also includes the Black Doll White Doll experiment above

Jane Elliot 3rd grade class Blue Eye Brown Eye Jane Elliot’s A class divided [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCjDxAwfXV0&feature=related (8:40 minutes)

A class divided part 2 [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWbxv4vlHe0&feature=related (9:52 minutes)

Children’s Book (s): Kissinger, K. (1994). All the colors we are. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.

Video: Starting Small (Available from Teaching Tolerance, A Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. http://www.tolerance.org/kit/starting‐small ) ‐ Optional

Handouts:

1. Research Findings

2. Exploring Racial Identity‐ Discussion Questions

3. Exploring Children’s Racial Awareness and Identity

4. Talking About Diversity Tool

Additional Handouts (Follow‐up readings)

Lee, R., Ramsey, P.G., & Sweeney, B. “Engaging young children in activities and conversations about race and social class.” Young Children (2008, November) This article was previously distributed in Module 1.

Pulido‐Tobiassen, D. and Gonzalez‐Mena, J. (1999). Supporting healthy identity development. Excerpt from A Place to Begin with Parents on Issues of Diversity. California Tomorrow. Retrieved on May 22, 2009, from http://teachingforchange.org/files/032‐A.pdf Also available in Spanish at http://teachingforchange.org/files/032‐B.pdf

Wolpert, E. Redefining the norm: Early childhood anti‐bias strategies. Retrieved on May 22, 2009, from http://www.teachingforchange.org/node/99 An article that describes classroom and programmatic strategies that can be used to create and maintain an anti‐racist/anti‐bias environment. Some of the basic ways to help students address biases are suggested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybDa0gSuAcg&feature=PlayList&p=72513296F8BA7986&index=4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCjDxAwfXV0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWbxv4vlHe0&feature=related

http://www.tolerance.org/kit/starting-small

http://teachingforchange.org/files/032-A.pdf

http://teachingforchange.org/files/032-B.pdf

http://www.teachingforchange.org/node/99



Resources: California Tomorrow. “Addressing equity and diversity: Tools for change in after school and youth programs.” http://www.californiatomorrow.org/media/aedtakingnote.pdf Downloaded 5/22/09.

Creating a Culturally Diverse Child Care Environment, by Patreese D. Ingram, Ed.D. .provides a brief introduction describing the changing demographics of the United States, and the need for child care providers to be responsive to the diversity within their programs. A checklist is provided to critically look at how various program elements address diversity, including physical environment, holidays and celebrations with food, and assessing one's own beliefs about diversity. A helpful starting point for child care providers. http://www.teachingforchange.org/node/97 Retrieved 5/22/09

Derman‐Sparks, L. and A.B.C. Task Force (1989) Anti‐bias curriculum: tools for empowering young children. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children

Derman‐Sparks, L., and Edwards, J. O. (2009). Anti‐bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children

Derman‐Sparks, L., and Ramsey, P. G. (2006). What if all the kids are white? Anti‐bias multicultural education with young children and families. New York, NY: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.

Lester, N. Blue eyed: A guide to use in organizations. California Newsreel. http://www.newsreel.org/guides/blueeyed.htm On line facilitators guide for the following videos available from California Newsreel: Blue Eyed, The Essential Blue Eyed and The Thirty‐Minute Blue Eyed.

Van Ausdale, D., & Feagin, J. R. (2001). The first R: How children learn race and racism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

http://www.californiatomorrow.org/media/aedtakingnote.pdf

http://www.teachingforchange.org/node/97

http://www.newsreel.org/guides/blueeyed.htm

TIME/ WHO

CONTENT/ACTIVITY

MATERIALS/ HANDOUTS

10 minutes

Welcome/Objectives/Set Stage • Welcome participants • Review objectives for the module • Revisit Ground Rules Review Homework • Review “Homework” assignment from previous session

“Participants reflect on the Leading Change Effectively model and identify one component they will focus on and one action they will take to move change forward.”

• Ask for volunteers to share which component they addressed and the action they took.

• Exploring the Race Timeline at pbs.org, ask for volunteer to share one thing they learned.

Introduction We know from our previous discussions that access to economic resources, political power and cultural rights are still very much determined by a person’s membership in a specific “racial” group. Children need guidance in sorting out ideas and feelings about their own identity. They are curious and aware of skin color, hair texture, and eye shape. They pick up messages (including very subtle messages) from all around them (e.g. families, media, us as teachers, our classrooms, each other, etc.).

45 minutes

ACTIVITY: Creating Collage of Self (Individual and large group sharing) 1. Participants use materials to make a representation of themselves.

Have a variety of materials available to make a collage (e.g. flesh tone markers, yarn and pipe cleaners, etc.)

2. Allow time for each person to introduce themselves with created representation. Introduction should include description of race, hair color, and skin color.

Feedback What processes where you thinking about when you made your selections for your presentation?

If you did not find materials that matched well or was a good representation, how did you make a decision about using another color or material, texture?

MATERIALS:

Variety of materials (e.g. markers, yarn and pipe cleaners, multi‐cultural markers, etc.)





TIME/ WHO

CONTENT/ACTIVITY

MATERIALS/ HANDOUTS

What if you were to do this activity in the classroom and a child

creates a representation that clearly does not seem to represent them? What do you do? Why do you think this is? What messages does this send to you?

FACILTATOR NOTE: One goal of this exercise is to raise awareness of what we as teachers have available as materials in our programs and the messages this may send/represent to children and families.

15 minutes

LECTURETTE: How Children Develop Racial Awareness and Identity

We know that the realities of prejudice and discrimination affect children’s development early and is, therefore developmentally appropriate to address them with young children. Learning about social and personal identity begins with ones own family and is also influenced by the larger society through friends, books, movies, advertising, television, etc.

Derman‐Sparks (2009) suggests four interacting factors affecting each child’s racial identity journey:

1. The larger society in which they live

2. Their families and other significant people

3. Their individual life experiences

4. Their stage of cognitive development

Children are trying to make sense of the messages they receive from people outside their families along with the lessons they are learning from within their families. Personal identity vs. Social identity

Personal identity ‐ name, age, place in family, talents, interests Social identity ‐significant group categorizations assigned to us by others (e.g. race, ethnic, culture, religious, etc.); often carries legally specified definitions, rights and limitations.

Facilitator can reference exercises in previous modules (Multi Cultural Circles, Historic Perspectives and White Privilege) to illustrate this as well



TIME/ WHO

CONTENT/ACTIVITY

MATERIALS/ HANDOUTS

3 & 4 yr‐old study of physical characteristics (Derman‐Sparks, 1989)

Awareness of variations and wonder where they fit in… Skin color a frequent focus of interest Sensitive to the other children’s attitudes toward their skin color; already becoming aware of societal bias toward dark skin

Hair and eyes frequently the subject of preschoolers’ comments

Want to know how they got their color, hair and eye characteristics Sometimes will verbalize interesting theories of their own

Aware that getting older brings physical changes and they wonder if skin color, hair and eyes remain constant

Children of color, more often than White children, may verbalize not liking the color, texture, or shape of their skin, hair or eyes.

Get confused about racial group names and the actual color of their skin, and why two people of different skin tones are considered part of the same group

As their classification abilities expand, so too will understanding Important to find out from parents the term they use and what and how they are teaching their child about her racial/ethnic identity at home

HANDOUTS:

Handout # 1:Research Findings

Research Findings Regarding Racial Identity • Facilitator should lift up a few key bullet points they feel will resonate

with this particular group. Refer group to handout with research points.

FACILITATOR NOTE: Reference the Cultural Consciousness Transactional Model introduced in Module 1 (Handout 4). As with adults, young children coming into the classroom are in various stages of cultural consciousness. Need to be able to have conversations with children at all stages. This can be impacted by families and communities.

