ECE 7350 The Anti-Bias Curriculum in Early Childhood Education

1
EDE 735The Anti-Bias Curriculum in Early
Childhood Education

• Will Mosier
• Professor
• Wright State University

2
Valuing Diversity

• The Primary Years
• Introduction

3
Definitions

• Anti-bias An active approach to challenging
  prejudice stereotyping
• Bias Any belief that results in and helps
  justify unfair treatment of an individual because
  of his or her identity
• Handicappism Any action that subordinates people
  due to disability (Handicappist practices prevent
  the integration of differently-abled people into
  the mainstream of society)

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Definitions(continued)

• Prejudice An opinion without adequate knowledge
  or reason (Prejudice can be prejudgment for or
  against any person, group or sex)
• Pre-prejudice Beginning ideas in a very young
  children that may develop into real prejudice
  through reinforcement by prevailing biases
  (Pre-prejudice may be misconceptions based on
  young childrens limited experience and
  developmental level, or may consist of imitations
  of adult behavior)

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Definitions (continued)

• Racism Any action that subordinates people
  because of their color (This includes the
  imposition of one ethnic groups culture over
  another, as to withhold respect for, to demean,
  or to destroy the cultures of other groups)
• Stereotype An oversimplified generalization
  about a particular group, race or sex, which
  usually carries derogatory implication
• Homophobia A fear of gay men and lesbians that
  discriminates against them

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Children need to know that diversity is valued

• An appreciation for diversity is the touchstone
  of our modern world
• Mobility characterizes families in America
• People must have three qualities to succeed in
  such a mobile society
• The ability to cope with change
• An open, flexible personality that enjoys the
  process of change
• The ability to assimilate changes into a
  satisfying personal lifestyle

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Children need to know that diversity is
valued(continued)

• Whether children
• speak a different language
• worship differently
• eat different food
• have skin a different tone
• have behavioral qualities that are different
• Children need to be encouraged to see the basic
  similarities of all people and yet appreciate
  their fascinating differences

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Children need to know thatdiversity is
valued(continued)

• Closed rigid individuals are prone to prejudice,
  biased against anything that does not match their
  expectations
• Children need to know that people of all cultures
  and levels of ability are important
• Children need to know that love, peace, and
  respect are universal concepts regardless of the
  language used to expressed them

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Exploring Classroom Resources

• Young children are natural and eager learners
• They adopt attitudes they see expressed by other
  children, family members teachers
• They become aware of differences in ethnicity at
  an early age
• Television has undoubtedly made its contribution
  to bias
• By the time they begin formal schooling, how they
  feel about themselves others has been strongly
  influenced

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Early Childhood Conditioning

• At a very young age children become aware that
  color, language, gender, and physical abilities
  differ are connected to privilege and power
• They learn by observing the differences and
  similarities among people and by absorbing the
  spoken and unspoken messages about those
  differences that they see others expressing
• Ethnicity, sexism, ageism and handicappism have
  a profound influence on childrens developing
  sense of self and others

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Early Childhood Conditioning (continued)

• Exposure to bias that declares a person inferior
  because of gender, age, ethnicity, or
  disability stifles a childs social competence
• Learning to believe they are superior because
  they are White, or male, or able-bodied,
  dehumanizes and distorts reality for growing
  children

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Early Childhood Conditioning (continued)

• Children internalize the negative messages they
  are exposed to
• It is too dangerous for early childhood educators
  to take an ostrich-in-the-sand stance to the
  issue of bias
• Actions speak louder than words
• Empowerment for children of color requires that
  they develop both a strong self-identity and a
  proud and knowledgeable group identity to
  withstand the attacks of racism

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Early Childhood Conditioning (continued)

• White childrens task is to develop a positive
  identity without White ethnocentrism and
  superiority
• Girls need to learn that they can be competent in
  all areas and can make choices about their lives
• Boys need to learn competence without also
  learning to feel and act superior to girls

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Early Childhood Conditioning (continued)

• The developmental task of children with
  disabilities include learning to use alternative
  abilities and to gain skills for countering
  societal practices that sabotage opportunities
  for growth
• Able-bodied childrens tasks include extending
  unconditional positive regard to
  differently-abled people and to resist
  stereotyping

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What is needed for an Anti-Bias Curriculum?

• Anti-bias curriculum embraces respecting
  differences and not accepting unfair beliefs and
  acts
• An anti-bias perspective is integral to all
  aspects of daily classroom life
• There is no recipe for empowering young children
• It is not always easy to implement anti-bias
  curriculum on a regular basis, but we must!

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What is needed is an Anti-Bias Curriculum, but...

• Few early childhood educators have been prepared
  to talk with children about race, ethnicity, and
  disabilities
• The discomfort adults feel about dealing with
  issues of bias is similar to responding to the
  question Where do babies come from? it makes
  many adults uncomfortable
• Like children, grown-ups must learn by doing

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An Anti-Bias Curriculum is Essential

• Anti-bias teaching requires critical thinking and
  problem solving by both children and adults
• At heart, anti-bias is about social change
• Through anti-bias curriculum, teachers enable
  every child to achieve the ultimate goal of early
  childhood education the development of each
  child to her or his fullest potential

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Chapter One

• What Are Children Learning?

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What do children learning?

• Children learn exactly what they are taught
• As we choose themes, materials, and teaching
  strategies, we are preparing children to lead
  productive lives in a diverse world
• Educational goals for children are best phrased
  as questions
• Are children learning to love the quest for
  knowledge?
• Are children learning to see themselves as
  competent communicators, inquirers, and
  discoverers?

