Hi all, long and complex thread, I know, but I keep coming back to the anecdote that Alison Lutton related:
In terms of the art of teaching, I find this a fascinating prompt for a case study, and very useful in terms of Wei Dai's original request regarding building anti racism assignments into a syllabus.
This anecdote prompts discussion of a fundamental learning issue while including an analysis of racial bias, rather than segregating the study of bias as a separate issue. The ongoing learning that we start as students and never finish is to understand how a young person is thinking, how they are forming their understanding of the world around them, and how to respond in a developmentally appropriate way that gives them the information that they seek in a form they can use.
Children toss us little breadcrumbs of sentences, "Why do the black people have to stay behind?" We get clues from the setting: They were in a fast food place eating lunch and he pointed to the counter.
I would be delighted to see a robust conversation among the ECE students on how they might check for understanding and respond to that child. What adult assumptions (including racial bias) might get in the way of seeing the child's perspective? What kind of response could build on the child's existing construct of their world, while expanding it to allow for a conversation about skin tone and the social systems that create the "behind" situation that the child is correctly observing?
Original Message:
Sent: 09-01-2020 12:15 PM
From: Faith Rogow
Subject: Incorporate Anti-racism assignments to College ECE Classes
Francis is right about one thing – Bulletin boards aren't great venues for detailed dialogue about research methods. I hadn't intended to do more than share an interesting resource that I came across in the course of my work, but since I've been asked directly, I'll venture a brief response.
I interpret the research through the lens of someone who trained as an academic but left academe to do community-based work. I've been actively engaged in anti-bias efforts since the 1980s, and specifically in relation to racism and early childhood since the 1990s (starting with a PBS series called The Puzzle Place). I follow the research carefully because I help people engage in research-based practice using media. This latest study by Sullivan, Wilton, and Apfelbaum interested me in part because, as I think Alison noted, it is very much like the research that was being done a few decades ago and the longevity of key issues and concerns intrigues me.
My own take is that there are two intertwined issues:
- Even very young children notice differences – all sorts of differences (as Francis notes).
- This is important not so much because of the noticing, but because children and society attach meaning to the differences they notice.
What the research speaks to is children noticing racism, not the complex social construction of race per se.
Once we frame it that way, then the distinction that Francis makes between, for example, a dark-skinned child from Myanmar and one who is the descendant of enslaved Africans in America is irrelevant. In a culture that is still working out its legacy of white supremacy, the children are not the same, but their status is.
I think it is important to frame it as racism because race is a social, not biological construct (see, for example, the work of Audrey Smedley or any of the scholars featured in the documentary Race: The Power of an Illusion). So racial divisions are meaningless except in their social implications.
I have no personal connection to these researchers, and wouldn't answer for them even if I did. Their methods were fairly standard, and I interpret their call for parents to talk with very young children about race as meaning that we need to help children understand – and where appropriate, challenge – the race-based actions they are seeing and the meanings that are being imposed on skin color and other physical traits.
That makes sense to me. In developmentally appropriate ways we can prepare ourselves so we're ready to take advantage of teachable moments. And as children are developing language, we can help them find language to describe what they are already living.
For me, the task isn't about installing a factual knowledge base related to race; it's about instilling habits that make acting in racist ways unthinkable (and without perpetuating the white privilege inherent in not seeing race). This is sort of what Vivian Gussin Paley did with her experiment on ending exclusion (described in You Can't Say You Can't Play).
The "default setting" of our brains is to make meaning from everything we encounter, and that process starts at birth. It's easy for those of us in positions of privilege not to notice the day-to-day experiences that differentiate our lives from the lives of people who are marginalized. Those differences shape the meaning making process. We are better educators when we acknowledge them. In communication theory, we describe it as acknowledging that everyone interprets through the lens of their own experience.
In the U.S., all children are growing up in families that are affected by race-based differences. Sometimes those differences are enormously consequential – like whether we teach children to call police when they need help. Sometimes less so – like many of us feeling saddened by the recent death of actor Chadwick Boseman (may he rest in power), but families with Black children especially so, because they are grieving the person who played the Black Panther (and media representation matters – but that's another topic).