40 minutes

ACTIVITY: Discussion of Observations and Experiences ‐ Part 1 (Partners) FACILITATOR NOTE: The following two activities are designed to facilitate a discussion about:

• overt and subtle ways that prejudice undermines people of color • consequences of that behavior • to get participants to reflect on their own childhood memories

and experiences about race and to reflect on experiences they



TIME/ WHO

CONTENT/ACTIVITY

MATERIALS/ HANDOUTS

may have had with young children related to race and;

• to identify ways they can begin to take action in their classrooms

1. Video clip: Black Doll White Doll ‐ Begin by showing one of the videos referenced in the materials list

2. Ask participants to turn to a partner and have a short discussion about what they think contributes to the children’s responses.

3. Referencing the research findings, ask participants to have a discussion with a partner. Partners should discuss the following questions. Be sure to provide questions as a handout or post on chart paper :

What childhood ideas/feelings about people racially or ethnically different from yourself do you remember?

What is your earliest memory of noticing that people are different eye shapes, skin color, hair texture, etc?

Did any adults help you think about racial differences?

What messages did you get either directly or indirectly from your family, school, faith‐based settings, and media?

As a child what did you learn about talking about those differences? How do you feel talking about them now?

Feedback: Ask group to share some highlights or examples from their conversations. Prompt for responses by using the discussion questions.

HANDOUTS:

Handout # 2: Exploring Racial Identity‐ Discussion Questions

40 minutes

ACTIVITY: Discussion of Observations and Experiences ‐ Part 2 (Partners)

FACILITATOR NOTE: The facilitator should prepare the participants for the video clips by giving a short description of what they see. Jane Elliot’s third grade class exercise (1968) which illustrates inferior and superior treatment based solely on eye color.

1. Video clips ‐ Blue Eyed/Brown Eyed ‐ Begin by showing the two video

clips listed under Jane Elliot’s third grade class. The combined videos will take about 17 minutes to show.

2. Ask participants to discuss their thoughts, reactions, emotions to the clip. Then have a conversation about the following questions.

What have you heard from young children you know about racial differences? What was your response or what was the response from others (adult or children)?

Video file (s) ‐ see Materials list for link

Jane Elliot’s A class divided [Video file]. (8:40 minutes)

A class divided part 2 [Video file]. (9:52 minutes)

HANDOUTS:

Handout # 3: Exploring Children’s Racial Awareness and Identity

Newsprint/Chart Paper Markers



TIME/ WHO

CONTENT/ACTIVITY

MATERIALS/ HANDOUTS

How comfortable are you talking about this topic with children?

What makes you uncomfortable?

What would help you respond appropriately? Are there things you wished you understood better?

What actions/ activities can you take to support an accurate understanding of race?

Feedback: Ask group to share some highlights or examples from their conversations. Prompt for responses by using the discussion questions. Record responses to these two question on newsprint.

To get at strategies be sure to prompt for:


What are some strategies that we can employ to help children learn about physical differences; foster critical thinking and respectful relationships

20 minutes

ACTIVITY: Talking About Diversity You have spent time exploring feelings about talking about race with children. In order to create supportive environments for all children and families we also need to explore We also need to think about how we address (or not) issues of diversity in our programs (with peers and families). How do we deal with them or not.

1. Complete “Talking About Diversity Tool” individually

2. Individuals then have dialogue with a partner about their perceptions about how easy it is to discuss issues of diversity (reference completed tool).

3. Large group discussion: Facilitate discussion about ways of enhancing organizational dialogue on issues related to equity and diversity. Facilitator needs to remain sensitive to the staff member’s concerns and emphasize the importance of honesty and clarity when speaking about the checklist. Record on newsprint and record answers to the last questions (strategies).

Overall, what issues related to equity and diversity do you feel the adults in your program and organization can talk about best?

What topics are hardest to raise? For areas that are hard to raise what gets in the way?

• People afraid to talk about issue

HANDOUTS

Handout # 4: Talking About Diversity Tool

Newsprint/ Chart Paper

Markers


TIME/ WHO CONTENT/ACTIVITY

MATERIALS/ HANDOUTS

• People don’t really understand issue or see

anything that needs attention • No shared sense of urgency or importance about

dealing with issue or addressing needs/problems related to them

• We don’t agree on what should be done • People don’t believe that an early learning

program can make a difference in addressing these types of challenges

• People don’t believe change can happen on these types of issues within program or organization

• Other (specify) What has been your experience with these diversity issues with co‐workers and families?

Which of these were you most comfortable talking about? Which created the most discomfort? Why do you think this is and what can we do to facilitate the conversation?

FACILTITATOR NOTE: This activity may not be able to be completed in the timeframe of this module. It can be started and discussed at he beginning of Part 2 or it can be introduced at the beginning of Part2. Conclusion Even though we may have experienced prejudice/oppression first hand in other areas (sexual discrimination) does not translate to racism but oppression of any group has a negative impact on all of us.

10 minutes

Closing/Homework:

What we have done today is to continue to build our SKILLS in the Leading Change Effectively model. This takes time and practice and courage.

• Read Children’s Book: All the Colors We Are

Homework (Options) Reflect on the skills acquired and skills needed for increased comfort in supporting discussions about race and what resources you think are needed.

Identify one thing you will do differently related to having conversations about diversity (race) with children and colleagues. Who will you enlist to assist you?

Chart ideas to improve communication— what things are going well…


Supporting Conversations about Race and Culture in Early Childhood Settings Handout #1 Module 3: Planning Supportive Environments for Children and Families (Part 1)

Research Findings Regarding Racial Identity1

• Van Ausdale and Feagin (2001) found that white children often commented on the race of children of color in a limiting negative way. In contrast, they observed only a couple of instances of children of color using race to exclude white classmates.

• All children in this society learn at an early age that, generally whiteness is privileged and darkness is not privileged based on a continuum created in the 1600’s and 1700’s which assessed white as civilized and privileged and black as uncivilized and not privileged.

• Dark skinned children are regarded as devalued members of society by its youngest members even other dark skinned children.

• The system of racism in U.S. society is something that people, including children are confronted with in their every day lives. For children of color in particular, this is a hard, harsh reality and is realized in every day practices and actions of other people, including white teachers and other children.

• Van Ausdale and Feagin (2001) cite Holmes (1995) research that for the most part white children have little interest in racial groups and have given racial concepts little thought. They see themselves as the norm and racial groups who are different as “others”.

• African American children experiment with and call attention to actual variations in skin hue, while most white children tend to abstract the contrasts in Blackness and Whiteness with less attention to the actual variability in skin color.

• The research on literature on children’s documents how interactions and collaboration in children’s learning activities do not involve agreement on all issues. This can cause researchers to abandon the issue of race in discussions.

• Despite some progress in the 1960’s, U.S. society remains intensely segregated across color lines. Whites and people of color do not occupy the same social status, and this very visible fact of American life does not go unnoticed by children.

• Van Ausdale and Feagin (2001) state that the cultural language of race and racial hierarchy is conveyed to children by adults, children internalize these ideas most thoroughly when they implement them repeatedly in their own actions and interactions with other children and with their adult caregivers.

• Children must learn the hierarchical racial order. Playing the inferior in relationships constantly creates problems for adults and children’s self‐esteem and self‐identity. Children of color must constantly develop and maintain a healthy sense of themselves against the larger society that tells them repeatedly that they are inferior.

1 The following are excerpted from: Van Ausdale, D., & Feagin, J. R. (2001). The first R: How children learn race and racism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Pennsylvania Early Learning Keys to Quality (11/09)


Exploring Racial Identity‐ Discussion Questions2 With a partner and using the following questions to guide your conversations, discuss your own experiences regarding racial awareness and identity.

1. What childhood ideas/feelings about people racially or ethnically different from yourself

do you remember?

2. What is your earliest memory of noticing that people are different eye shapes, skin color, hair texture, etc?

3. Did any adults help you think about racial differences?

4. What messages did you get either directly or indirectly from your family, school, faith‐based settings, and media?

5. As a child what did you learn about talking about those differences? How do you feel talking about them now?

2 Questions excerpted from Derman‐Sparks, L., and Edwards, J. O. (2009). Anti‐bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Pp. 79.



Exploring Children’s Racial Awareness and Identity3 With a partner and using the following questions to guide your conversations, discuss your own experiences with young children and regarding racial awareness and identity.

1. What have you heard from young children you know? What was your response or response from others (adult or children)? How did you feel?

