Anti Bias Education

One of the most stimulating aspects of early education is observing and supporting young children as they develop their individual identities. This development takes place within different social contexts where issues relating to human diversity and difference impact significantly on children’s understandings and ways of being in the world. Arguably, our education begins when we are first able to detect causes and consequences, and continue to form the basis of our identity, behaviours and knowledge of the world around us. Glover (1991) in the early 1990s found that as 2-3 year old children became aware of difference they simultaneously develop positive and negative feelings about the differences they observe. For example, racial awareness impacts on their perceptions of skin colour and on their preferences in the social relationships they initiate and foster with other children. An Australian study conducted by Palmer (1990) exemplifies how preschool children were able to make negative judgements based on racial characteristics of young Aboriginal children. Children were reportedly saying ‘You’re the colour of poo… Did your mum drop you in the poo?’ This observation suggests that children as young as 2 years old are becoming aware of diversity and differences of others, and these judgements children are making are often affecting their ability to make sound judgements of others

Prejudice and discrimination can generate social and emotional tension amongst children and by not educating and teaching children the differences between other cultures and beliefs in a positive manner from an early age may lead to resentment and hostility in later life towards other cultures.

B.2.a. Within this video, the teacher took her students on a field trip to observe citizens and gauge how the rights showed individualism in America. It made them aware of stereotyping. This supports students learning about cultural diversity by showing how others were treated in history. In student reflection forms, students wrote about how color should not matter when interacting with others. People can be a good person even if they aren’t religious or believe the same way as themselves. The teacher taught the students that everyone is different and that we need to look for and identify the good qualities of others. This was an effective way to teach the students because they became more aware of the way they acted toward others.

There are many strategies that I could learn to lessen the negative effects of differences or misunderstandings between students and their parents. According to our textbook Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves by Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards, you need to have positive relationships with and among families (Derman-Sparks, Edwards, & National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2010, p. 36). The information that I learned from this book will help me develop appropriate strategies that will decrease the volume of misunderstanding that could develop in the classroom.

It is crucial for educators to value, understand and incorporate every child’s cultural diversity in the classroom (The Early Years Learning Framework Professional Learning Program, 2011). This means educators needs to deal with any bias beliefs they might/may hold. For example, some children might not participate in the classroom because

Children and young people can experience prejudice and discrimination from their earliest social encounters with others. Prejudice is an unreasonable or unfair dislike or preconceived negative view of individuals belonging to a particular group. Discrimination is the bigoted behaviour of singling out a particular person or group for different treatment than the others. Both of these unacceptable responses usually arise as a result of ignorance of the benefits of diversity and a primal impulse of ‘group mentality’.

Discrimination and prejudice interfere with people’s rights to have access to equality of opportunity and hinder the promotion of diversity, and they should have no place in a children’s setting.

Educators should critically examine their own values, beliefs, and attitudes related to difference in diversity because we as individuals all have different experiences, beliefs, values and attitudes that can be quite diverse. Staying mindful of this difference is essential in professional practice. For this to really be effective, you need to critically reflect on how your own life events have shaped your beliefs, values and attitudes. Educators must put all assumptions and bias’s aside and keep an open mind when dealing with these differences. For example, by reflecting on your background, you can become aware of biases and prejudices that may impact on your relationship with others from different backgrounds. Once identified, you can then

Obtaining a good education allows a person to gain the basic skills he or she would need to thrive in the world as an adult. In order for a child to acquire the benefits of a good education, a stable environment must be provided without the influence of any negative outside forces. One negative force that can directly impact a minority child’s education is racism. Interestingly enough, there are several other aspects that are involved in the making of the standard quality education, which include student life and disciplinary actions. A troubled student life and the impact of bias disciplinary actions can result in a lack of standard educational opportunities for children in a minority group situation. Racism can negatively affect the quality of a minority child’s education by causing difficulties in a student’s life inside the classroom, unfair disciplinary actions, and academic failure.

Multiculturalism in education is an essential element in shaping America’s increasingly diverse society by reducing racism. This research takes a look at the relationship between multiculturalism and how educating the youth would cure racism. Multiculturalism is the view that cultural differences should be respected or even encouraged. The concept of multiculturalism reduces racism in our society because it forces people to communicate and understand individuals’ cultures that are different from theirs. Multiculturalism is very important in our Society. It helps us look at other cultures

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.

I feel as if children today a much more aware of the multicultural and anti-bias. It also depends the child how they would react or feel about these topics. Here in Brookings we have the situation of having a college in the town as well as the Babybel Cheese factory. With these in our town, children here our exposed to many other cultures or nationality groups. With the college, we are going to have families from all over the world, and with the Babybel cheese factory, other the last couple of years the schools have been exposed to the French nationality. Young children are going notice the difference, but they aren’t going to be offended or discouraged by what they see. For many children, they have grown up in Brookings, they are

43), and inviting the parents to participate gives the educator and families more experienced to becoming familiar with anti-bias education and activities to building a wonderful times “of community [that] affect families for many years” (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010, p. 42).

In the classroom, students may lie to prevent getting in trouble. That is understandable because, who wants to be in trouble anyway? However, I will discourage dishonesty in the classroom by promoting an environment in which students will feel comfortable with each other and with me. I will develop rapport with the students so that they see me as their teacher, their guide, and not an unfriendly figure of authority that imposes punishments to those who break the rules. Kindness will be my ally and will use it to demonstrate that any broken rules in the classroom can result is memorable learning experiences without incurring punishment. Perhaps the love and logic strategy of classroom management would help me reduce this bias because, as I treat students with kindness, dishonesty may be deter. Kindness will help me strengthen the student to teacher bond.

First, the article mentions parents’ perceptions on how children develop an understanding for cultural awareness. The article notes that parents assume children are color innocent, therefore the subject is often ignored. Further, children’s’ understanding of culture is influenced through their environment, resulting in developing misconceptions and biases. Therefore, it is crucial as educators to examine closely how children make sense of racial and ethnic diversity in order to determine the best approach to incorporate multicultural and antibias education.