Anti-bias Curriculum Research Articles

Beyond omission: analysing the erasure of disability and inclusion in the developmentally appropriate practices

ABSTRACT The 4th edition of the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) guidelines for developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) had an opportunity to provide the field an inclusive blueprint. While there was an attempt in this edition to respond to decades of critiques (e.g. Bloch [1992]. “Critical Perspectives on the Historical Relationship Between Child Development and Early Childhood Education Research.” In Reconceptualizing the Early Childhood Curriculum: Beginning the Dialogue, edited by S. Kessler, and E. B. Swadener, 3–20. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.; Cannella [1997]. Deconstructing Early Childhood Education: Social Justice and Revolution. New York, NY: Peter Lang.; Escayg [2019]. “Who’s got the Power?”: A Critical Examination of the Anti-Bias Curriculum.” International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy 13 (1): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40723-019-0062-9.; Langford [2010]. “Critiquing Child-Centered Pedagogy to Bring Children and Early Childhood Educators Into the Center of a Democratic Pedagogy.” Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood 11 (1): 113–127. https://doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2010.11.1.113.; Pérez and Saavedra [2017]. “A Call for Onto-Epistemological Diversity in Early Childhood Education and Care: Centering Global South Conceptualizations of Childhood/s.” Review of Research in Education 41 (1): 1–29. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X16688621.; Souto-Manning and Rabadi-Raol [2018]. “(Re)Centering Quality in Early Childhood Education: Toward Intersectional Justice for Minoritized Children.” Review of Research in Education 42 (1): 203–225. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X187595.), the new edition continues to centre dominant developmental approaches where adults hyperfocus on children’s differences or individual characteristics rather than on changing educational structures and practices that promote inequity (Ferri and Bacon [2011]. “Beyond Inclusion: Disability Studies in Early Childhood Teacher Education.”). The revised guidelines do not go far enough to address inequity and to give teachers and programmes tools for addressing injustice for all young children. This manuscript builds on previous critiques of DAP by explicitly addressing the exclusion of disabled children from the guidelines.

Reconceptualization of Inclusion through Anti-Bias Curriculum

Tensions can arise when biased thoughts and practices are uncovered through discursive events in early years classrooms. This paper challenges the common practice of disregarding childhood curiosities in an attempt to ease tension and remove the risk of discomfort for some adults in caregiving and educating roles. Through a conceptual shift from a futurity of inclusion to an urgent call to action that problematizes the exclusion of nonhuman subjects within the curriculum, the construction and implementation of anti-bias curriculum is offered as a vehicle to the realization of holistically inclusive early learning spaces.

Realizing Inclusion and Systemic Equity in Medicine: Upstanding in the Medical Workplace (RISE UP)-an Antibias Curriculum.

IntroductionRacism is a public health threat, and racist behaviors adversely affect clinicians in addition to patients. Medical trainees commonly experience racism and bias. More than half of pediatric residents at a single institution reported experiencing or witnessing discriminatory behavior at work; only 50% reported receiving training on implicit bias, delivering difficult feedback, or peer support. Our multispecialty team created Realizing Inclusion and Systemic Equity in Medicine: Upstanding in the Medical Workplace (RISE UP), an antibias, anti-racism communication curriculum composed of three hybrid (virtual and in-person) workshops.MethodsDuring the pediatric resident workshops, we introduced tools for addressing bias, presented video simulations, and led small-group debriefings with guided role-play. We also reviewed escalation pathways, reporting methods, and support systems. Residents completed an evaluation before and after each workshop to assess the curriculum's efficacy.ResultsThirty-nine residents participated in RISE UP, with 20 attending all three workshops. Ninety-six percent of participants indicated they would recommend the workshops to colleagues. After the third workshop, 92% reported having tools to respond to bias, and 85% reported knowing how to escalate concerns regarding discriminatory behavior. Chief residents were most frequently identified as sources of resident support when encountering discriminatory behavior.DiscussionThis curriculum was successful in developing and strengthening residents’ responses to discrimination, including upstander support. The curriculum is adaptable for virtual, in-person, and hybrid settings, allowing for flexibility. Establishing institutional support, promoting faculty development, and creating and disseminating escalation pathways are critical to addressing racism in health care.