2. How comfortable are you talking about this topic with children? What makes you uncomfortable?

3. What would help you respond appropriately? Are there things you wished you understood better?

4. What actions/ activities can you take to support an accurate understanding of race?

3 Some questions are excerpted from Derman‐Sparks, L., and Edwards, J. O. (2009). Anti‐bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Pp. 83.




Talking About Diversity Tool (Adapted from California Tomorrow) Complete this tool individually. Once complete, have a conversation with a partner about your responses.

DO THE ISSUES GET RAISED AMONG ADULTS IN YOUR PROGRAM?

IF THEY DO GET RAISED, WHAT HAPPENS?

ISSUES Not talked about in

the program Raised by/with staff Raised by/or with

families Met with silence, disinterest, or resistance

Good discussions but no action

follows

Good discussion and action follows

cultural experiences and differences

race and racism

class/ economic diversity

language diversity and bilingualism

sexual orientation and family structure

gender and gender equity

physical, mental and learning disabilities

other (specify)

Supporting Conversations about Race and Culture in Early Childhood Settings Optional Activity Module 3: Planning Supportive Environments for Children and Families (Part 1)

Optional Activity: Facilitator Instructions ACTIVITY: Scenarios

1. This activity is an alternative activity to the ACTIVITY: Discussion of Observations and Experiences.

2. Participants review and discuss scenarios of children’ interactions and comments regarding race. Use Handout #5: Scenarios

3. Participants answer the following questions for each scenario:

How do you feel when you hear this?

What do you say?


What have you heard from young children you know?

What childhood ideas/feelings about people racially or ethnically different from yourself do you remember?

4. Prompt for: activities that can demonstrate accurate understanding about race (e.g. color does not wash off, difference is okay, etc.)

ACTIVITY (OPTIONAL) #2: Starting Small Video

1. Show film: “Starting Small.” Be sure to preview for selected sections demonstrating activities/ strategies that can be incorporated into classroom. The film (DVD) and resources are available for free from Teaching Tolerance. www.teachingtolerance.org


http://www.teachingtolerance.org/


Optional Activity: Scenarios Review the scenarios below and respond to the following questions for each scenario.

How do you feel when you hear this? What do you say? What actions/ activities can you take to support an accurate understanding of race? What have you heard from young children you know? What childhood ideas/feelings about people racially or ethnically different from yourself do you remember?

Scenario 1 Carla, a three year old is preparing for naptime. She picks up her cot and carries it to the other side of the room. When asked by the teacher why she is moving it she replies, “Because I can’t sleep next to a nigger.” Carla points to Nicole a four year old child on a cot nearby. “Niggers are stinky; I can’t sleep next to one.” 4 Scenario 2 A 2 ½ year old Asian child refuses to hold the hand of a Black classmate. “It’s dirty,” he insists. At home, after bathing he tells his mother, “Now my hair is white because it is clean.” Scenario 3 A preschool teacher shows a magazine picture entitled, “Brides of America.” All the women are White. She asks, “What do you think about this picture?” Sophie responds, “That is a silly picture. My mom was a bride and she is Mexican.” Scenario 4 Donald, 4 ½ years old is playing at school with his Lego set says to the teacher, “Why are all the Lego people White? 5 Scenario 5 Sharice is a three year old African American in a preschool classroom. There are two dolls in the dramatic play area one White and one Black. She is pretending to pick up her baby from school but when she goes for the baby, the White doll is taken. She refuses to pick up the Black doll insisting, “That is not my baby. That baby is bad. Where is my good baby?”

4 Excerpted from Van Ausdale, D. and Feagin, J. R. (2001). The first R: How children learn race and racism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 5 Scenarios 2, 3 and 4 adapted from Derman‐Sparks, L. and A.B.C. Task Force (1989) Anti‐bias curriculum: tools for empowering young children. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.



Additional Handouts and Follow‐up Readings

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Supporting Healthy Identity Development Excerpt from A Place to Begin:

Working With Parents on Issues of Diversity

By Dora Pulido-Tobiassen and Janet Gonzalez-Mena – California Tomorrow (1999)

Why is a Positive Sense of Identity Important? As people working with parents from many backgrounds, it is essential that we understand why all children need to develop a healthy sense of their group identities---and the particular challenges and difficulties of achieving this when facing families whose structures, languages, national origins and skin colors are targets of prejudice. A positive sense of identity is crucial to the development of self-esteem and confidence. Children who feel worthy and capable are more likely to be optimistic and to do well in school. A healthy sense of identity also helps children to be more open to people from other backgrounds because they are less likely to fear differences or put other children down to feel better about themselves. A strong and positive feeling about their parents and grandparents helps children feel safe and confident about themselves and their roots. Having a sense of group identity as well as personal identity also helps a child feel a sense of belonging. Group identity is constructed in many different ways. Identity can come from belonging to a community based on religion, political or social values, shared language, ethnicity or national origin. It can even be a community based in part on the shared experience of being targets of racism. A group identity can come from whatever the child’s family considers important in defining who is “like us.” When children are of a group that others value less, creating a strong and positive group identity is particularly important for providing them with resiliency and moral support for challenging the biases they may face in that larger context that devalues them. How and When Do Children Develop an Identity? The Power of Racism “Children learn to know themselves in relation to opportunities and limitations in their social world.

Race and color, in particular, remain unavoidable issues in identity formation.” (Frazier, 1941)

Retrieved on May 22, 2009, from http://teachingforchange.org/files/032-A.pdf

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Parents and those who work with them may not always realize how early children begin developing a sense of differences based on race, culture and language. The process of forming an identity begins at birth, as children absorb who they are from those around them. In the first few hours they can tell one smell from another, one voice from another---and they prefer their mother’s. Attachment is part of the process of identity formation. As infants grow emotionally close to certain people, they associate them with how those people smell, touch, sound, and are able to recognize their “special people” early on. After several months, children come to distinguish “strangers.” In the process, babies become astute observers of differences and similarities. When infants engage with others, they receive messages about who they are from others’ reactions. They develop their sense of being valued and being cared for from those interactions. They begin to imitate and later identify with others in their lives. In diverse families and communities, children come to expect a degree of variation in how people look, feel and sound, viewing such variation as normal. They understand their world is comprised of both high and deep voices, dark skins and light ones. Children spending their early years in more homogeneous families and communities come to associate the human face, voice and touch with a particular skin color or tone. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence of very young children reacting to racial differences when they first encounter them. For example, Robin arrived from Hong Kong at 23 months of age. She showed no anxiety around Asian or white people, in the airport or at home. But when she first met her African American doctor, her eyes opened wide with shock. It seemed that this was the first Black person Robin had seen in her life. By age three, children can put their reactions to skin color into words (Goodman, 1964). They not only notice their own, but they mention how theirs is different from that of other family members or friends. As children enter their preschool years, they express curiosity about all kinds of differences. Just as they learn about differences between colors and shapes, they also are starting to categorize people. Three – and four – year – olds talk about physical differences between themselves and others, between boys and girls and among skin colors, hair textures, and eye shapes. They also soon become aware of differences in language, in family make-up, and in what happens in each others’ homes. By the time they are in the early grades, children have begun comprehending racial differences consciously (Goodman, 1964)/


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The development of children’s identity is tied to all of this observation. As soon as they begin to talk, the questions may start to flow, revealing the very concrete terms in which they think:

? Grandma, how come our skin is darker than the neighbors? ? If I don’t speak Spanish, can I still be a Mexican? ? What part of me is Black and what part is white? ? Why am I “Black” if my skin is brown? ? I want to have eyes like Miyoko’s. If I learn Japanese, will my

eyes change? How children learn to appreciate differences depends on the social meaning attached to them. Do other people react as if those differences are important? Do other people react to differences by switching their behavior? Differences in eye or skin color, for example, can simply become a category of human variation. When children feel an uncomfortable reaction, they become alerted to the negative significance some people put on their differences. Thus they learn to see that “I’m Black” is significant. This shapes identity. As they grow, children become more and more aware of how they are viewed by others. Even early on, they begin to learn about how others view people like themselves form the messages they receive from television, books, magazines, photographs, and artwork. In their day-to-day lives, children who regularly see people who look like themselves in important, powerful positions gain confidence and a sense of possibilities. But children constantly bombarded with images portraying people from the same background in a negative light or as inferior, start to dislike who they are (Derman-Sparks and the ABC Task Force). Children may start to reject what they have been taught by their parents if they find that what they do at home is never mentioned, or worse, is considered strange by other children and adults. They may refuse to speak their home language, eat certain foods, wear certain clothes, or follow certain religious practices. They begin to compare their appearance or life with that of others. They start to express concerns about being different.