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What do children learning?(continued)

• Are children learning to negotiate and
  collaborate in democratic ways?
• Are children learning to understand and
  appreciate our worlds rich diversity of
  cultures, heritages, abilities, and interests?
• Are children learning to apply all of their
  knowledge to build satisfying futures for
  themselves and others?

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Teaching Substance and Style

• These ambitious, but realistic, goals can be
  reached with and for children
• Sensitive and imaginative teachers inspire
  learning and a love of learning when teachers
  have respect of all learners
• Tourist-type approaches to learning about other
  people rarely broaden childrens genuine
  understanding other people

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Teaching Substance and Style(continued)

• Hit-or-miss classroom activities are insufficient
  to establish a classroom permeated with mutual
  respect
• Instead of relying on a few special activities to
  highlight cultures or human diversity, every day
  should address the issue of sharing mutual
  respect with others
• Curriculum is everything that goes on in the
  classroom materials, teaching strategies,
  discipline, projects, languages spoken and
  written, ways families are involved, foods
  served, connections that are forged with the
  community

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Teaching Substance and Style(continued)

• The curriculum-is-what-happens approach to
  teaching learning empowers children to develop
  empathy for others and counteracts bias
• We are preparing children to live in a world that
  will always be diverse, therefore...
• Anti-Bias themes need to be incorporated into the
  daily learning process

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Americans All Program Goals

• Increased knowledge about self and the history
  and cultures of others
• Increased personal relevance of content and
  opportunities for self-expression
• Improved interpersonal and motivational skills
• Increased feelings of belonging and affiliation
• Increased opportunities for positive peer
  relationships and cross-cultural relationships

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Americans All Program Goals(continued)

• Increased opportunities for success and
  validating feedback
• Improved stress management and coping skills
• Increased knowledge about self, family,
  community, and adaptation to change
• Improved student performance
• Decreased environmental stress
• Decreased student alienation and boredom

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Fostering childrens intelligences

• Even when budgets and supplies are limited,
  equipping a classroom with developmentally
  appropriate learning materials makes it possible
  to amplify learning and facilitate relationship
  building

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Fostering childrens intelligences (continued)

• People have, at least, seven different ways of
  processing information
• Linguistic
• Logical-mathematical
• Musical
• Spatial
• Bodily-kinesthetic
• Interpersonal - stimulated by interaction with
  others
• Intrapersonal self knowledge (assimilation and
  accommodation of concepts used for self discovery)

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Fostering childrens intelligences (continued)

• Capitalize on young childrens instinctive desire
  to learn
• Keep children in touch with the world around them
• Expand familiar teaching strategies and
  curriculum ideas with resources to create an
  integrated approach to respect for others
• Identify resources on diversity and use them!

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Why do we need an Anti-Bias Curriculum?Developmen
tal Facts

• Children from ages 2 through 6
• Make early observations of racial cues
• Consolidate group concepts
• Make evaluative judgments that begin to influence
  their concepts of group
• Develop a rough determination of racial
  classification from a vague undifferentiated
  awareness of skin tone
• This classification becomes associated with a
  social interpretation of racial categorization

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Even toddlers are aware of differences

• By 2 years of age, children begin to notice
  gender, ethnic differences, and physical
  disabilities
• By 3 years of age children show signs of being
  influenced by societal norms and biases, and may
  exhibit pre-prejudice toward others on the
  basis of gender or race or being
  differently-abled

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Differences raise questions for young children

• Between 3 and 5 years of age, children wonder
• Will I always be a girl or a boy?
• If I like to climb trees, do I become a boy?
• If I like to play with dolls, do I become a girl?
• What gives me my skin color?
• Can I change it?
• If I interact with a child who has a physical
  disability, will I get it?

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Societal pressure stereotyping

• By 4 or 5 years of age, children engage in gender
  behavior defined by socially prevailing norms
• The degree to which 4-year-olds have already
  internalized stereotypic gender roles, racial
  bias, and fear of the differently-abled points
  out the need for anti-bias education with young
  children

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Do we know what we are teaching?

• Observational studies demonstrate that young
  girls children with disabilities from ages 2.5
  to 5 years experience over-help and
  over-praise from teachers
• Differently-abled children and girls are trained
  for dependence and passivity, not for
  independence
• This is the beginning of the syndrome learned
  helplessness (Froschl Sprung, 1983)

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Do we know what we are teaching?(continued)

• Teachers tend to praise young girls for
  appearance, cooperation, and obedience while
  praising young boys for achievement
• Teachers tend to describe boys as more active
  than girls, even when similar activity levels are
  used
• Homophobia, is another form of gender bias adults
  teach young children

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Do we know what we are teaching?(continued)

• The dictionary lists 44 positive meanings for
  white with 60 negative meanings for black
• Young children are harmed by the impact of
  sexism, racism, and handicapism
• Gender stereotyping closes-off whole areas of
  experience to children simply because of their
  sex
• Handicapism severely harms differently-abled
  children by limiting access to the educational
  experiences necessary for well-rounded
  development and by interfering with the
  establishment of a healthy self concept

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Do we know what we are teaching?(continued)

• Racism damages white children intellectually
  and psychologically (Bernadr Kutner,1985)
• Racial prejudice in young children affects their
  ability to reason and distorts their judgment
  perception of reality (Kenneth clark,1955)
• White children learn to be hypocritical about
  differences at a very early age (Alice Miel.1976)

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What is our responsibility?

