Statement About the Role of Early Childhood Education and Racism, June 15, 2015
In Fall of 2014, the Affirmative Action Committee of the Early Childhood Education Assembly (ECEA) posted a statement in response to the death of Michael Brown. We offered a few resources to support educators in building early childhood environments where honest talk about race could occur. Since that time, rather than abating, issues surrounding racism have been brought more and more to the forefront, making visible the degradation, discrimination, and loss of life that have been clear to communities of Color for generations. One of the most recent incidents occurred a little over a week ago when racial slurs and devastating brutality were directed at Dajerria Becton and other Black teens at a Texas pool party; then we received the news that Kalief Browder had committed suicide, a Black male who, at age 16 had been accused but not convicted of stealing a backpack, imprisoned and treated brutally before his release three years later; and a few days ago, details were made public in the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.
These incidents are in addition to countless others that have come to the surface in universities, public schools, and communities across the country. While the pain felt in watching these events is beyond description, we believe that their visibility is important because they push us to engage in critical conversations about racism and to recognize that it is real, widely-experienced, and ongoing and that, while steps have been taken to suspend racist students and school administrators, close down fraternities, and indict police officers, the deeper issues remain.
We take our lead from outgoing NCTE President, Ernest Morrell who reminded us that silence is a form of complicity. We cannot stand by without speaking out about the role and responsibility of every educator to use our privilege as teachers to alter this course of action. After all, it is our students who will be the adults of tomorrow in every institution that guides our society (schools, teacher education programs, law schools, police academies, health care institutions, and the population at large) and they will either be equipped to recognize and challenge racist ideologies (their own and others’) - or not.
So, what can Early Childhood Educators do? The Affirmative Action Committee of the ECEA strongly believes that it is through our teaching of young children that we can affect the most change. We believe this because research points out that when we do not explicitly teach anti-racism early, it becomes too easy for a racist consciousness to form in our silence, the same consciousness that tolerates racist acts we see today. This will require much thoughtful examination as we look at ourselves; our curriculum; our beliefs about each other, our students, and their families; and our understandings about the past, the present, and the future. It can be frustrating, challenging, and difficult work, but it is also a privilege and a responsibility.
In support of this work, we are working on an expansion of the ECEA’s Social Justice website (available later this summer) which will provide a wide range of resources to support your examination of issues and actions in faculty study groups, and in university and preK-2 classrooms. In the meantime, we offer a handful of books (listed below) that can provide foundations for better understanding and articulating the issues at hand.
Finally, we invite you to engage in anti-racist work in your educational environments and to share that work with us (we will provide outlets in a subsequent post). In these ways, we can support each other in gaining insight, engaging in difficult conversations, and ultimately affecting change. Our children deserve no less as we lay the foundation for the adults they will become.
The Affirmative Action Committee of the Early Childhood Education Assembly
Helpful Resources
Alexander, M., The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness.
Delpit, L., Multiplication is for White people: Raising expectations for other people’s children.
Howard, T., Why race and culture matter in schools: Closing the achievement gap in America’s classrooms.
Howard, T., Black male(d): Peril and promise in the education of African American
Milner. R., Start where you are but don’t stay there: Understanding diversity, opportunity gaps, and teaching in today’s classrooms
Milner, R., Race(ing) to class: Confronting poverty and race in schools and classrooms.
Picower, B., Practice what you teach: Social justice education in the classroom and the streets.
Pollack, M., Everyday antiracism: Getting real about race in schools.
Wing Su, D., Race talk and the conspiracy of silence: Understanding and facilitating difficult dialogues on race.
In Fall of 2014, the Affirmative Action Committee of the Early Childhood Education Assembly (ECEA) posted a statement in response to the death of Michael Brown. We offered a few resources to support educators in building early childhood environments where honest talk about race could occur. Since that time, rather than abating, issues surrounding racism have been brought more and more to the forefront, making visible the degradation, discrimination, and loss of life that have been clear to communities of Color for generations. One of the most recent incidents occurred a little over a week ago when racial slurs and devastating brutality were directed at Dajerria Becton and other Black teens at a Texas pool party; then we received the news that Kalief Browder had committed suicide, a Black male who, at age 16 had been accused but not convicted of stealing a backpack, imprisoned and treated brutally before his release three years later; and a few days ago, details were made public in the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.
These incidents are in addition to countless others that have come to the surface in universities, public schools, and communities across the country. While the pain felt in watching these events is beyond description, we believe that their visibility is important because they push us to engage in critical conversations about racism and to recognize that it is real, widely-experienced, and ongoing and that, while steps have been taken to suspend racist students and school administrators, close down fraternities, and indict police officers, the deeper issues remain.
We take our lead from outgoing NCTE President, Ernest Morrell who reminded us that silence is a form of complicity. We cannot stand by without speaking out about the role and responsibility of every educator to use our privilege as teachers to alter this course of action. After all, it is our students who will be the adults of tomorrow in every institution that guides our society (schools, teacher education programs, law schools, police academies, health care institutions, and the population at large) and they will either be equipped to recognize and challenge racist ideologies (their own and others’) - or not.
So, what can Early Childhood Educators do? The Affirmative Action Committee of the ECEA strongly believes that it is through our teaching of young children that we can affect the most change. We believe this because research points out that when we do not explicitly teach anti-racism early, it becomes too easy for a racist consciousness to form in our silence, the same consciousness that tolerates racist acts we see today. This will require much thoughtful examination as we look at ourselves; our curriculum; our beliefs about each other, our students, and their families; and our understandings about the past, the present, and the future. It can be frustrating, challenging, and difficult work, but it is also a privilege and a responsibility.
In support of this work, we are working on an expansion of the ECEA’s Social Justice website (available later this summer) which will provide a wide range of resources to support your examination of issues and actions in faculty study groups, and in university and preK-2 classrooms. In the meantime, we offer a handful of books (listed below) that can provide foundations for better understanding and articulating the issues at hand.
Finally, we invite you to engage in anti-racist work in your educational environments and to share that work with us (we will provide outlets in a subsequent post). In these ways, we can support each other in gaining insight, engaging in difficult conversations, and ultimately affecting change. Our children deserve no less as we lay the foundation for the adults they will become.
The Affirmative Action Committee of the Early Childhood Education Assembly
Helpful Resources
Alexander, M., The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness.
Delpit, L., Multiplication is for White people: Raising expectations for other people’s children.
Howard, T., Why race and culture matter in schools: Closing the achievement gap in America’s classrooms.
Howard, T., Black male(d): Peril and promise in the education of African American
Milner. R., Start where you are but don’t stay there: Understanding diversity, opportunity gaps, and teaching in today’s classrooms
Milner, R., Race(ing) to class: Confronting poverty and race in schools and classrooms.
Picower, B., Practice what you teach: Social justice education in the classroom and the streets.
Pollack, M., Everyday antiracism: Getting real about race in schools.
Wing Su, D., Race talk and the conspiracy of silence: Understanding and facilitating difficult dialogues on race.