? Miki comes home saying, “Mom, I don’t want to eat with chopsticks any more. The kids laugh at me.”

? Alex has been in a pre-kindergarten program for two weeks. One evening he refuses to speak in Russian with his parents (the only language they understand). “I don’t speak that way anymore”, he


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insists. “The teacher says it’s not okay for me to speak Russian at school.”

These moments inevitably occur with children whose language, skin

color or cultural behaviors are reflective of groups that are devalued in this society. It is essential that families be able to provide a sense of positiveness about their race, language, nationality and skin color. Children need to be reassured that differences are fine. Parents, and those who work with them, need to find ways of bridging the norms, attitudes and ways of doing things in children’s multiple worlds---and counteracting the demeaning and harmful messages. Is the process of forming a racial or cultural identity the same for all children? Not really! In our society, racial and cultural identity formation is almost always tainted by deep racial divides and active racism. Children learn early on that their skin color makes a difference in how they are treated, that they are “like” others with their same skin color. Overall, white children and children of color actually learn who they are racially quite differently. This is partly because white people traditionally hold a place of power in our society. White children learn to take for granted that they “belong” in this society. Meanwhile, children of color are targets of discrimination and oppression that ensnare them in an onslaught of messages abut their lesser worth. Whatever your background, as someone who works with parents, you need to be aware of how children sense of self can be shaped by experiences in the world based on their race. The goal is to help ALL children develop a strong, positive sense of themselves.

*Reprinted by the Early Childhood Equity Alliance with permission from the authors and California Tomorrow*


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APOYANDO EL DESARROLLO DE UNA IDENTIDAD SANA Resumen de Un Lugar para Empezar con

los Padres sobre Temas de Diversidad

Por Dora Pulido-Tobiassen y Janet González-Mena – California Tomorrow (1999)

¿Cómo desarrollan los niños blancos un sentido de identidad? Los padres blancos, y aquellos que trabajan con ellos y con sus hijos e hijas, no siempre se dan cuenta que los niños blancos también necesitan desarrollar una identidad racial positiva—una que no recaiga en ver a los blancos como una raza superior a otras razas. Precisamente como los niños y niñas de color que reciben mensajes negativos acerca de quiénes son con base en el color de su piel, los niños blancos reciben mensajes que pudieran llevarles a creer que ellos son “normales,” sin color, sin raza. Ese mensaje aparentemente neutral puede despistarlos y llevarlos a pensar que ser blanco es lo normal y por lo tanto inherentemente mejor. Pero un fuerte sentido de identidad racial no debería de ser basado en comparación—crece del sentimiento de confianza y de autovaloración, un orgullo basado en quién es usted y de lo que es usted en lugar de venir de un sentimiento que usted es mejor que alguien más. Los niños y las niñas blancos(as) tienen un sendero mucho más fácil cuando se trata de adquirir un sentido de identidad y de sentirse bien acerca de quiénes son (Derman-Sparks y la ABC Task Force). La mayoría de ellos se ven así mismos y a su gente reflejada en todas partes. Su identidad puede venir tan fácilmente que ninguno ni siquiera lo piensa. El mensaje es, “el blanco es lo correcto.” A menos que les ayudemos a los niños blancos a pensar de diferente manera, ellos pueden crecer considerándose a sí mismos como correctos, normales, regulares—y a todos los demás como “diferentes.” Ellos pueden tener una noción de superioridad merecida, aunque nunca se les haya enseñado directamente que ellos son mejores que la otra gente. A pesar de tener padres que tratan de enseñarles que toda la gente es igual, desafortunadamente los niños y niñas no siempre ven este mensaje reflejado en el mundo. Por ejemplo, mamá puede decirle a Chloe que toda la gente es igual, pero tratar a la mujer afro americana que limpia la casa como una pieza de amueblado. Cuando las palabras de los adultos están en conflicto con sus acciones, los niños reciben un doble mensaje confuso (Derman-Sparks y la ABC Task Force). Aún cuando las familias blancas sinceramente valoren la equidad y tengan amistades con gente de diferentes

Retrieved on May 22, 2009, from http://teachingforchange.org/files/032-B.pdf

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tonos de piel, sus niños blancos aún están expuestos a los mensajes racistas de la sociedad. Se debe de ayudar a todos los niños a entender y a contrarrestar el sentido de superioridad de la “blancura” que se comunica en el mundo. Estas clases de lecciones tempranas causan estragos en la formación de identidades sanas para los niños blancos. Ellos pueden crecer a ser adultos que son ciegos a la realidad y al papel que ellos desempeñan en crearla. Los adultos blancos que piensan de sí mismos como “normales” y “regulares” pueden argüir que ellos no tienen cultura o etnicidad, cuando en realidad toda la gente vive en contextos particulares que incluyen tanto cultura como etnicidad. Si usted no cree tener una cultura, usted no puede ver la parte que juega en dominar a otras culturas. Cuando la familia está consciente de los temas de la identidad blanca, ellos pueden enseñar el camino ayudando a su hijo o hija a desarrollar una identidad blanca sana y un fuerte conjunto de valores antirracistas que son básicos para “quienes somos”. El problema es que la mayoría de padres no se han adentrado en sus propias actitudes. No han logrado abordar el problema de los mensajes no hablados con los que crecieron ellos mismos. Poca gente blanca se llaman a sí mismos sostenedores de la supremacía blanca, pero salvo que ellos deliberadamente contrarresten la opinión que “lo blanco es lo correcto” del mundo que es tan fácil de absorber, los adultos les mandan mensajes inconscientes de superioridad blanca a los niños. *Reimprimido por Early Childhood Equity Alliance / la Alianza para la Equidad Infantil (RootsForChange.net) con permiso de los autores y de California Tomorrow* Traducido por Maria Antonieta Renoos

Retrieved on May 22, 2009, from http://teachingforchange.org/files/032-B.pdf

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Redefining the Norm: Early Childhood Anti-Bias Strategies

by Ellen Wolpert

It is often assumed that young children are unaware of racial differences and that

they do not discriminate on the basis of gender, relative wealth, ethnicity and

other characteristics. In fact, young children do notice differences. They quickly

learn from their environment to attach values to those differences and to mimic

the dominant society's discriminatory behavior unless those biases and behaviors

are challenged. Children need help in recognizing and challenging bias rather

than internalizing it.

A multicultural/anti-bias approach can help students learn to place a positive

value on those differences and to treat all people with respect. It can nurture the

development of positive self identity and group identity in not only the students

but also the staff and families. Education by itself cannot eliminate prejudice or

injustice. But the application of an anti-bias approach in the early years can help

children to develop:

- pride in who they are;

- respect for others and the ability to interact with many different

perspectives and to solve problems cooperatively and creatively;

- critical thinking skills and the ability to recognize bias and injustice;

- the commitment and ability to act against bias and injustice individually

and in cooperation with others.

In this article I will describe some of the strategies that can be used to create an

anti-racist/anti-bias environment. Many of the ideas have been implemented at

the Washington-Beech Community Preschool, where I have worked as Director

since 1985. Some of the basic ways to help students address biases are listed

below.

Retrieved on May 22, 2009, from http://www.teachingforchange.org/node/99

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- Continually reevaluate ways to integrate an anti-bias approach into all

aspects of the program.

- Watch for bias in the environment that children encounter and listen to

their comments. Gather materials that contradict the stereotypes and

makes the invisible visible. Make comments that contradict statements of

bias.

- Ask questions to develop critical thinking.

- Create opportunities to make comparisons between stereotypical images

and a variety of real images.