• Early childhood educators have a responsibility
  for finding ways to prevent and counter the
  damage before it becomes too deep
• Active intervention to remedy cognitive, social
  emotional damage inflicted on children (Selma
  Greenberg,1980) For example
• When children enter an early childhood
  environment, they are more open to friendship
  with members of the opposite sex, and more open
  to non-stereotypic play experiences than they are
  when they leave
• Even though the early childhood environment
  cannot be held solely responsible for bias
  development, it cannot be held totally guiltless

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What is our responsibility?(continued)

• To evaluate existing early childhood curriculum
  and develop ways to prevent gender stereotyping
• Active intervention, by teachers, is necessary if
  children are to develop positive attitudes about
  people of different ethnic groups and physical
  abilities
• If children are to grow up with the attitudes,
  knowledge, and skills necessary for effective
  living in a complex, diverse world, early
  childhood programs must actively challenge the
  impact of bias on childrens development

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Empowerment

• Cultural differences are real but do not
  constitute deficit
• Bicultural education means children learn the
  beliefs, values, rules, and language of their own
  culture in the learning/teaching style
  appropriate to that culture and also learn the
  beliefs, values, rules, language, and learning
  style of the dominant culture
• The ideal early childhood program would
  incorporate both an anti-bias approach to
  learning on a daily basis and, where appropriate,
  a bicultural, bi-cognitive curriculum

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Questions about Anti-Bias Curriculum

• Wont an anti-bias curriculum make things worse?
• If you talk about stereotypes, wont you be
  teaching children things they would otherwise not
  learn? (Isnt it better to emphasize the
  similarities and ignore how people are
  different?)
• Concern about addressing differences arises from
  a mistaken notion of the sources of bias (It is
  not differences, in themselves, that cause
  prejudice, but how people respond to differences)

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Questions about Anti-Bias Curriculum (continued)

• How does anti-bias curriculum differ from
  multicultural curriculum?
• Multiculturalism intent is positive (However,
  deterioration into tourist-curriculum often keeps
  this approach from accomplishing its intent)
• Tourist-curriculum is likely to teach about
  cultures through celebrations and through such
  artifacts of the culture as food, traditional
  clothing, and household implements (Planned
  multicultural activities are special events in
  the childrens week, separate from the ongoing
  daily curriculum)

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Questions about Anti-Bias Curriculum (continued)

• How does anti-bias curriculum differ from
  multicultural curriculum? (continued)
• Chinese New Year teaches about Chinese-Americans
  a dragon is constructed, and parents are asked to
  come to school wearing Chinese clothing cook
  a Chinese dish
• Mexican-American life is introduced through Cinco
  de Mayo, the Aztec calendar, Mexican food dance
• This tourist-curriculum approach emphasizes the
  exotic differences between cultures and avoids
  the real-life daily problems and experiences of
  people that unite us

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Questions about Anti-Bias Curriculum (continued)

• How does anti-bias curriculum differ from
  multicultural curriculum? (continued)
• Anti-bias curriculum incorporates the positive
  intent of multicultural curriculum and uses some
  similar activities, while seeking to avoid the
  dangers of a tourist approach

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Questions about Anti-Bias Curriculum (continued)

• Anti-bias curriculum provides a more inclusive
  education
• It addresses more than cultural diversity by
  including gender and differences in physical
  abilities
• It is based on childrens developmental tasks as
  they construct identity and attitudes
• It directly addresses the impact of stereotyping,
  bias, and discriminatory behavior in young
  childrens development and interactions

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Questions about Anti-Bias Curriculum (continued)

• Isnt an anti-bias approach really an adult
  issue? (Why bring children into it?)
• Failure to address and challenge bias allows
  children to adopt socially prevailing attitudes
• What aspects of anti-bias work are appropriate
  for children?
• Adults have a twofold responsibility
• provide children with an anti-bias educational
  setting
• eliminate bias instruction

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Questions about Anti-Bias Curriculum (continued)

• Is it developmentally appropriate to openly raise
  these anti-bias issues of injustice with young
  children?
• Adults often want to defer childrens exposure to
  the unpleasant realities of bias, to create a
  protected world of childhood (However, by doing
  so we leave children to attempt the solving of
  troublesome problems, by themselves)

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Questions about Anti-Bias Curriculum (continued)

• I already have so much to do, how will I find
  time to learn the necessary skills for adding an
  anti-bias emphasis to the curriculum?
• Anti-bias approach is integrated into, rather
  than added onto, existing curriculum
• Looking at curriculum through an anti-bias lens
  affects everything a teacher does
• Much classroom work will continue some
  activities will be modified, some eliminated
• Teachers have to re-evaluate what they have been
  doing
• After a while it becomes impossible to teach
  without an anti-bias perspective

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Chapter 2

• Liberating the Human Spirit

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Liberating the Human Spirit

• Educators have four ethical commitments they must
  strive to implement when curricula is grounded
  on respect for all people
• Teachers must challenge themselves to grow with
  these four commitments
• What are these commitments?