‘Quilting’ a play-based anti-bias curriculum for very young children: the Mosaic Approach

ABSTRACT Anti-bias in early education is gaining importance, especially given the volatile social climate amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, Singapore preschools lack focus on anti-bias education despite being a multi-ethnic society. Set in the COVID-19 context, this teacher research developed and examined a curriculum to educate young children on anti-bias through play. The Mosaic Approach was adopted as the research methodology. Children's photography and drawing, interviews, child observations, and teacher journals were utilised to collect qualitative data for in-depth analysis. Evidence suggested that (1) supportive anti-bias curriculum and environment reflect authentic representations and active, developmentally appropriate involvement of all children, (2) anti-bias education is promoted through perspective-taking and reasoning in purposefully framed play-based experiences, and (3) anti-bias should permeate all areas of the preschool programme, including the physical classroom, curriculum, and teaching practices through collaborative efforts. This research also saw the Mosaic Approach's usability as an educational tool for anti-bias education. Other interpretations and implications of the results were discussed.

Developing and Teaching an Anti-Bias Curriculum in a Public Elementary School: Leadership, K-1 Teachers’, and Young Children’s Experiences

ABSTRACT This article describes the process teachers at a public elementary school completed to develop and implement a developmentally appropriate, race-conscious, anti-bias curriculum in all K-5 classrooms. The study focuses on the experiences of the teachers and children in three early childhood classrooms using a case study design. Data were gathered and analyzed following one-on-one interviews with the principal and teachers, and an observation of an anti-bias lesson in one kindergarten classroom. Themes were identified following this analysis that concurred with existing literature on anti-bias education. The findings suggest the developmental appropriateness of teaching anti-bias topics to young children and the importance of iterative cycles of teacher reflection and learning as they engaged in this process. The findings further suggest that anti-bias education could be implemented at 1st-grade and kindergarten levels at a public school.

하늘반의 반편견 교육과정 실행을 위한 협력적 실행연구

하늘반의 반편견 교육과정 실행을 위한 협력적 실행연구

Development and application effects of anti-bias curriculum for young children

Development and application effects of anti-bias curriculum for young children

Introduction to the Special Issue: Antibias Curriculum and Critical Praxis to Advance Social Justice in Inclusive Early Childhood Education

Introduction to the Special Issue: Antibias Curriculum and Critical Praxis to Advance Social Justice in Inclusive Early Childhood Education

Never too early to learn

Four early childhood educators, along with a university researcher, describe their efforts to implement an antiracist, antibias curriculum in a daycare and preschool setting. Even very young children can learn important lessons about race, diversity, and equity, they argue, and teachers should not shy away from addressing these issues at staff meetings and in the classroom.

Intercultural dimensions of education

The paper discusses the development and the conceptualization of intercultural education, particularly within the Central-European pedagogical tradition. The author defends the thesis that intercultural education needs to be developed within the tradition of critical pedagogy, and linked to the main topicalities of pedagogical research, namely that of general theory of education and didactics. Intercultural education should therefore address the power inequalities of the education system itself, which primarily involves implementing a multi-perspective and anti-bias curriculum and creating a democratic, pluralistic, inclusive school ethos. Moreover, intercultural education is not defined as a specific pedagogical discipline, but as a pedagogical principle which guides the processes of planning, implementing, and evaluating education at the systemic, curricular, school, and classroom levels to enable recognition and empowerment of all minority groups. The paper concludes with a brief discussion on pedagogical measures to support intercultural education, including the role of the teachers.