- Create opportunities for problem-solving: what would you do if?

- Take action to protest bias.

We begin by focusing on the children, families, and staff represented in our

programs. With them at the center, we expand outward. We start with activities

that encourage children to share who they are - drawing and talking about their

lives, supporting positive feelings about one's self, family, race, culture, and

community. Children make comparisons among themselves, looking at the ways

they are both similar and different. They learn that different is OK. This creates

the foundation for respecting and valuing differences beyond their own families

and communities.

One technique we use is to create interactive materials using pictures mounted

on mat board, blocks and wooden tubes. Central to the picture collection are lots

of photographs of the students themselves. Used in games, children interact

with the pictures and discuss the anti-bias information while they simultaneously

develop a wide variety of cognitive skills such as reading, printing, developing

descriptive language and vocabulary skills, counting, comparing, classifying,

developing visual memory, etc.


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The pictures also reflect the true diversity of our society. The images are

selected to challenge prevailing stereotypes to which students are exposed.

There are many primary areas of bias that permeate our environment that we

can directly acknowledge, discuss and challenge on a daily basis including race,

age, physical abilities, physical characteristics, gender, family composition and

sexual orientation, economic class, ethnicity.

Classroom Strategies

The following are some anecdotes from our work and lessons we have learned

about addressing specific areas of bias.

Race

Many teachers believe that preschool-aged children do not notice race. One

teacher was surprised when she showed a White 4-year-old boy a picture of a

young Black man. The boy said, "He's a robber cuz he has a brown face like a

robber..." Clearly the boy had been affected by TV news and stories repeatedly

linking Black men to crime. She knew then she would have to develop anti-racist

strategies. The teacher collected positive images and used them for learning

games and discussions (see Photo Picture Cards following this article.) The

teacher asks students, "Can you describe the people in these pictures? What

skin color do they have? What are they doing?" Using a picture of an African

American man teaching his son to ride a bicycle, the teacher refers specifically to

skin color and the positive activities. The teacher asks: "What color skin does

this man have? What is he doing in the picture? Is it like anything that happens

in your family?"

In Disney's The Lion King, the destructive hyenas have black or dark skin.

Scarface, the mean lion, has a black mane. After the movie a young child says,

"Black people are bad, they are bad in the movie," even though there are only

animals in the movie with human voices. Racial and other forms of bias require


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more than an immediate response when hurtful incidents happen. We need to be

proactive. Examining books and other media one can see how often the villain in

children's stories is Black or dressed in black. One can assist children in

recognizing this use of color and to challenge rather than internalize it. Also,

purchase and create stories in which people of color are important positive

characters.

Heroes should be redefined as people of all races who do daily heroic things like

helping a friend or helping to bring neighbors together to build a community

center. It is important for children to recognize that heroes reside in their

families and in the community.

Children need to learn about White people who have taken a stand against

racism. This teaches them the concept of solidarity. White children learn that

instead of feeling guilty about racism, they can choose to work against it.

Children at Washington-Beech listened to and discussed the following text from a

story about two miners: “In the morning they were clean as snow... but by night

time they were black as soot, dirty as pitch."

The students and their teacher wrote a letter to the author to protest the

negative use of black in the story and the assumption that cleanliness is white.

A White child, new in class, looked at a Black child and said, "She's still dirty. She

didn't wash good." In response one can do lots of skin color activities. Bring

black and white dolls to the water table and ask, "Does the color wash off? Is the

doll dirty? Are all things that are dirty black or brown? When you make

playdough and get the white flour and water all over your hands, are your hands

dirty?" Make lists of beautiful things that are black and brown. Mix paints to

match the students' and teachers' skin colors. In one class a child complained,


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"She won't let me play cuz I'm brown." The teacher intervened: "Saying Shade

can't play because her skin is brown hurt Shade's feelings. It wouldn't be fair to

say you can't play because your skin is beige. I can see you both want to play

with this game. Let's think together of a different way to solve the problem."

Age

Observing children at play quickly reveals many of their stereotypes. For

example, their assumption that the elderly are all physically weak is reflected

when a child bends over, uses a stick and walks slowing, saying, "I'm old." To

broaden their understanding, share a variety of visual resources which

demonstrate that people with canes are not all elderly, inactive or unable to

contribute. Share pictures of a young man with a cane playing basketball, an

elderly farm couple harvesting a crop, or an older woman playing sports. Invite

older friends and relatives to share some of their experiences.

Physical Abilities

- Instead of simply contradicting the misinformation, ask questions to develop

critical thinking. For example, if a child says, "People in wheelchairs can't be

mommies and daddies," ask "Do you think that could be a stereotype?" Suggest

simple research, "Let's look through our stories and picture collection and see if

we find mommies or daddies in wheelchairs." You could find pictures such as a

single mother in a wheelchair washing her infant son or a mother and father,

both in wheelchairs, pushing their daughter in a baby carriage. Ask questions

like: what is this woman doing to take care of the baby? Do you think she could

be the baby's mommy?

- Provide crutches for the dramatic play area and borrow (or rent) a wheelchair

to test getting around the room. Make group decisions on how to rearrange the

room to make it more accessible to people with diverse physical abilities.


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- Create persona dolls - dolls with a story that stays with that doll. One of the

dolls could use a cane or wheelchair. This allows children to "interact" with

people with specific issues.

- Integrate anti-bias issues into every theme. For example, during a theme on

communication, have children learn sign language and develop respect for the

many ways people communicate.

Physical Characteristics

- Challenge bias about physical characteristics by providing diverse body type

images and supporting comments: "People come in all different shapes and

sizes."

- Share the story Fat Fat Rose Marie. Rose Marie is teased about her size. Claire,

Rose Marie's friend, stands up to the teaser. She mushes her ice cream in the

teaser's face. Ask children: "What do you think of Claire's solution?" "Are there

other ways Claire might have responded?" "Have you ever been teased like

that?" "How did it feel?" "What can you do if someone teases you or your

friend?" (Fat Fat Rose Marie is out of print. If you can't find the book, create

your own stories using puppets.)

Gender

- Respond to play time comments such as: "You can't be the doctor. You're a

girl!" by asking critical thinking questions such as "Do any of you know doctors

who are women?" In the next few days, introduce visual images and books that

feature women as doctors and men as nurses. In a class meeting, raise the

issue: "I remember that someone said girls couldn't be doctors. What do you

think about that? Do you think girls can be doctors when they grow up?" The

class could visit a local clinic so children can meet a woman doctor.


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- To learn about students' biases, try telling a story without showing the pictures.

Use character names that can be male or female. Have children draw or describe

specific characters. Compare and discuss why they thought certain characters

were male and others female.

- Create a matching game of people doing similar things using lots of non-

stereotypical pictures. Include photographs of children from the class. For

example, use photos of girls climbing or doing carpentry and of boys playing with

dolls or helping with cleaning chores.

- Create simple dolls for the block area by wrapping non-stereotypical

photographs of male and female workers around cardboard tubes that will

encourage both boys and girls to play and explore diverse roles.

- Read stories which help children explore a range of roles for women. For

example, Dulci Dando Soccer Star is about a young girl who challenges the

doubts of the boys on the school soccer team and proves her skills as a soccer

player.

- Play "stereotype or fact" by posing questions such as, "only boys play soccer -

stereotype or fact?" In one class a child responded saying, "That's a stereotype!

We got the book!"

- As adults, we must pay attention to our own comments: Do we complement

girls when they wear dresses but not when they wear overalls? Do we comment

on girls' appearances while focusing on boys' accomplishments? Do we

encourage boys to be involved and treat the girls as if they are involved as long

as they are watching?

Family Composition and Sexual Orientation


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- To support the diversity of families, create a picture collection of many kinds of

families beginning with pictures of the families in your class. These can be used

in a classifying and sorting game, where each child takes turns describing sets of

similar families: single-parent families, group and children's homes, two-parent

families, including families with two adults of the same gender. Adding the

number of people in pairs of family cards, a child finds a two-parent African-

American family and an extended family totaling ten people and compares that

pair to a diverse age couple with their baby and a biracial family with their

adopted children also totaling ten people.

