We were fortunate to have Lindsey Allard Agnamba and Je’Kendria Trahan present a webinar on Anti-Bias Approach to Early Childhood Leadership: Beyond Books and Pictures on March 23, 2016. Many of the participants had questions that we were unable to ask the presenters. They were kind enough to answer them and they are posted below. Here is a link to the recording: Anti-Bias Approach to Early Childhood Leadership: Beyond Books and Pictures, by Lindsey Allard Agnamba and Je’Kendria Trahan
Q.1. How can we help children with anti bias approach when the world around them are judgmental by their color and looks?
- Talk to children about how they feel when they are judged by their skin color or physical appearance. Validate them by allowing them to express their emotions in the ways that will help them feel better.
- Ensure that the classroom and program environment affirms the child’s skin color and characteristics (dolls, books, images, etc).
- Engage families in discussions about your shared work to create children’s positive, healthy identities, and work together to create opportunities for children to experience having their multiple identities valued in both home and school contexts.
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Q.2. How can we support teachers that fear implementing anti-bias topics for many of the reasons you mentioned?
A.2. It’s important to help those teachers verbalize what is at the root of those fears. Ask questions like: What concerns you the most about taking on this work? What do you hope doesn’t happen as a result of having these conversations? What do you hope happens as a result of having these conversations? This will help teachers feel like their concerns are being heard. If the fears bring forth anything you can address or resolve, then follow up with with an individual teacher to see how they can be supported.
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Q.3. What about a child isolated because she thinks children don’t play with her for her skin color, how can you help her?
A.3. Ask the child what makes her think that children don’t want to play with her for skin color. Have other children said that explicitly or is she feeling this way for another reason? That is the first step. If children are saying this explicitly, then an developmentally appropriate activity for the whole class about unfairness and celebrating different skin colors should help. Continuing to have conversations about equality and fairness as a whole group and with individual children will set the tone of the classroom.
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Q.4. How do the stereotypes 2 year old absorb impact or affect their own identities – if at all?
A.4. Children at 2 years old are beginning to sort out the messages they receive about their own identity, as well as others’ identities. Stereotypes, whether they are favorable or unfavorable, can shape how children feel about themselves and how they treat others. For instance, if a male child is receiving messages like, ‘boys are stronger than girls,’ then he might begin sorting all boys into the strong category (and will begin to feel that since he’s a boy, he must be strong) and all girls into a fragile category. If he’s still receiving these messages as he develops further, then he may feel more superior to girls when it comes to completing tasks that require physical strength.
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Q.5. What are the unwritten, but implicit messages which the curriculum is sending to our children.
A.5. That’s a tough question, only because there can several different messages in a curriculum that might not be visible at first sight. We recommend checking during the planning stage of curriculum implementation to see if stories and activities display unfairness to a particular group of people based on how they identify themselves.
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Q.6. Give an example of good questions to ask potential employees, please.
A.6. At School Readiness Consulting, we begin by letting potential employees know that cultural responsiveness and an anti-bias lens are crucial to have as core values. We offer examples of the work we do related to cultural responsiveness and an anti-bias approach, then we ask about their comfort level with taking on this work, as well as any additional background experience they might have in this area.
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Q.7. Do you have any books that you recommend for dealing with families that has the same gender parents with the rest of the families?
A.7. Teaching for Change has an online bookstore section that has quite a few books for children on same gender parenting. Link is here – http://www.tfcbooks.org/best-recommended/lgbtq
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Q.8. I would like to hear more about the expectation of a child understanding children’s identities, the stages of development.
A.8. Here is a great resource that explains how young children begin to develop an understanding of their peer’s identity, titled Supporting Healthy Identity Development by Dora Pulido-Tobiassen and Janet Gonzalez-Mena http://www.teachingforchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ec_supportinghealthyidentity_english.pdf
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Q.9. How can programs recruit, screen and hire qualified diverse leaders for their programs to provide a more inclusive “face” to those in power, rather than only support staff?
A.9. Leadership and staff hiring is a commitment for a program, and takes a significant level of intentionality. It is always easier to react the the applications that a program receives for a particular position, but harder to actively seek and recruit diverse leaders (and staff). Program leadership (including boards of directors, advisory committees, etc.) can seek out diverse networks through universities, job fairs, and other social/cultural/academic avenues, and use these networks to build relationships and recruit.
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Q.10. Do you have a resource suggestion that would help adults in ECE to learn personal bias and understand possible effects on children in the program?
A.10. Here is a great resource where a Native American father explains how the teacher’s personal biases impacted his son’s identity development: http://www.del.wa.gov/publications/elac-qris/docs/020315IndianFathersPlea.pdf
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Q.11. What Anti-bias components should be leveraged initially and progressively if we were to create a 5 year strategic plan?
A.11. This is something that needs to be determined with all the stakeholders in the learning community. Using the anti-bias goals and, publications authored by Louise Derman-Sparks and colleagues, and possibly expertise from a consultant or organization who has experience in assisting programs, you can determine the important initial, short and long terms steps that create a strategic plan.
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Q.12. Where does children and gender identity fit into the Anti-Bias Approach?
A.12. Gender identity development is as important as any other layer of identity development in young children. As we mentioned in the webinar, gender bias can show up in the curriculum, as well as in the implicit biases of program staff. Here is a resource that shares ways a teacher or family child care provider can prevent gender bias in young children http://www.adl.org/assets/pdf/education-outreach/How-Can-I-Prevent-Gender-Bias.pdf
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Q.13. Religion is a major factor within my service. How to i address this with young children
A.13. Look to the consensus of family members of the young children in the program to determine how to move forward with addressing religion in your program.
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