Students as Practitioners in a Service Learning Context

IntroductionMentoring and teaching content can be powerful ways to enhance understanding and retention of course material for students (Amaral & Vala, 2009); however, developing useful mentoring experiences that incorporate course content can be challenging in a university context. As such, this article focuses on the use of students as mentors to adolescents through the incorporation of family life programming within traditional undergraduate instruction. Specifically, we present a case example of an advanced adolescent development course where students had the opportunity to collaboratively develop and lead a prevention program curriculum for at-risk youth. The class was designed to provide an in-depth study of adolescent development extending over an existing three-semester life course development sequence for students with a particular interest in adolescence. A careful review of peer-reviewed empirical research on adolescent development, and a translation of those concepts into practical elements of providing services to adolescents are fundamental components of this course. Service learning is employed as a way to provide services to the local community, while giving students the opportunity to implement the curriculum that they developed as part of the course. Here, we present the theoretical and empirical bases for using service learning, and in particular the strategy of mentoring, to enhance course understanding and application of course concepts. Finally, we present a case example illustrating the strategies employed, lessons learned, and evaluation of the reflective observations of the students.Kolb's Model of Experiential LearningOver the past several decades, Kolb and Kolb (2005) have developed and refined models of experiential learning that argue for the balance of content and experience alongside reflection and action. The goal of adult learners, they argue, is to become integrated into the profession by developing an ability to access both components of each these dialectic processes. Integrated learning, that which combines experience with conceptualization, has been found to improve adaptive flexibility to both experience based and concept based learning situations (Mainemelis, Boyatziz, & Kolb, 2002). Complementary dialectics balance the tension between conceptualization and experience with the tension between reflection and action. Individuals with learning styles that balance these dialectics have been found to have improved flexibility, and thus, are viewed as more sophisticated learners (Mainemelis, et al., 2002). Transactions between the individual and the environment establish and maintain learning styles (Kolb and Kolb, 2005). Accordingly, the duty of education would be to provide transactions that facilitate the development of balanced learning strategies. Service learning, which typically incorporates reflection, is an educational strategy that promotes experience to complement academic concepts, and reflections that situate actions in a social and academic context. Thus providing service learning experiences that integrate active reflection has the potential to stimulate more sophisticated learning for students.Using Kolb's model of experiential learning (Kolb and Kolb, 2005), Ethridge and Branscomb (2009) chronicled the active learning processes of children and adults by having university students implement an anti-bias curriculum with young children. Service learning is grounded in experiential learning, and provides a natural opportunity to use experiential education to expand on course information and use advanced cognitive skills. In fact, experiential education has been found to be an important component of guidance and teaching personal skills and development (Roaten & Schmidt, 2009). When students develop experiential activities they learn the value of using such a strategy and become comfortable with experiential processes. Students in Ethridge and Branscomb's (2009) study reported that development and leadership of experiential anti-bias program sessions helped to facilitate not only their understanding of the content but also the process of active learning for students, and reflection on their own biases. …

Learning through action: Parallel learning processes in children and adults

Experiential learning has become an essential part of many educational settings from infancy through adulthood. While the effectiveness of active learning has been evaluated in youth and adult settings, few known studies have compared the learning processes of children and adults within the same project. This article contrasts the active learning processes of children and adults by chronicling a service learning project in the United States in which 19 university students implemented an anti-bias curriculum with 112 young children. Findings are interpreted in relation to David Kolb's model of experiential learning. Implications for classroom practice and theory are discussed.