- After hearing the story Snow White, a child announced, "Stepmothers are

wicked." To encourage critical thinking the teacher asked, “Does anyone have

anew mommy? What is she like? Do you know anyone who is or has a

stepmommy? Have you heard other stories about stepmothers that are not

wicked?"

- A child says, "You can't have two mommies." A child with gay parents is visibly

upset. The teacher intervenes, saying, "There are lots of different kinds of

families. In some families there are two mommies. People make many different

choices about who they love and who they live with." She follows up with

children's books which feature families with two moms like Asha's Mums -and

another with two fathers -Daddy's Roommate.

- In one staff group at Washington-Beech there were strong disagreements about

sexual orientation and implications for the classroom. In order to develop an

approach that would validate children's lives and our own diversity of

perspectives, we reached a compromise after several discussions. One teacher

simply could not read stories she felt would advocate for a lifestyle which her

religion strongly opposes. But, because of her deep care for the children, she

was able to reassure the child of gay parents in her class when a negative remark


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was made. It was agreed that another teacher would read stories to the students

which made reference to gay parents. This can be a difficult discussion. One of

the basic principals and challenges of anti-bias curriculum is negotiating among

diverse views to create environments respectful of difference that can be very

controversial.

Economic Class

- Children learn through television programs that one's money is what makes a

person important. Although money certainly gives a person privilege and power

in this society, we want to challenge the notion that having money makes one a

better person. In a theme on clothing, we can use the story Old Hat, New Hat to

provide an alternative message. After trying on all the new and exciting hats,

the best one is still the worn and familiar one.

- During planning for math activities: evaluate the materials. I had made

number charts from a Benetton ad book with bright colors and diverse children.

But I later realized how they reflect financial resources which are not the current

norm for my students. So I created new number cards with more diverse

clothing images. A child collecting the number two chose pictures of two

construction workers in overalls and two sisters dressed alike in red pedal

pushers and plaid blouses.

- During a theme on housing I made 4-piece puzzles of various living situations

that are inclusive of a diverse range of economic conditions including both poor

and affluent scenes from urban and rural communities.

- During a theme on special events and celebrations, use stories like The River

That Gave Gifts in which the best presents are made with love rather than

money. Place less emphasis on individual gifts and more on things that can be


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shared, like new skills children can teach each other or cooperative efforts like

baking bread for the whole group.

- Children in our classrooms learn from the media and other sources that people

are poor because they are lazy, not because the system is inequitable or unfair.

They also learn that certain occupations are better than others. In the

classroom, we can validate the contributions that all workers make to society.

We can incorporate visual images in our picture collection from calendars

produced by a labor union and pictures of people working in the neighborhood.

We can invite community workers to visit school and take field trips to see the

different jobs they do. Themes can include the contributions and concerns of

relevant workers. A theme on clothing can include textile factory workers. The

teacher asks questions that assist children to contradict stereotypes: "Do you

think the work these people are doing is important?" Children can learn about

the work of all the school staff, such as the people who work in the kitchen,

maintenance, administration, transportation, health room and library.

- Evaluate the birthday policy. Do families buy party food and favors, creating

pressure to "keep up with" the more elaborate parties? Instead children can

collectively prepare a celebration with handmade cards and decorations.

- When issues come up, respond in ways that create empathy rather than blame

for one's poverty. Children on a field trip see a homeless mother and daughter.

Back at school they talk about fairness and decide it's unfair that everyone

doesn't have a home to live in. They play counting and sorting games that

include pictures of people who are homeless and those organizing against poor

housing. They find stories about people coming together to challenge unfairness

and learn about a local organizing campaign to help people who are homeless

move into abandoned buildings. Children at Washington-Beech decided to help,

too, by making a support banner. At a monthly meeting, families and staff talked


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about the same issues and played the picture games. A parent said, "This has

really changed my own attitudes. I'll never see a homeless person as just a bum

anymore."

- Most children learn young that if you work hard you'll do well and will not be

poor. The absence of diverse images of people who are poor from school

materials means that many children will not understand the real lives and

concerns of those who want jobs but are excluded because of factors such as

gender, skin color, physical ability and runaway shops.

- Students seldom see images of people who work hard but receive wages too

low to sustain basic needs. The common stereotype of people with low incomes

is that they simply are not working hard enough. Many children will not learn to

value the contributions that a majority of workers make to our society if they

remain absent from school materials. We can value all workers by their inclusion

in materials we create.

- In a theme on food, include pictures of farmers and farmworkers. Share stories

and pictures about the work of farmworkers to protect their jobs, such as the

protests against non-union fruit.

Ethnicity

- Begin by developing awareness of and respect for the language diversity in our

own community. Adding to children's knowledge of "Head, Shoulders, Knees,

and Toes" in English, student intern Sook Hyun taught children to sing it in her

language, which is Korean. She added picture name cards in Korean to a name

photo match game. Children made Hebrew letters for an alphabet display. Angel

Child, Dragon Child is a good story for challenging bias about language. In the

story, Ut from Vietnam is teased by Raymond because of her accent. Raymond

gets to know Ut and stops his teasing. (The story has one problem which the


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teacher should address. Raymond says "I can't understand her [Ut's] funny

words." No one challenges his description of her language. The teacher can stop

reading at this point and ask students how they would respond to this comment.

Or the teacher can model a response by adding a comment from another

character in the story such as, "Raymond, does Ut speak in a way you have

never heard before? She speaks Vietnamese. It is not funny, just different from

your language."

- A child says in a negative tone, "She's Haitian!" The teacher says positively,

"Yes she is Haitian. She comes from Haiti. Did you know she can speak three

languages?" Several other children proudly announce, "I'm Haitian! I can speak

in Kreyol!"

- Create games that provide ongoing contact with images of people from diverse

ethnic groups, beginning with ourselves. We all have ethnic origins, whether

they be from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, or the Americas. The pictures

go beyond our own communities to make connections to unfamiliar people doing

familiar kinds of act ivities. Players collect pictures of people doing similar things

- Working with clay, riding bicycles, or playing on swings for example. Children

develop sorting and classifying skills while learning to appreciate ways we are

simultaneously different and alike. Children make comparisons between their

stereotypes and photographs or other information.

- A child says, "Ooh, she dresses like a Puerto Rican. Those bright colors look

funny." The teacher responds, "Are all the Puerto Ricans in these pictures

dressed in bright colors? Is it a stereotype or fact to say that all Puerto Ricans

wear bright colors?" The teacher also uses a fabric match game to point out

bright color combinations and asks, "Do we all like the same colors? Why can't

someone wear clothes with bright colors?"


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- A child brings in a restaurant place mat of a sleepy Mexican village, a childlike

man in a great big hat, a donkey and some cactus. The child, repeating a

stereotype he's heard, says, "Mexicans are lazy." A teacher asks, "Is this a

stereotype? Do all Mexicans live in sleepy villages and spend their time sleeping

under cactus?" To contradict the stereotype, use stories like Amelia's Road, or

Lights on the River about the lives of Mexican farmworkers. Provide

opportunities for additional research using photographs of Mexican cities or

Mexicans hard at work in a car factory and ask, "Are Mexicans working in this

factory lazy?" Children can see that the remark about Mexicans being lazy is a

stereotype.

Cooperative Problem-Solving

To accept diverse perspectives and solve common problems related to bias,

children need to develop cooperative skills rather than competitive ones.

Following are some strategies that we have found helpful.

Using a picture collection with pairs of artwork or textile images, tape pictures to

children's backs. They must each find another child with the same picture but

they can't see their own. The game requires cooperation, as well as observation,

descriptive language, and careful listening. By using artwork from diverse

cultures, students can also develop an appreciation for different styles and color

combinations.

We continually reevaluate activities and process. We tried musical chairs a new

way, using an idea from The Cooperative Sports and Games Book. Instead of

removing children from the game, the goal is to make space for everyone and

share the seats as more chairs are removed. When I suggested this game the

teacher was very skeptical saying, "It won't work." Well, at first she was right.

