Anti-Bias Education: A Critical Analysis

Children can grow up imprinted with perspectives that have been pushed onto them, intentional or not. If perspectives have been negative, it is likely to affect the overall wellbeing of the child. A practitioner can ensure that families are aware of how much a child is impacted by actively engaging in discussions about wider issues such as the community they live in and how society reflects onto them. On reflection parents may acknowledge the direct impact of their personal views and adapt the way they inflict them onto their children.

Anti-bias education is important for young children because children begin to recognize differences early on in life. (Derman-Sparks) My current understanding of anti-bias education for young children is to teach the children how to accept diversity and respect the differences between each other. I believe an anti-bias education provides the children with the opportunity to gain a sense of self along with feeling reassurance with other differences. As a future educator of young children, I need to be mindful that children create their attitudes and identities through interactions related to different experiences, such as their bodies, cognitive developmental stage, and their social environment. (Derman-Sparks) The variety of biases that exist in the children’s world need to be addressed in order to teach the children how to think critically about fairness; therefore, the children can learn how to oppose the bias. (Derman-Sparks) Likewise, my views about anti-bias education have changed because of the innovative information presented to me. I knew an anti-bias curriculum was essential for young children, but I did not know how important it truly was. My views of an anti-bias education mainly focused on holidays because I knew it would not be appropriate to only celebrate the holidays from one culture or religion. My views about anti-bias education grew because I understand that the overall goals of an anti-bias education are to enable the children to think

As a Family Advocate, I work with families and children from different backgrounds and cultures. After completing the observations, anti-bias curriculum is a must to reflect the cultural and background of the families and children in the program. Many families I work with are low income. My goal is to create an environment where children and families from different backgrounds can feel comfortable and belonging. I would like to work closely with families and provide the support that they may need.

As a social worker, I would not have any biases concerning Gilbert as a person. However, once including the family and Gilbert’s other systems I will have to limit some personal perspectives. It will be challenging for me to not assume or consider mama is an unfit parent. I do not always view obesity, especially when the individual is overeating, positively. I value healthy parental relationship between children and parents, which might cause me to want to show some type of hostility towards mama’s inability to support her children. As a social worker, I will have to remember that situation is not that simple and take into account underlying reasons for mama’s disability. On the hand, the lack of support from the community and their negative response to Arnie might cause some discomfort. I would assume that most of the community members are not educated about Arnie’s disability and maybe, I could advocacy for more support and resource to be implemented rather than just displaying distress about the situation.

I believe the theory of bias against outgroups best explains the reason behind the majority genocides. For example many genocides were based on ethnic cleansing, which created an out group that was seen as a threat. This created a bias against an outgroup that may be direct or indirect but in the perpetrators mind the genocide of the out groups may be justified. But in my opinion none of these theories correctly explain the cause of genocide and violence. In my opinion religion, power and greed is the real reason behind many of mass atrocities. Some governments will go far as killing entire classes of people who threaten their profit and power to control. Certain biases may influence this, but I believe some people target and kill people just

Because self-esteem is influenced by so many different things (e.g. society, media, friends, etc…) it is very important that parents and caretakers take the proper steps in helping a child develop a strong sense of who they are (Nuttall, 1991). By the time a child reaches three years of age they have experienced a very wide range of emotions (Cluff, N.D.) Parents, teachers and caregivers will lay the foundation upon which a child emotionally develops (Cluff, N.D.). Positive emotional development is important for children because this will not only determine their ability to develop healthy relationships with their peers but also how to successfully deal with their own emotions (Cluff, N.D.). Many theorists agree that there is a connection between a child’s emotional levels and development; they also

The correspondence bias is a common mistake that people often make when attempting to interpret other people's behavior Yet when we see people act a certain way, we tend to assume their behavior is symbolic to their personality, not to the situation at hand nevertheless; I made that mistake. For example, one day in the copier room at work, an employee named Betty was standing in line to make some copies yet; she was also conversing small talk with other people in the area. When Laura cuts in front of her Betty yelled at Laura, and the two ladies begin to argue. I had a mental perception of the situation If asked, both Betty and Laura are most gave a dispositional reason for the other person's behavior. Betty said that Laura was rude and a

Article two is about black students are more likely not to be disciplined by black teachers. When these students are paired with educators their behavior seemed to get better. They were far less likely to get kicked out of the school they were attending while paired with a teacher of the same race.

Labels and stereotypes have been taught to children from an early age and most of the time, without their parents’ awareness. Children learn a lot from their surroundings through observation. From the mini-oven or the truck they are told to play with and to the dress or pants they are handed, they learn their role

According to Erik Erikson (1959), a child will undergo a “conflict between the feelings of inferiority and positive self-image during their early education”. If the child succeeds in school at this time, they will develop “positive feelings about themselves” (Erik Erikson 1959), and that they are able to succeed in life. However, if the child instead meets this conflict with frustration and failure, they learn that their environment controls them, leaving the child with a feeling of being incompetent. Continued research into the links between literacy issues and emotional and behaviour difficulties also conveys a powerful argument for early intervention by SEN Counsellors or tutors, suggesting that growing “feelings of inferiority grow by the age of ten, where after it becomes exceptionally challenging to assist a child in developing a positive self- image again” (Erik Erikson

Prejudice is someone’s attitude or opinion of someone (Bergan). My first experience with prejudice, personally as a victim, was as a high school student looking at colleges. I did not know much about what I should be doing to start applying for colleges, so I searched for people in the educational system who knew what to do. Prejudice came because I was homeschooled all my life. I had several educators, advisers, and teachers inform me that I would not be able to be successful in college because of my private education. My GPA would not be taking seriously in college and that I would find that it was too much of a culture shock to stay in school. I’ve heard the stories about teachers and students believing that homeschoolers are literate and

For this reason, to respond to the multiple ethical challenges of societies, including equipping children with the necessary skills to build peaceful and inclusive communities, education needs to contribute to develop children’s full potential, not just intellectually, but also emotionally, spiritually and relationally.

From a young age children are encouraged to inhibit critical thinking and go beyond expectations, advancing further than the formalities their parents aspire for them. All of so is encouraged until the child exhibits connotations that venture away from the parent or guardians’ standpoints. The parent chooses to blame outside influences (i.e. peers, teachers, etc), as the reason behind these thoughts and scrutinize the child as being corrupted.

Early childhood educators is based on the idea that every child should be respected and it is with that comforting and respectable atmosphere that the possibilty of engagement and progress becomes possible. Every child has a culture and the acceptance and respect of their unique culture is central to learning. It plays a role not only in communicating and receiving information, but also shaping the thinking process of a classroom environment and individual children. Culturally Responsive Teaching is a pedagogy that stresses the importance of including student’s cultural differences in all aspects of learning. Effective teaching requires a mastery of content knowledge and knowledge of student populations as well. The educational system provides early intervention for students who have developmental disabilities or delays and the purpose is to give those students the possibility to minimize or eliminate being behind their peers academically. Although these students have laws protecting them and making special education mainstream we must also look at the manner that early childhood education and education in general has created a groundwork for its importance while other issues of gender identity have been sidelined in our society and educational system. THroughout this text we will explore the anti-bias disability and gender indentity practices in early childhood education.

Discuss how educators can positively influence a school-age child to not hold biases or prejudices against others.