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Dr. Faith Rogow
InsightersEducation
Ithaca NY
Original Message:
Sent: 08-31-2020 10:13 AM
From: Francis Wardle
Subject: Incorporate Anti-racism assignments to College ECE Classes
I think we have to be VERY careful when we interpret the results of this study. Unfortunately, this is not a good venue to discuss problems with academic research! Anyone who does research – or uses it extensively – knows that all research includes a section on "interpreting the results". This is where good research often falters. Interpretation, by definition, is subjective. The interpretation of the results of this study are in many ways confusing and not helpful (and can be very destructive). Preschool children do not have a sophisticated view of race (most adults don't – including some researchers). We all know that young chidlren use their five senses to make sense of their world. Color, sound, shape, texture, smell, etc., are used by them to do this. Thus they are very cognizant of the color of a person's skin, the texture of their hair, the sound of their voice, and the accent of their language. But this DOES NOT mean they understand race! Lets look at just one issue: skin color. A person with the same light brown skin could be African American, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American, Italian, Portuguese, North African (white), Middle Eastern, Jewish, mixed-race, and so on. Thus, skin color tells a child very little about race. I talked to a parent who had adopted a child from Myanmar, who was quite dark. The child's teacher told the parent to tell his son he was Black (African American), because that was the color of his skin! By the same token the discussion in this study of the "same race effect" does not in an way mean an infant understands race! I could go on. There is a great difference between the ability to discriminate and the ability to understand!
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Original Message:
Sent: 8/29/2020 10:11:00 AM
From: Ling Lee
Subject: RE: Incorporate Anti-racism assignments to College ECE Classes
Yes, thank you to Faith Rogow for sharing the article about children's perceptions about race.
In my experience as a teacher for infants, some children notice it by the hair. In the class that I came to work in, the children from 4 months to 8 months old were pulling each other's hair because they noticed the differences and were rewarded with negative attention by the younger teachers. I took this opportunity and checked out picture books from the local library about different human hair types. It wasn't easy to find, but I managed to find a few that represented White, Black, and Latinos. I had one African American child, and the rest of the children were White or Asian but I wanted to show and celebrate each person's hair.
In the media, we often find that young people wish to have other people's hair texture. I certainly did. But, in college, I found out that having curly hair via a perm was more work. I wanted to describe the hair color, the texture, and advantages to each person's hair with that knowledge. Even with multicultural books that had nothing to do with hair, I would point out that the person has "straight, brown hair." In class, I pointed to each person's hair and described it. They learned gentle touches by patting the other person's hair. I'd explained one child's hair as curly for the African American's hair, and how magical it was to scrunch it and the shape stays in place. In contrast, I stated that my hair was straight, and I would have to use a clip to retain its shape.
After 4-8 weeks, the children stopped hair pulling to get attention. However, the memory is strong. An 8-month-old child had left the program and returned as a 12-month old to the center for two weeks and brought the negative hair pulling back into the infant room. I decided it was futile to change her behavior and permitted my students to revert to the former action. During this time, I redirected the advanced infants' attention to other play experiences and books. When the visiting infant left, it took two weeks to change the infants from pulling to patting hair.
When I was a toddler teacher, one of my African students asked me, "Ms. Lee, why do you have these blue lines on your skin?" I smiled. I couldn't remember the word for Melanin, so I told her the lines are called veins, and they carry blood throughout the body. She had the veins too, but her dark skin covers them.
When I was a kindergarten assistant teacher, all the students were aware of their skin color because they do self-portraits, but also, it's the way they look at each other and notice the differences. One African American child was lighter than his classmate, and he commented on it. I affirmed his statement, but I didn't go further because I didn't know how, and it wasn't my role. The head kindergarten teacher did a unit early in the year during a religion class that God made all the children different. Some have dark hair and skin, and others have light hair and skin. She also read a book by a children's author on the topic.