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Liberating the Human Spirit(continued)

• Commitment 1 Identify and examine how schools
  perpetuate racism in obscure, yet systematic
  ways
• Institutional bias cannot be denied
• By accepting that society subtly, discriminates
  and stereotypes, we can better understand the
  children we teach
• With this perception it is possible to establish
  a classroom atmosphere that values diversity
• Nearly 1/3 of U.S. students live in non-White,
  immigrant families (ogbu,1987)

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Liberating the Human Spirit(continued)

• By the year 2050 half of the U.S. population will
  be non-European
• Discussions are excellent ways to bring out
  differing experiences and perceptions of bias in
  society
• To examine parents experiences teachers can
  organize informal gatherings to gain a better
  understanding of their backgrounds
• Teachers can read about attend workshops that
  address identified, systematic discrimination

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Liberating the Human Spirit(continued)

• Questions to ask yourself
• Why are so many national leaders White males?
• What are the long-term implications of testing
  and tracking for children?
• What kind of role models are exemplified in
  Sports? Movies? The news?
• Why are government budgets often balanced on the
  backs of people with the fewest resources
• Is this true? What do you think?
• (Bring evidence to class to substantiate your
  perspective)

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Liberating the Human Spirit(continued)

• By assessing our society, teachers grow, both
  professionally and personally
• Once we understand the pernicious nature of
  racism, we can never remain in the comfortable
  position of ignorance, we can only move toward
  full equality
• There is no turning back

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Liberating the Human Spirit(continued)

• Commitment 2 Examine how we, as individuals,
  participate in our own oppression and the
  oppression of others by unconsciously mirroring
  the oppressive relations of the larger society
• The following action and questions may help
  adults recognize and analyze their own
  ethnocentrism
• Do we expect continuity of care for children with
  stay-at-home mothers to be better nurtured than
  children whose parent(s) work?

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Liberating the Human Spirit(continued)

• How do we respond to jokes that poke fun of
  people for their religion, ethnic group,
  nationality, or other characteristic?
• What is our reaction to comments such as
• I dont notice skin color
• Everyones the same to me
• Why do we use common phrases, holiday greeting
  cards, posters, or work-sheets that depict
  stereotypes?

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Liberating the Human Spirit(continued)

• How do we handle childrens questions about skin
  color, clothing, hair-styles ,language, or
  abilities?
• Only through honest self-examination can we root
  out the prejudices that we have learned,
  practiced, and intentionally or inadvertently
  passed on to children
• Experiences (past and present)-stories read to
  children, TV and movie images, holiday
  celebrations, statements made by friends and
  acquaintances - shape our beliefs

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Liberating the Human Spirit(continued)

• Research indicates that many teachers are biased
  against either males or females, as well as
  African American children, lower-socioeconomic-sta
  tus (lower-SES) children, and children with
  different abilities (Curry Johnson,1990)
• By accepting these common oppressive biases,
  teachers erode opportunities to nurture

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Liberating the Human Spirit(continued)

• When a child is diminished in any way, all
  children are diminished
• Education about diversity, is designed to help
  each of us overcome the tendency to harbor
  demeaning attitudes about some differences, while
  placing a positive value on others
• Neither mainstream America nor any other culture
  or group is the center of the universe

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Liberating the Human Spirit(continued)

• Young children are curious about commonalties and
  diversity
• Children and educators can put into daily
  practice the values of democracy, respect, free
  speech, truth, justice, and harmony
• Children who learn in a democratic atmosphere
  will gain the perspectives and knowledge they
  need to make wise decisions (Hendrick,1992 Perry
  Fraser,1993)

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Liberating the Human Spirit(continued)

• Commitment 3 To understand what culture means
  to a group of people, understand how culture can
  be a source of group empowerment strength
• Examine how to nurture groups retaining their
  cultural integrity, while gaining the skills to
  function in the larger society

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Liberating the Human Spirit(continued)

• Looking at our own lives and then attempting to
  put ourselves in others shoes is a good way to
  consider how to meet the challenge of
  implementing an anti-bias curriculum

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Liberating the Human Spirit(continued)As an
exercise, divide into 4 groups answer the
following questions. Write down your group
concerns

• What does our culture mean to us? Why and how do
  we celebrate important events? How would we feel
  if our language, or clothing, or cherished values
  were ignored or ridiculed?
• What aspects of other cultures make us feel
  comfortable? Which characteristics tend to tip
  us off balance? (History, language, music, dress,
  art, literature, religion?)
• What additional skills and perspectives might
  some children need if they are to function
  successfully in the broader society?

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Liberating the Human Spirit(continued)

• The greater disparity between home and school,
  the greater the anxiety for children
• How can teachers smooth this frightening
  transition for young children?
• Answer By aligning home and school, teachers
  demonstrate genuine respect for children and
  their families

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Liberating the Human Spirit(continued)

• In a genuinely diverse classroom, all children
  are empowered as learners
• Children who get off to a sound educational start
  during their impressionable early years are far
  more likely to become productive, responsible
  adults (Weikart,1989)
• Effective educators are sensitive to.
  well-informed about, and responsive to cultural
  differences
• School drop-out rates attest to the lack of
  meaningful, confidence-inspiring education for
  children

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Liberating the Human Spirit(continued)

• Commitment 4 Use our power as teachers to
  change oppressive systems that exist in our
  society
• School alone cannot make up for all the barriers
  children face
• However, schools can create opportunities for
  children to overcome hurdles
• Educators can be the standard bearers for human
  rights and democracy in school and go beyond to
  talk about the problems in society
• We may need to reframe our perspectives about
  differences before teaching can be effective, we
  must address our ethical commitments in light of
  the impact bias has on children

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Liberating the Human Spirit (continued)

• Teachers who develop curricula based on trust and
  respect
• Examine how American society perpetuates racism
  and oppression in subtle, yet systematic ways
• Recognizes how individuals unconsciously mirror
  this oppression
• Enable cultural groups to retain their integrity
  while they gain skills to function in the larger
  society
• Work to change oppressive systems