Participatory-research methods with young children: experiences from the field

For some time now, many childhood sociologists and early childhood researchers have argued that children are active participants in research and not merely passive recipients of experiences (Clark & Moss, 2001). Alongside growing interest in children's rights and childhood sociology, there has been concurrent stream of interest in listening to children (Moss, 2006; Podmore, May, & Carr, 2001; Prout & Hallett, 2003; Smith, 2002). It is no longer regarded as appropriate to marginalise children as objects to be studied--there is now an expectation that researchers adopt participatory-research approach (Christensen, 2004; Davis, 1998; Thomas & O'Kane, 1998) to include children's contribution to research about the conditions of childhood. Aotearoa New Zealand has led the way in curriculum development with Te Whariki (Ministry of Education, 1996) and in research-led professional development resources like Kei Tua o to Pae/Assessment for Learning. Early Childhood Exemplars (Ministry of Education, 2004). A significant feature of these two resources, particularly the latter, is the recognition given to the voice of the child. Research in early education needs to consider how to support children's participation in the actual research process. How might strategies support children's active participation in research about them or the conditions of childhood? This article details some participatory-research approaches used with children in kindergarten setting that was part of wider doctoral study. Participatory-research strategies included: reading book together with children; making posters of some of the pictures from the book; conversations with persona doll (Brown, 2001; Derman-Sparks & the Anti-Bias Curriculum (ABC) Task Force, 1989); and conversational interviews with groups of children as they went about their day-to-day activities in the kindergarten. Background to the study This study investigated perceptions of children's rights in three early childhood settings (an under-two care and education centre, playcentre, and kindergarten). Four teachers (one reliever), student teacher, and an education support worker, together with 43 four-year-old children participated in the research, which was conducted during the morning sessions (held five times week) over one month. When the research started, there were two permanent trained teachers and trained reliever. A week into the research, new permanent appointment was made and this teacher began in the last week of data collection. She participated fully in the research for that short time period. The following questions were the focus of the study: 1. How do teachers and children perceive children's rights in early childhood settings? 2. How are these rights enacted in early childhood settings? The research design adopted mixed-method approach, intended to reveal a different slice of the social world (Denzin, 2001, p. 326). The combined effect of the topic children's rights, plus commitment to the methodological paradigm, participatory-research approaches, was influential. A wide range of traditional ethnographic research methods were used--observational field notes, photographs, interviews, and focus group meetings; and as mentioned earlier, strategies to include children as participants were: book; posters made from the book; and persona doll, as well as conversational interviews. These strategies were all successful with some children, and each one generated different data, which eventually acted together to support the robustness of the findings. Consent or assent? Gaining entry to the kindergarten was very straightforward. The proposal was discussed during staff meeting with the teachers month before the fieldwork started, and information sheets were handed out (by the researcher) to parents and children at the end of kindergarten session, two weeks before the fieldwork began. …

Beyond Empathy

SUMMARY Anti-homophobia education is rarely included in the anti-bias curriculum of Education faculties, a grave omission since education graduates will teach in a homophobic school system that oppresses gay and lesbian students. This article draws on my experience in using a range of anti-homophobia strategies to confront homophobia among religious students in critical education courses where the principle of respecting each and every child is foundational. I argue that strategies designed to produce empathy sometimes fail because of the extreme importance attached to homophobia in the religious discourses that structure the identities of these students. At such times we should shift our pedagogical efforts to confront the ethical conflicts between homophobia and the principle of respect. I describe how I focus on the discursive production of both the forms and limits of personal identity, feelings, and beliefs to handle the confrontation productively. Although confronting homophobia sometimes involves hearing hurtful speech, it usefully problematizes the ethical status of homophobic students who are otherwise committed to classroom democracy, often provoking them to adopt less oppressive behaviors. It also usefully exposes the existence of homophobia for other students who might have underestimated it. Both groups end up better prepared to fight homophobia in their work as teachers.

Gender Segregation in Child Care: What is it and What Can We do about it?

Child care workers are committed to delivering a quality service to the children with whom they are working. As part of this commitment to quality, child care workers acknowledge the need to deliver an anti-bias curriculum. Gender is one of the areas incorporated in this anti-bias approach. However, we are only just beginning to understand how gender segregation operates in young children who attend child care. This paper examines some of the research about the development of gender segregated behaviours in young children and makes suggestions as to appropriate strategies for addressing these behaviours in the child care environment.

Maintaining an anti-bias curriculum

Maintaining an anti-bias curriculum