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Ling Lee
Early Childhood Educator
Evanston IL
Original Message:
Sent: 08-28-2020 02:00 PM
From: Nora Krieger
Subject: Incorporate Anti-racism assignments to College ECE Classes
To all and especially Faith Rogow: I found the synopsis of the study on children's awareness of race very interesting. I would love to know how children articulate this knowledge. Also important is information on how you discuss race with a two year old. When my son was that age, his notice of race was color - this person skin is a dark brown, that one is light brown, this person is ivory, etc. When we use the term "awareness of race", what exactly are we talking about?
Thanks.
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Nora Krieger, PhD
Associate Professor Emerita/Past Chair NJEEPRE
Bloomfield College/NJ Educators Exploring the Practices of Reggio Emilia
Highland Park, NJ
Original Message:
Sent: 08-28-2020 01:51 PM
From: Wei Dai
Subject: Incorporate Anti-racism assignments to College ECE Classes
Hi Dr. Rogow!
Thank you for sharing the piece, this is very helpful.
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Wei Dai
Amherst NY
Original Message:
Sent: 08-28-2020 07:52 AM
From: Faith Rogow
Subject: Incorporate Anti-racism assignments to College ECE Classes
There is new research out that will be of interest to people who have followed this thread. Here are some excerpts:
Source: American Psychological Association
Date: 27 August 2020
- CHILDREN NOTICE RACE SEVERAL YEARS BEFORE ADULTS WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT
- Adults in the United States believe children should be almost 5 years old before talking with them about race, even though some infants are aware of race and preschoolers may have already developed racist beliefs, according to new research. Delays in important conversations could make it more difficult to change children's misperceptions or racist beliefs, said study co-author Jessica Sullivan, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at Skidmore College.
- "Children are capable of thinking about all sorts of complex topics at a very young age," she said. "Even if adults don't talk to kids about race, children will work to make sense of their world and will come up with their own ideas, which may be inaccurate or detrimental."
- Previous research has shown that 3-month-old babies prefer faces from certain racial groups, 9-month-olds use race to categorize faces, and 3-year-old children in the U.S. associate some racial groups with negative traits. By age 4, children in the U.S. associate whites with wealth and higher status, and race-based discrimination is already widespread when children start elementary school.
- Many white parents often use well-meaning but ineffective strategies that ignore the realities of racism in the United States, said study co-author Leigh Wilton, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at Skidmore College. Some harmful approaches include a colorblind strategy (e.g., telling children "Skin color doesn't matter," or "We're all the same on the inside") or refusing to discuss it (e.g., "It's not polite to talk about that")...
- "Even if it's a difficult topic, it's important to talk with children about race, because it can be difficult to undo racial bias once it takes root," she said. "Toddlers can't do calculus, but that doesn't mean we don't teach them to count. You can have a conversation with a toddler about race that is meaningful to them on their level."
- Parents, especially white parents, need to become comfortable talking about race or it will only get more difficult as their children get older, Wilton said. "If we wait until a child is old enough to ask a tough question about the history of racial violence, then it will be that much harder to talk about if there haven't been any meaningful discussions about race earlier in their lives."
- Jessica Sullivan, Leigh Wilton, Evan P. Apfelbaum. Adults delay conversations about race because they underestimate children's processing of race.. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2020; DOI: 10.1037/xge0000851
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200827150954.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmind_brain%2Feducational_psychology+%28Educational+Psychology+News+--+ScienceDaily%29
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Dr. Faith Rogow
InsightersEducation
Ithaca NY
Original Message:
Sent: 08-12-2020 03:33 PM
From: Wei Dai
Subject: Incorporate Anti-racism assignments to College ECE Classes
Hello!
I am teaching a college level ECE course this fall, currently I'm working on my syllabus, I plan to add anti-racism assignments to my class. I am curious if teachers and professors in this field have any good ideas/resources to share? Thanks!
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Wei Dai
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