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Chapter 2

• Creating an Anti-Bias Environment for Young
  Children

68
Creating an Anti-Bias Environment

• An environment that is rich in possibilities for
  exploring gender, ethnicity, and
  different-abledness sets the scene for practicing
  anti-bias curriculum
• What is in the environment alerts children to
  what the teacher considers important or not
  important

69
Creating an Anti-Bias Environment (continued)

• The challenge
• To increase materials that reflect children and
  adults who are of color, who are
  differently-abled, and who engaged in
  non-stereotypic gender activities
• To eliminate all stereotypic and inaccurate
  materials

70
The Visual/Aesthetic Environment

• Ensure
• Images of all the children are in abundance
• Images of children and adults from the major
  ethnic groups are displayed
• People of color are not represented as tokens
• A fair balance of images of women and men show
  both doing jobs in the home that are
  stereotypically done only by one or the other

71
The Visual/Aesthetic Environment (continued)

• 5. Images of elderly people of various
  backgrounds are doing different activities
• 6. Images of differently-abled people of various
  backgrounds show them doing work and
  participating with their families in recreational
  activities
• 7. Images of diversity in family styles depict
  single mothers or fathers, extended families,
  families with a grandparent as the primary
  caregiver, interracial multiethnic families,
  differently-abled families

72
The Visual/Aesthetic Environment (continued)

• 8. Images of important individuals-past and
  present reflect racial/ethnic, gender, and
  abledness diversity
• 9. Aesthetic artwork reflects the culture of the
  families represented in your classroom

73
Toys and Materials

• Every center should contain regularly available
  materials representing the backgrounds of the
  families in your classroom
• All childrens books should reflect positive
  social values and attitudes.
• Many books, considered classics, reflect bias of
  some kind
• Since books are a significant part of young
  childrens lives, great care must be given to the
  selection and use

74
Toys and materials for child play must

• Reflect diversity of gender, roles, and racial
  and cultural backgrounds, special needs and
  abilities a range of occupations a range of
  ages
• Show people from all groups living their daily
  lives working, being with family, solving issues
  relevant to young children, not just having
  celebrations
• Most books should be about contemporary life in
  the U.S.

75
Toys and materials for child use must
(continued)

• Depict a variety of children and families
• Reflect different languages including sign
  language
• (When choosing books to read to children,
  pay close attention to fostering awareness of
  diversity)
• Select books that depict different ways of
  living and books that show various groups solving
  similar problems

76
Toys and Materials(continued)

• Dramatic Play
• The equipment, objects, and spatial organization
  of the dramatic play area should include and
  encourage
• Diversity of gender play
• Cultural diversity
• Child-size mirrors

77
Toys and Materials(continued)

• Language
• should include
• Sign
• Labeling materials
• Music
• Should reflect the culture of the children, both
  for singing and as background music

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Toys and Materials(continued)

• Art Materials
• Artwork, (paintings, drawings, sculpture) by
  artists of diverse backgrounds depicting women
  men from various ethnic backgrounds should be
  displayed
• Manipulatives
• Manipulative materials should depict diversity
  (Avoid stereotyping images such as Cowboys and
  Indians)
• Cameras
• Polaroid cameras are invaluable for creating
  anti-bias materials (Pictures of the children at
  work in the classroom)

79
Toys and Materials(continued)

• Dolls
• Representing a fair balance of all the major
  ethnic groups (They should reflect the range of
  skin tones within various groups) Dolls should
  be reasonably authentic looking
• A fair balance of male and female anatomically
  correct dolls is developmentally appropriate
• A selection of dolls with different kinds of
  disabilities should be available (These dolls
  should reflect varied ethnic backgrounds and
  include both boys and girls
• Persona dolls (Mirror dolls)

80
Adaptation for your specific classroom

• Children of color more than half, although not
  all, images should reflect their background
• Children from low-income families a large number
  of images and materials should depict
  working-class life
• White children at least half of the images
  should introduce diversity
• Differently-abled children a large number of
  images should depict children and adults with
  disabilities doing a range of activities
• If there are only a few children who are
  different from the rest of the group, then take
  care to ensure that those childrens background
  is represented along with representation of the
  majority groups in the class

81
Interactions

• Interactions between teachers and children may
  teach gender, racial, and handicappism biases
  even without deliberate intent
• Do you pick up on nonverbal and verbal
  expressions of interest as quickly with girls as
  they do with boys? With differently-abled
  children? With children of color?
• Do you offer girls as much physical freedom and
  use of large-motor equipment as they offer boys?
• Do you allow boys freedom to express feelings?
• Do you help girls more often than boys (or
  vice-versa)?

82
Interactions(continued)

• 5. Do teachers over-help children who are
  different?
• 6. Are similar behaviors interpreted and
  responded to differently with boys and girls?
• 7. Do teachers respond differently to an
  aggressive act of a boy, of a minority child or a
  mentally retarded child?
• 8. Are girls complimented on appearance and boys
  on achievement?

83
Interactions(continued)

• 9. When children touch an adults hair or skin,
  or make comments about skin color or hair
  texture, do teachers facilitate exploration,
  ignore or redirect?
• 10. When children ask about genitals, do teachers
  give matter-of fact, feedback?
• 11. When children ask or make comments about
  disabilities, do teachers give them direct,
  accurate feedback?

84
Interactions(continued)

• 12. Are childrens learning styles respected? Are
  provisions made for
• a) children who prefer to play and work alone?
• b) children who prefer learning with action- or
  people-oriented activities?
• 13. Are all children supported in their preferred
  learning styles?

