Children colouring: speaking ‘colour difference’ with Diversity dolls

Abstract

This article draws on data from qualitative research that was conducted with children between 6 and 13 years of age as a part of an 18-month project that explored respectfully engaging with cultural diversity in Australian primary schools. We used persona dolls as a research tool to enable children to explore and articulate their knowledge of ‘race’ and ‘colour’ operating in Australian society. Children’s voices revealed to us how they had conceptualised ‘difference’ based on colour, by using their everyday school experiences with peers. Children as young as 6–7 years of age were able to articulate how they positioned and related to the attributes of these dolls, and how these were connected to the material realities of their daily lives. Thus, we raise some important and critical implications for teacher education, including the need to train teachers to recognise, and address, how ‘race’ and colour operates overtly and covertly in school communities and is mobilised through children’s everyday experiences at school.