The children were used to competing with each other. But after several tries the

new way caught on and we had no more tears. Instead children were


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enthusiastically saying, "You can share this seat with me, come sit with me, you

can sit here.” This spilled over into many other classroom activities as children

felt the thrill of sharing rather than the tension and disappointment from

competing.

We choose stories about cooperation, like Swimmy in which the little fish get

together to protect themselves from the big fish. In The Streets are Free children

organize to get a playground. The stories inspire discussions about the many

ways people can challenge things they think are wrong and children apply the

ideas to their own situations. One time, children were concerned about not

getting enough food at lunch. They wrote letters to the food company and

presented them at a meeting. The food service improved.

Some stories, such as The Lorax, make it appear that social change results from

the goodwill of those in power or one individual. As described by Bill Bigelow in

Rethinking Schools (4.3), The Lorax features an industrialist who stops polluting

once he understands how harmful the poisons are to the land. The story can be

used to question whether change really happens that way and to consider

cooperative strategies by asking students: "Most company owners already know

the impact of their factories on the land, air and people. What else could the

Lorax have done? Were there other characters in The Lorax that could have

worked together to solve the problem and if so, how?"

To encourage cooperative activities and problem-solving, I created a match game

that illustrates and supports ways staff, families, and people in various

communities cooperate in daily activities and challenge injustice. The pictures

include photographs of children working together to make playdough, build a

block structure, make a mural, bake a cake. The pictures also include a

neighborhood mural about Latino concerns and scenes from a demonstration

against budget cuts that would have taken away many families' daycare.


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Developing the Curriculum: Reflection and Revision

On a daily basis, we reflect on the messages students are getting from the

environment and ourselves. For example, without thinking a teacher made the

same comment to a child she had heard when she was growing up, "Oh, don't

mix all those beautiful colors together, it will come out all brown." A child

responded, "Don't you like brown. My skin is brown." As soon as she said it the

teacher realized that her comment countered her efforts to encourage students

to see the beauty in all colors.

There is no list of the things we should and shouldn't say. It is a process of

reflective teaching -reflecting on what students are learning about themselves

and the world from our interaction with the classroom environment. Following

are some examples of how we have reflected on issues of bias and modified our

curriculum accordingly.

As educators, we go to see the most popular children's films to be aware of the

messages children are getting. For example, the opening lyrics of the film

Aladdin are: "I come from a land, from a faraway place, where the caravan

camels roam. Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face. It's

barbaric, but hey, it's home." (Protests led to changing those lines in the video.)

In the film, Aladdin the good Arab, is associated with the color white and

Caucasian features and the bad one, Jafar, with the color black and Semitic

features. We ask children to make comparisons between themselves and several

pictures of Arabs such as an Arab man reading to his daughter. "How are people

in each of picture similar and different from people in our school or in your

family?"


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Even if children don't see the big films, they're bombarded with related toys,

clothes, and advertisements wherever they go. Because it's almost impossible to

avoid, we assist children in recognizing the bias so they can challenge it.

We make mistakes along the way. We learn from them and keep trying. In one

class we made a puzzle chain that included pictures from Caribbean countries to

make the classroom more welcoming to Caribbean immigrant students. When she

saw the puzzle, a parent said, "These are great! But did you know that there are

both rural villages and cities on the islands?" We realized that our limited image

of the Caribbean as beaches and small towns was reflected in the puzzle. We

added pictures of Caribbean cities.

I loved the story of The Three Little Pigs and suggested that it could be used

during a theme on where we live because of the three different kinds of housing

it introduces. After hearing the story of The Three Little Pigs, children saw a

picture of a Yagua village in Peru in which the homes are made of trimmed tree

limbs ("sticks") and built on stilts. One child remarked, "That's a stupid house."

I realized that The Three Little Pigs implies that stick homes are poorly built with

laziness by a brother who just wants to dance and play, but brick homes are

superior, strong, and built with intelligence and hard work.

To address the students' comments, we found pictures of a man in India working

very hard in the hot sun to build a roof of sticks and the teacher asks, "Is the

person building this house lazy? Do you think the house is strong? Could it be

blown down by a wolf?" We also told a variation of The Three Little Pigs by

replacing the wolf with an elephant. To protect their homes from the elephant's

bursts of water from her trunk, the pigs in the homes of straw and sticks put

them up on stilts. But the house of bricks floods. The pig in the brick house


17

must flee to his brother's house of sticks. Students see that different materials

are appropriate for different settings and conditions.

We continue by making comparisons between houses in our own environment

and those in different countries, all built to address similar conditions. For

example, we share pictures of houses on the Massachusetts shore with pictures

of a Yagua home. Both are built on stilts, one as protection from the tides and

the other to make the most of river breezes. This begins to break down

stereotypes about the inferiority of less industrialized societies.

We develop a lot of our lessons based on comments we hear from children. For

example, a child sees a picture of a baby being carried in a basket and says,

"Babies don't go in baskets." In response we try to encourage critical thinking

and experimentation with the diverse ways familiar things can be done - such as

carrying babies and bags. Pictures are provided showing the many ways people

carry babies. Bags, poles, shawls, and baskets are available. A child tries using

her head to support the strap of a bag and wrapping her doll on her back -

learning there isn't one "regular" way but many different ways to accomplish a

task.

A teacher hears a child say, "Everybody sit like Indians." To contradict the

stereotype, the teacher uses a picture of a Navajo family in which people are

sitting in many different ways including on a couch, a chair, cross legged on the

floor, and open-legged, also on the floor. The teacher asks, "Do all Indians sit

the same way?"

A match game can be created from carefully chosen, non-stereotypical images

from magazines and books of Native people engaged in activities of daily life.

Going to school, riding a bicycle, working as a doctor, and a grandmother and her

granddaughter out walking are just a few examples. A variety of occupations


18

should also be reflected, such as a tree surgeon, a welder and a doctor. Children

find cards that are the same. During play we talk about the pictures. The teacher

asks, "Are you surprised that these Indians are skiing or playing football?" A

child says, "They're not Indians. Real Indians wear feathers." The teacher

responds, "Native people have important ceremonies called powwows when they

wear special clothes including feathers. Do you have any clothes you wear for

special celebrations?"

After several weeks of activities and discussion, a child who at first argued that

Indians "do toooo" always wear feathers and live in tepees was playing the match

game. I asked, "Who are these pictures o?" He said: "Indians." "But where are

the feathers?" I asked. He replied, proud of his new knowledge, “They're for

special ceremonies."

Working with Parents and Families

Parents and family members are important to the development of anti-bias

curriculum. At Washington-Beech we try various strategies so that parents and

families have opportunities to do the things listed below.

- Learn about the anti-bias curriculum approach.

- Experience activities children are doing in the classroom and teachers are

using in staff development.

- Learn about their own biases.

- Share their values and expectations.

- Provide input and feedback.

- Share some of their strategies for dealing with bias.

- Learn ways to support their children as they begin to challenge bias.

Following are some of the ways that we have worked with parents on anti-bias

education.


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1. Family members explore issues of bias and anti-bias curricula at regularly

scheduled family/ staff meetings. Below are two examples of activities that have

been tried in our meetings.

Example: Select pictures from a storybook or the newspaper, xerox and

distribute to small groups. Ask the groups to describe and discuss what they see.

Comparisons are then made between their perceptions and those of the actual

story.

The children's book The Streets are Free was used for one meeting. Parents

examined a picture from the book of children playing in the street. Some said

that it looked like the children were trying to make trouble and get in the way of

traffic. Others felt they were in the street because they had no other place to

play. In this particular group the need for considering diverse perspectives was

further enforced by families' direct experience. They compared the story with

what happens in regard to their own neighborhoods when "outsiders" report only

the bad things they "see" so their neighborhoods get the reputation of being full

of crime and drugs and not full of people helping each other, getting through

school, working three jobs and raising wonderful children. This activity

introduced to families how and why the school helps children recognize diverse

perspectives.

Example: During a family/staff meeting in November, we viewed a filmstrip

used both with staff and in the classroom called "Unlearning stereotypes about

Native Americans" from The Council on Interracial Books for Children.