85
Selecting Anti-Bias Materials

• Making new materials
• Finding sufficient anti-bias materials can be
  difficult (Making ones own anti-bias materials
  is essential)
• Picture files
• Finding accurate, non-stereotypic pictures of
  people of color of people with hearing or vision
  impairments, orthopedic conditions, and of men
  and women in nontraditional roles takes
  persistence and patience

86
Selecting Anti-Bias Materials(continued)

• Magazines
• Such as Young Children, Ms., Ebony, Life, Faces,
  National Geographic, National Black Child
  Development Institute, Syracuse Peace Workers or
  feminist groups have excellent anti-bias pictures
• Photographs
• Take lots of pictures of children in the
  classroom, request pictures of their families
  (Ask parents for family pictures)

87
Selecting Anti-Bias Materials(continued)

• Posters
• NAEYC has many appropriate posters
• Create your own card games
• Photos of children and adults of diverse
  backgrounds, physical abilities, and occupations,
  two of each picture on cardboard (Children can
  play an anti-bias Go Fish game)

88
Class Project

• Books
• Make books with magazines, pictures and photos
  about
• All the things girls and boys can do (including
  children of different ethnicity and abilities)
• All kinds of families
• An Anti-Bias Alphabet Book

89
Chapter 3

• Criteria for
• Learning Materials and Activities

90
Criteria for Learning Materials and Activities

• Guidelines help evaluate how well typical
  teaching resources convey respect for the dignity
  of children and their families
• Apply the following guidelines whenever new
  classroom material or teaching strategies are
  chosen
• These guidelines will ensure that you are using
  high-quality, developmentally appropriate,
  anti-bias curriculum activities for children

91
Criteria forLearning Materials and
Activities(continue)

• Guideline 1. Do children learn primarily by
  extending their own experiences and gaining
  insights from each other? (Does the activity or
  materials make sense to them?)
• Young children learn best when they start with
  what they already know and then have
  opportunities to expand upon their ideas and
  experiences through the process of Scaffolding

92
Criteria forLearning Materials and Activities
(continued)

• Memorizing facts, such as dates or the name of
  capital cities is a waste of time at any age
  (Dates are only meaningful when children have
  developed a concept of the passage of time and
  understand the importance of the events)
• Young children assimilate information best when
  they use facts for generating their own sense of
  history

93
Criteria for Learning Materials and Activities
(continued)

• Ask these questions for every activity
  material
• Are children really learning by this experience?
• Does it have a meaningful purpose for
  childrendoes it make sense to them?
• Whatever the project, learning is enhance if
  children can identify something familiar that
  they can latch onto and then workusually
  individually or by collaborating in small
  groupsto build on what they already know

94
Criteria for Learning Materials and Activities
(continued)

• Guideline 2. Can children carry out nearly all
  of the activity by themselves?
• Curricula that truly respect childrens
  intelligence center on projects and themes that
  children can accomplish by themselves as
  industrious learners (Education is not a
  spectator sportit is a social learning process)
• Systematic instruction can immerse children in
  learning when activities are structured to engage
  childrens thinking (Children are curious by
  nature) The teachers role is to capitalize on
  this energy

95
Criteria for Learning Materials and Activities
(continued)

• Classrooms that respect childrens differences
  proudly display childrens original artwork,
  creative writings, and other cooperative and
  individual efforts so that everyone can
  appreciate their true accomplishments
• Progress should be measured in terms of goals
  reached by each child
• Evidence of childrens progress, untouched by
  adult interference, should cover walls and halls

96
Criteria for Learning Materials and Activities
(continued)

• workbooks, patterns, cutting and tracing are a
  waste of childrens time, (Katz Chard, 1989)
• If school doesnt make sense to children, they
  will wander aimlessly, interrupt others, or
  ignore whats assigned
• Conversely, when children experience successes
  they grow increasingly involved
• Children immersed in learning rarely exhibit
  discipline problems

97
Criteria for Learning Materials and Activities
(continued)

• Young children can become engrossed in doing
  their own personal research with picture books,
  making visits to historical sites, or conducting
  informal interviews of friends or relatives
• A second grade class can find out how and when
  their families first came to the United States
• Some children might use a tape recorder, others
  could write notes
• The possibilities are endless for stretching
  childrens varied intelligences

98
Criteria for Learning Materials and Activities
(continued)

• Guideline 3.
• Do culture and history come alive?
• The best materials and activities authentically
  capture real-life people
• .

99
Criteria for Learning Materials and Activities
(continued)

• Guideline 4. Are peoples real
  experiencesclothing, habits, music, homes,
  families, foods, capabilities, preferences,
  agesaccurately portrayed?
• Children can develop critical-thinking skills as
  they evaluate how an illustration might make
  someone feel

100
Criteria for Learning Materials and Activities
(continued)

• Together, teachers and children can search for
  terminology that is positive (rather than
  condescending, patronizing, or dehumanizing
  Example savage, primitive or I is for Indian)
• Weed-out materials that perpetuate myths or that
  portray insulting images

101
Criteria for Learning Materials and Activities
(continued)

• Guideline 5. Are a variety of cultures and human
  characteristics included, with emphasis on the
  people who live within the childrens community?
  (Are people viewed as unique individuals within a
  culture?)
• Children who are not native-English speakers will
  eventually learn English (They will eventually
  thrive by becoming fluent in two languages, as is
  common in industrialized Europe)

