Anti-Bias Education in Early Childhood
Anti-bias education is an important component of the WHPS curriculum. Our staff have been engaged in ongoing professional development on this topic. At one of our recent all-preschool professional development sessions, we screened the film, Reflecting on Anti-bias Education in Action: The Early Years. We looked at vignettes demonstrating effective anti-bias teaching strategies and reflected on our own teaching practices. While the film is geared toward Early Childhood Education teachers, we encourage parents to check out some of the interesting ideas and language discussed.
What the Experts Say
You can read more about these goals from The National Association for the Education of Young Children. It is important to continually revisit and refine these habits in our lives at school and at home. One concept from the film that we will be exploring further is persona dolls. We are excited to share more information in the coming months.
There are four areas of anti-bias education that we believe are part of a high-quality program. The more parents and teachers can embrace these goals, it will help make an even better future for our children and society.
Goals of Anti-Bias Education
Identity - Nurture children in feeling strong in their identity without feeling superior to others. Helping children to be comfortable in their home, as well as their school culture. This goal aims to develop each child’s confidence, self-awareness, family pride, and social identity.
Diversity - Promote each child’s comfortable, empathetic interaction with others from diverse backgrounds. Help children learn to express comfort and joy with human diversity, use accurate language for human differences, and form deep, caring connections across all dimensions of human diversity.
Justice - Foster each child’s capacity to critically identify bias and nurture each child’s empathy for the hurt bias causes. Help children increasingly recognize unfairness (injustice), have language to describe unfairness, and understand that unfairness hurts.
Activism - Cultivate each child’s ability and confidence to stand up for oneself and for others in the face of bias. Help children develop a sense of empowerment and the skills to act, with others or alone, against prejudice and/or discriminatory actions.
You can read more about these goals from The National Association for the Education of Young Children. It is important to continually revisit and refine these habits in our lives at school and at home.