After the filmstrip, participants played a series of games based on familiar card

games. These card games were also used with staff and in the classroom. The

cards were all photographs of Native Americans in the present doing familiar

activities such as reading to their children, playing football, doing the laundry,


20

and engaged in various occupations such as surgeon, teacher, logger, farmer.

We compared these images to the stereotypes presented in the filmstrip and

talked about where the stereotypes come from and the harm they do. Family

members were indignant that they had never learned these things in school and

that their older children were continuing to be exposed to stereotypes and "mis-

education." They became enthusiastic supporters of the anti-bias approach. We

talked about ways of supporting each other in the work to have all our lives and

histories better represented and respected in public schools.

2. Family members critique materials, books and activities that deal with themes

relevant to their own experiences.

Example: How Long to America: A Thanksgiving Story is written for young

children about refugees fleeing their country by boat and the perilous journey

they experience to get to the United States. Upon arrival they are welcomed with

open arms and celebrate their good fortune with the Thanksgiving holiday.

I shared this book with a Haitian parent to get her opinion. She felt that the

book was not appropriate as written because it did not portray the reality of the

difficult conditions making it necessary for the family to leave their home

country. Even worse, the book romanticized the families’ arrival, showing them

being welcomed when in fact many refugees face rejection. This is particularly

true for Haitian refugees whose treatment by the United States even after a

brutal coup led to international condemnation of U.S. refugee policy.

With this new knowledge, staff discussed how to edit the story by eliminating

certain pictures or text, or changing some of the words so it could still be used to

develop empathy for the difficulties classmates or community members have

faced. They searched for other stories that would present other perspectives of

the immigrant experience like Friends from the Other Side. In this book, a


21

Mexican child who has come into the United States is teased and threatened by

children here. He is then befriended by a young girl.

3. Family members tell their own stories. At family/staff meetings, family stories

can be shared as a way of:

- Learning about each other's experiences and values.

- Exploring similarities and differences.

- Thinking about our own school and life experiences and using them to

think about what we want children to learn.

- Developing our own heroes.

Example: In one group we had been struggling to deal with December holidays

in a way that would be anti-bias. We decided to do a theme on all the special

things we celebrate. We didn't want to focus on December holidays but we didn't

want to ignore them for many reasons. For example, we wanted children to learn

that not everyone celebrates those holidays and those who do, do so in many

different ways.

With families, we had a big discussion about the things we all liked and didn't like

about the "December holiday syndrome." This discussion helped people see,

from their own experiences, the reasons we had identified for not focusing so

heavily on Christmas in particular.

We asked people to share stories of other things they celebrate in their families

from homecomings to naming ceremonies to learning new things. Many of these

stories were then shared with the children as part of the theme on special things

we celebrate. A recommended book for this theme is Welcoming Babies. It

celebrates the diversity of ways new babies are welcomed into families.


22

4. Family members can provide photographs for wall displays or big books

illustrating all the different kinds of families represented in the class.

Photographs of the jobs family members do, such as women and men doing

nontraditional activities can be added to photograph games.

5. Family members can provide music. Music children hear at home can be

incorporated into classroom activities and nap time.

6. Families can provide translations of common phrases helpful in staff/child

relationships, for favorite songs, and for various theme-related words and

phrases.

7. Families can often share information about how discrimination affects them,

their children and/or their community.

Example: "He said he'd help our people but he doesn't do what he said he

would." Several Haitian children in one group cut out a photo-graph from the

newspaper of President Clinton talking to a group of people. The children

described the picture saying, "This is Bill Clinton. He's telling our people he will

help us but he doesn't do what he says he would." When family members were

told about this they came in and talked to staff about the coup in Haiti that

ousted their beloved President Aristide and its effect on families and their

children here. The discussion helped staff better understand what people were

experiencing and how to strategize for the classroom.

8. Visits to the classroom. Although it is often difficult for parents and other

family members who are working to come into class there are occasions when it

is possible.


23

Example: Developing our own heroes. One group of parents wanted to redefine

heroism from the qualities of a "superhero" to the qualities of heroes in our daily

lives. Family members and friends were invited to share "hero" stories with the

class. One grandmother came to school to share her recent success at having

gone back to school and having just received her high school diploma.

Example: "But won't she die of starvation if she goes to Africa?" A Nigerian child

and her family were planning a visit home. Children in the class who had seen

various newscasts were afraid their classmate would die of starvation while

visiting Nigeria. The child's father came to school to talk about what his home

country was like and challenged some of the stereotypes the children were

learning about Africa. I made a big book of African cities as a follow-up to his

visit.

9. Receive assistance with issues of bias.

Example: "Won't my son be gay if he plays with dolls?" A parent came to me

because her son wanted a doll after playing with dolls at school. She received a

lot of resistance from friends and family who felt that dolls for boys were

inappropriate. I asked her what kind of help she wanted from her husband in

caring for her own kids and what kind of a father she hoped her son would

become. I suggested that playing with dolls might be a way for him to practice.

Feeling much more comfortable, the parent did decide to buy her son a doll.

Later this parent was able to share her story with another parent who was

struggling with the same situation.

Many teachers fear the resistance they will get from family members as they

attempt to implement an anti-bias curriculum approach. It is true that this can

be a very difficult process. Many family members have faced similar difficulties in

trying to get teachers and school personnel to respect their race, culture, class,

gender, physical abilities, and family composition.


24

Although sometimes it is difficult sharing information and experiences like those

described above, really listening to peoples' concerns has proven to be

extraordinarily helpful. Meeting as frequently as possible, having an open-door

policy in between, and creating opportunities for small groups to talk and do

activities together during the meetings generally has ensured that people speak

up when opinions are expressed that they don't like. Parents and family

members in the program rarely all agree with each other so when there is a

disagreement there are usually adults other than staff who will argue for an anti-

bias approach.

Conclusion

Education by itself cannot eliminate prejudice or injustice. But schools and

families together can help develop proud and powerful children so that together

we can all create a more just society.

Ellen Wolpert has been an early childhood educator since 1970 and is presently

the Director of Education and Dissemination at The Washington-Beech

Community Preschool in Boston, Massachusetts. She offers staff development

and training on creating anti-bias early education environments and is available

for consulting and technical assistance. For consulting or training call: 617-522-

8778 or send e-mail to: [email protected] © Ellen J. Wolpert, 1997.

References

Altman, L. & E. Sanchez. 1993. Amelia's road. New York: Lee & Low Books Inc.

Anzaldua, G. 1993. Friends from the other side/Amigos del otro lado. San

Francisco: Children's Book Press.


25

Berenstain, S. & J. 1970. Old hat, new hat. New York: Random House Bright and

Early Book.

Bunting, E. 1988. How many days to America: A Thanksgiving story. New York:

Clarion.

Elwin, R. & M. Paulse. 1990. Asha's mums. Toronto: Women's Press.

Humphrey, M. 1986. The river that gave gifts. San Francisco: Children's Book

Press.

Knight, M.B. 1994. Welcoming babies. Gardiner, ME: Tilbury House. Call or write

for free catalog: Tilbury House, 132 Water Street, Gardiner, ME 04345 or call

800-582-1899.

Kurusa. 1995 The streets are free. New York: Annick Press.

Lionni, L. 1963. Swimmy. New York: Knopf.

Passen, L. 1991. Fat, fat Rose Marie. New York: Henry Holt.

Stops, S. 1992. Dulci Dando soccer star. New York: Henry Holt.

Sural, M. 1983. Angel child, dragon child. New York: Scholastic.

Willhoite, M. 1991 Daddy's roommate. Boston: Alyson Wonderland.

Thomas, J. 1994. Lights on the river. New York: Hyperion.


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Orlick, T. 1978. The cooperative sports and games book: Challenge without

competition. New York: Pantheon Books.

Seuss, D. 1971. The lorax. New York: Random House.

Unlearning Indian Stereotypes filmstrip by the Council on Interracial Books for

Children (CIBC). The CIBC is no longer operating. Some school or public libraries

have copies of the filmstrip which is dated but still useful.

*Reprinted by the Early Childhood Equity Alliance with permission from the author*


supporting conversations about race and culture in early

Documents