102
Criteria for Learning Materials and Activities
(continued)

• Learning to sign a few fragmented vocabulary
  words, to sign one song in French or to identify
  a few Braille letters is linguistic tokenism that
  could be seen as demeaning to peoples abilities
• Encourage children to read and write in the
  language in which they most comfortably
  communicate (They can teach each other and their
  teacher useful phrases and beloved songs in their
  own language)

103
Criteria for Learning Materials and Activities
(continued)

• Guideline 6. Is pride in each childs heritage
  fostered?
• A balanced, integrated educational approach never
  sets one culture above another, but rather helps
  children gradually learn to appreciate diversity

104
Criteria for Learning Materials and Activities
(continued)

• Guideline 7. Are principles of democracy
  instilled?
• Using teaching materials and strategies that
  integrate concepts of respect, human diversity,
  and democracy is essential if children are to
  become self-motivated, self-controlled
  problem-solvers

105
Signs of a Tourist Curriculum

• Trivializing Organizing activities only around
  holidays or only around food only involving
  parents for holidays and cooking activities
• Tokenism Having one Black doll amid many White
  dolls a bulletin board of ethnic imagesas the
  only diversity in the room only one book about
  any cultural group

106
Signs of a Tourist Curriculum (continued)

• Disconnecting cultural diversity from daily
  classroom life Reading books about children of
  color only on special occasions teaching a unit
  on a different culture and then never referring
  to that culture again
• Stereotyping Showing images of Native Americans
  all from the past people of color always shown
  as poor people from cultures outside the U.S.
  only shown in traditional dress in rural
  settings

107
Signs of a Tourist Curriculum (continued)

• Misrepresenting American ethnic groups Treating
  books and pictures about life in Mexico as
  equivalent to the culture of Mexican Americans
  doing activities based on Mexican American
  culture to teach about families from El Salvador,
  Guatemala or Nicaragua

108
Distinguishing Myth From RealityNative Americans

• Myth Columbus discovered America in 1492.
• Reality
• Native Americans walked from Asia to the
  continent of North America as long as 30,000
  years before Columbus landed here
• There were about 10 million peoplespeaking 350
  different languagesliving on this continent in
  the late 1400s

109
Distinguishing Myth From RealityNative
Americans (continued)

• Myth The first Thanksgiving was a Pilgrim and
  Indian feast of rejoicing
• Reality A feast of Thanksgiving likely never
  happened. Many Native Americans groups regard
  Thanksgiving as a Day of Mourning...For them, it
  is a symbol of the Europeans first foothold on
  the North American continent and the demise of
  the Native way of life (Ramsey,1979)

110
Distinguishing Myth From RealityNative
Americans (continued)

• Myth Indians were savages who scalped settlers
• Reality
• Native Americans were kind to the new arrivals,
  and taught them how to survive in the wilderness
• They shared their medicines, and helped
  immigrants build shelters and canoes with trees
• They introduced foods to the Europeansturkey,
  maple sugar, corn, beans, squash, sunflowers, and
  pumpkins

111
Distinguishing Myth From RealityNative
Americans (continued)Reality (continued)

• They taught the newcomers how to farm the soil
  and how to dry foods to preserve them
• The first Americans showed how to mine precious
  metals from the ground
• In return the Europeans shared their metal tools,
  cloth, guns, sheep, goats, and horsed with the
  Native Americans
• The democratic principles of the Iroquois
  government probably influenced the content of the
  U.S. Constitution

112
Distinguishing Myth From RealityNative
Americans (continued)

• Myth The U.S. government has been generous with
  Native Americans
• Reality
• As European immigrants spread out across America,
  they took over the fields, pastures, forests, and
  hunting and fishing areas that had been cared for
  by Native Americans for generations
• The Indians lost about a billion acresoften in
  fierce battlesand were forced onto reservations
  unsuitable for farming or hunting

113
Distinguishing Myth From RealityNative
Americans (continued)Reality (continued)

• The U.S. government signed at least 380 treaties
  with the Native Americans and broke most of them
• The needs and rights of Indians were often
  ignored or even trampled on by the Bureau of
  Indian Affairs
• The First Americans did not gain U.S. citizenship
  until 1924
• Indian children were taken from their homes and
  sent to schools in an effort to replace Indian
  languages and cultures with White American ways
• Today, the U.S. government is making efforts to
  repair the damaging effects of the broken treaties

114
Distinguishing Myth From RealityAfrican
Americans

• Myth All Africans were brought to America as
  slaves
• Reality Some Africans came with the Spanish
  explorers as soldiers and guides
• Archeological clues in Central and South America
  indicate that African explorers and traders may
  have arrived in this hemisphere before 1492

115
Distinguishing Myth From RealityAfrican
Americans (continued)Reality (continued)

• About 15 million slaves were brought here between
  1600 and 1800
• After slavery was abolished, millions of free
  Black immigrants came to this countrymany to
  northern industrial citiesto look for jobs
• In the early 1900s, about 500,000 immigrants
  arrived at Ellis Island from Africa and the
  Caribbean

116
Distinguishing Myth From RealityAsian Americans

• Myth Asian immigrants easily assimilated into
  U.S. culture
• Reality Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, and
  immigrants from countries such as Vietnam,
  Thailand, and Korea often have been lumped
  together as a group, but their histories,
  cultures, and experiences in this country are
  very different
• Until the 1960s, most Asian immigrants were
  treated unfairly by immigration laws

117
Distinguishing Myth From RealityAsian Americans
(continued)Reality (continued)

• Chinese. During the gold rush of the 1850s,
  Chinese miners were discriminated against making
  it practically impossible for them to own a claim
• Thousands of Chinese workers labored in the
  1860sat lower wages than Whitesto build the
  western part of the U.S. transcontinental
  railroad
• Anti Chinese sentiments prevailed for years from
  1882 until 1943, only a few Chinese students,
  teachers, and merchants were allowed to come to
  this country

