Open Discussion Forum

  • 1.  "Coronavirus Scare-Preventing Xenophobia in Early Childhood" from the Asian Interest Forum

    Posted 02-16-2020 10:47 PM
      |   view attached
    Dear members,

    Please help share this newly developed resource widely in your EC community from the Asian Interest Forum titled, "Coronavirus Scare-Preventing Xenophobia in Early Childhood. We will also save it in the open community resource folder. 

    Thank you!!

    Best, 
    Sandy Baba

    ------------------------------
    Best regards,

    Sandy Baba, Ph.D
    NAEYC Asian Interest Forum Co-Facilitator
    Education Researcher, Community Advocate,
    California AEYC Diversity Committee Member
    *Hello is a great platform for us to exchange our ideas and have conversations, lets keep sharing our ideas!
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    Attachment(s)

    pdf
    NAEYC_AIF_COVID-19.pdf   285 KB 1 version


  • 2.  RE: "Coronavirus Scare-Preventing Xenophobia in Early Childhood" from the Asian Interest Forum

    Posted 02-18-2020 06:20 PM
    Dear All, 

    Some of you indicated not able to open the statement Sandy posted, please click the link at https://fdafdaa5-78a3-4b52-a60c-bbc1ed5e8667.filesusr.com/ugd/d4e6d3_b1846f77d9d649788893934945fe2abd.pdf to access the full statement. 

    Asian American children have been bullied and assaulted <https://www.huffpost.com/entry/la-teen-student-assaulted-bullied-coronavirus_n_5e4749f4c5b64ba2974faf29?fbclid=IwAR2ND2s0IRlgF0cnyS3DbMM2U90XPmK5hzkPxgcmu3G9LaFhCJnyVn7jNko> due to fear and misinformation of the coronavirus. We have heard from our children in our school district that any child who coughs may get laughed at by their peers as a virus carrier.  While the children may find it funny to make jokes about the virus against their peers, it's the educators' role to call out inappropriate and racist behaviors. In an article written by Ivan Natividad, Coronavirus: Fear of Asians rooted in long American history of prejudicial policies <https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/02/12/coronavirus-fear-of-asians-rooted-in-long-american-history-of-prejudicial-policies/> at UC Berkeley, it described how anti-Asian xenophobia has contributed to decades of discriminatory and biased American public health and immigration policies. 

    As early childhood educators, we can help disrupt the xenophobic behaviors in our own communities and prevent history from repeating. Please help the AIF to raise awareness of the coronavirus fear and advocate for children with Asian descent!  Thank you! 



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    Shu-Chen Jenny Yen
    Associate Professor
    California State University, Fullerton
    Fullerton, CA
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  • 3.  RE: "Coronavirus Scare-Preventing Xenophobia in Early Childhood" from the Asian Interest Forum

    Posted 02-19-2020 08:14 AM
    Thank you for the information and for starting this discussion.  It's terrible how quickly and easily people resort to racism.  It may be important to give Asian children and families in our programs some extra support at this time. Children might also be nervous if they've been exposed to the news about the virus.  I'm also interested to hear if anyone is hearing children talk about this.
    ------------------------------
    Aren Stone
    Child Development Specialist
    The Early Years Project
    Cambridge, MA
    she/her
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  • 4.  RE: "Coronavirus Scare-Preventing Xenophobia in Early Childhood" from the Asian Interest Forum

    Posted 02-24-2020 08:32 PM
    Hi Aren, 
    Thank you for your support and timely response!  I hope more educators can share their thoughts with us! BBC published a video and asked children how the virus impacted them. It was really sad to see these Asian children became the target of racism. See the link at 

    https://youtu.be/n7-1HmKeqBU. It was very touching to see how Chinese children living in the UK cheered for Children in China! I wish kids in the USA would do the same thing. It might be a great opportunity to teach our children "empathy" and "kindness."  

    Two Asian girls


    ------------------------------
    Shu-Chen Jenny Yen
    Associate Professor
    California State University, Fullerton
    Fullerton, CA
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  • 5.  RE: "Coronavirus Scare-Preventing Xenophobia in Early Childhood" from the Asian Interest Forum

    Posted 02-28-2020 04:14 PM
    Thank you Sandy and Shu-Chen for sharing these resources.  At times of stress it takes the whole community to support those most stressed.  However, the stress is not isolated to just he children bullied or made a target.  Children know that they too could become targets if circumstances change.  Children are caused fear because of the media and other people being afraid.  It is so important to be truthful but positive and give children ways to cope.  Thank you for this information that we can use and share with others.

    ------------------------------
    [Cary [Larson-McKay, PhD]
    NAEYC Affiliate Advisory Council
    [Past President, California AEYC]
    [Consultant, Wonder Strength]
    [Morro Bay] [CA]member of NAEYC Affiliate Advisory Council. California AEYC Past President, Chair of Chapter Relations Committee, Chair of Inclusion and Diversity C
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  • 6.  RE: "Coronavirus Scare-Preventing Xenophobia in Early Childhood" from the Asian Interest Forum

    Posted 02-27-2020 08:09 PM
    Thank you Sandy. A twitter colleague was looking for coronavirus infection management resources and I shared this important resource there. She was grateful for that the information addressed bias and xenophobia. This is important information for our community. 

    Thanks again,
    Tonya

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    Tonya Satchell
    Johns Hopkins University School of Education IDEALS Institute
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  • 7.  RE: "Coronavirus Scare-Preventing Xenophobia in Early Childhood" from the Asian Interest Forum

    Posted 02-28-2020 07:36 PM
    Thank you, Tonya and Cary for your feedback on the document. It's very encouraging to have supportive colleagues like you to keep us going! We need feedback on our resources and what type of social justice and equity (SJE) materials members would like to have access to.

    The development process of this xenophobia prevention in the coronavirus document has helped us reflect on how to prioritize and embed SJE focus on our daily work so that it does not become an afterthought. We also want to have SJE dialogues with each other as normal, comfortable and frequent as other important ECE topics such as mealtime routines, potty training, math learning, etc.

    Thank you again for your feedback and for all you do in the field!

    Best regards,
    Sandy and Jenny



    ------------------------------
    Best regards,

    Sandy Baba, Ph.D
    NAEYC Asian Interest Forum Co-Facilitator
    Education Researcher, Community Advocate,
    California AEYC Diversity Committee Member
    *Hello is a great platform for us to exchange our ideas and have conversations, lets keep sharing our ideas!
    ------------------------------