118
Distinguishing Myth From RealityAsian Americans
(continued)Reality (continued)

• Japanese. Hawaiis sugar plantations drew the
  first large wave of Japanese immigrants in the
  1880s, but racist laws limited the number who
  entered the mainland
• Japanese immigrants, mostly men, were only
  allowed to marry other Japanesea restriction
  that led to the dehumanizing practice of
  selecting brides chosen from pictures
• During World War II, the U.S. government sent
  many Japanese Americans to detention camps in
  this country

119
Distinguishing Myth From RealityEuropeans

• Myth Most European immigrants came to America to
  escape religious persecution
• Reality Religious persecution brought Pilgrim
  and Puritan families here, but many European
  immigrants came for other reasons adventure,
  dreams of riches, political freedom, jobs, escape
  from famine or overcrowded homelands, gain of
  land for farming, relief from taxes

120
Distinguishing Myth From RealityEuropeans
(continued)Reality (continued)

• Between 1600 and 1800, about half of the
  immigrants came as indentured servants (they
  agreed to work a given number of years for the
  person who paid their boat fare)
• Upon arrival, many Europeans experienced
  continued oppression for their religious beliefs,
  found difficulty in securing jobs, and paid taxes
  without representation (Bailey,1996)

121
Distinguishing Myth From RealityMexican
Americans

• Myth Mexican Americans are new-comers to the
  U.S. southwest
• Reality In 1521 Spain invaded and defeated the
  Aztecswho had long lived in what is now
  Mexicoand enslaved the Indians and exposed them
  to European diseases
• Within 150 years, so few Native Americans
  remained that African slaves were brought to
  Mexico
• The three cultural groups intermarried and they
  are the ancestors of todays Mexicans

122
Distinguishing Myth From RealityMexican
Americans (continued)Reality (continued)

• Land disputes in the U.S. southwest have played a
  major role in the fate of Mexican Americans
• Before it became a state, Texas was part of both
  Mexico and the U.S.
• New Mexico, California, Nevada, Utah, and parts
  of Colorado, Wyoming, and Arizona were ceded from
  Mexico to the U.S. in 1848, and suddenly many
  Mexican became residents of the U.S.

123
Distinguishing Myth From RealityMexican
Americans (continued)Reality (continued)

• Mexican-Americans were frequently treated as
  conquered people, and discrimination was common
• Mexican farmers and ranchers were forced off
  their lands by the railroads
• They resorted to migrant work at low wages
• Many Mexicans still find themselves unwelcome in
  the U.S. except to be used as cheap labor

124
Distinguishing Myth From RealityPuerto Ricans

• Myth Puerto Rico is an independent country
  Puerto Rico is like a U.S. state
• Reality Puerto Rico is a commonwealth, or
  self-governing U.S. possession
• Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens who elect a
  governor and rule themselves under their own
  constitution
• Their representative in the U.S. Congress cannot
  vote
• Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico can vote only
  in local elections, not for members of Congress
  or for the president (those who live in the U.S.
  can vote in all U.S. elections)
• Puerto Ricans pay U.S. taxes and serve in the
  armed forces

125
Distinguishing Myth From RealityPuerto Ricans

• Myth Puerto Ricans are the same as Mexicans
• Reality The Puerto Ricans people are a blend of
  the islands original Taino Indians and settlers
  from Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy
• Puerto Ricans have their own unique Caribbean
  culture

126
Important facts

• All children need to see people like themselves
  in abundance in their classrooms
• Those children most likely to see images of
  people who look and live like themselves are
  European American, middle or upper-middleclass,
  able-bodied, or male, and live in two-parent,
  heterosexual families

127
Important facts (continued)

• Those children least likely to see images of
  people who look and live like themselves are
  childrenof color in interracial/interethnic
  families with disabilities or in families that
  are poor, homeless, single-parent, extended, or
  gay/lesbian headed

128
Important facts (continued)

• Early childhood educators must take care to
  ensure that images of children and adults from
  the least-likely-to-see-themselves groups are
  amply and accurately represented
• Children learn when their hearts, hands, and
  minds are engaged
• Make sure materials are good matches to their
  need for concrete, hands-on learning

129
Criteria forlearning materials and activities

• Do children learn primarily by extending their
  own experiences and gaining insights from each
  other?
• Does the activity or material make sense to them?
• Can children carry out nearly all of the activity
  themselves?
• Do culture and history come alive?

130
Criteria for learning materials and activities
(continued)

• 5. Are peoples real experiencesclothing,
  habits, music, homes, families, foods,
  capabilities, preferences, agesaccurately
  portrayed?
• 6. Are a variety of cultures and human
  characteristics included, with emphasis on the
  peoples who live within the childrens
  community?
• 7. Are people viewed as unique individuals within
  a culture?

131
Criteria for learning materials and activities
(continued)

• 8. Is pride in each childs heritage fostered?
• 9. Are principles of democracy instilled?

132
Chapter 4

• Preparing a Diverse Environment

133
Preparing a Diverse Environment

• Concentrate on bringing topics to lifein a way
  that integrates the curriculum, whether its
  science, reading, spelling, language, arts, math,
  music, art, physical education, or social studies
• Collaborate with other teaches to accumulate a
  varied collection of artifacts, then rotate items
• Labels in two or more languages might be attached
  to pet cages, pencil sharpeners, a