Anti-Bias Indentity Practices In Early Childhood Education

Have you ever thought about the relationship that special education and multicultural education has? How do teachers include culture in education? Is it by culturally relevant pedagogy? Special education students are put into classes for a specific reason. Most students are put into them for having difficulties learning or are in need of additional needs. Teachers who teach culturally relevant pedagogy should be able to use the student’s culture as a vehicle for learning. This type of teaching could also influence the students learning, as I will show you later in this essay.

Today’s classrooms are becoming more and more diverse with students that have disabilities and those that come from different cultures. It is important for educators to ensure that their teaching strategies are appropriate for all of the children in their classroom. When it comes to the classroom there can be many cultural challenges that educators will have to address to ensure that all students are growing and developing appropriately. Educators need to make sure that they are capable of addressing each of their

This paper focuses on the overrepresentation or over-identification of minority students found in special education in our schools. I chose to research this topic because being an immigrant myself, I can relate to the education experience of a student who is new to the American school system.

Within a school, equality, diversity and inclusion is very important. It is their duty to make sure all children have equal access to the curriculum. Whether they are a different race, culture, gender or have a special need or disability, it is important that they are supported and have a right to participate and be treated equal; this is known as inclusion. As part of this it is important that schools and other professionals support and promote cultural diversity in schools and the wider society, breaking down any discriminatory barriers to learning.

According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children NAEYC) recommendations emphasize that early childhood programs are accountable for creating a welcoming environment. The environment should respect diversity, supports children’s ties to their families and community. It should also support both second language acquisition, children home language, as well as cultural identities. Linguistic and cultural diversity is an advantage, not a deficit, for young children. As stated in the DEC/NAEYC joint position statement, the inclusion contributes to how every child with or without disabilities is developing and learning to reach their full potential. However, this can benefit to young children and their family to experience

It is essential that educators create safe, welcoming environments that promote learning for all students in a classroom and to do this they must acknowledge issues of diversity and difference and know how to approach these issues. There are two key documents that guide educators in their planning and implementation of curriculum; The Australian Curriculum and The Early Years Learning Framework. Using these two documents to create learning programs, educators must enact an inclusive curriculum that empowers all students, regardless of differences. For educators to understand and address issues of diversity and differences such as socio-economic, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, language barriers and stereotypes around gender and sexuality, they must look at their own philosophy, values and beliefs around these issues.

The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) of 2004 has several different procedure and document that are to be followed when assessing individuals for a special education program. In Guiberson's (2009) research he suggests that some educators may be unprepared to work with diverse student populations. In a 200 participant survey of speech pathologist a study found that a third of the participants did not have sufficient training in multicultural issues (Guiberson, 2009). Studies have shown that students that learn in educational environment that reflect their cultural background tend to achieve more academically, which make multicultural instruction important in school with diverse populations (Ornstein & Levine, 2007). Guiberson's

The setting needs to make children fully aware of the impact that discrimination has on others. In early care and education, the school follows an anti-bias curriculum this ensures that the end result is creating secure, respectful and mutual relationships that value diversity amongst other people. From an early age children and young people begin to build a sense of self, gender and racial identity. Practitioners need to develop children’s identities and self-esteem, help children to feel comfortable if they are different to others, create awareness of bias and stereotypes also provide children with the tools to react appropriately to bias. Anti-bias is an effective approach to the identification and challenging prejudicial and discriminatory practices in relationships between others. The following reasons are why anti-discriminatory are so important in the setting: It sets a good example, it creates and good and comfortable atmosphere, encourages children to see themselves and others as individuals, helps boost a child’s self-esteem, ensures equal opportunities for all children and makes sure that all children are included and nobody is every left

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

A major part of working with children and young people is to protect their rights and keep them from harm. So it is important that any adult does not let personal prejudices affect their work. They must look at their own values and attitudes and make sure they don’t have an impact on their work. With knowledge and understanding of different cultures and races that are in the school community many prejudices can be overcome. Working with special Educational Needs children and learning about what they can and cannot do – for whatever reason – also breaks

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.

This novel was a 4 year long research in culturally diverse school district that examines the inconsistency of placement of African American and Hispanic students in special education. This author Beth Harry and Janette Klingner present research - based stories that represent culturally and linguistically diverse students who fall short and are perceived to have impairments. Throughout the book Harry and Klingner studies / observes the children’s experiences,

The teacher can encourage this inclusion by teaching the students, parents, and other community members about negative stereotypical attitudes about students with disabilities by avoiding negative words, such as “disabled”, or “crippled”, or “handicapped” and to promote positive ideas about disabilities into class work, the student’s play time and other activities. To further ensure that the classroom is promoting equality for the child with the disability, the teacher should incorporate an inclusive curriculum mindset, by adapting the lessons, learning materials and classroom to suit the needs of all the different types of learners including the child with the disability within the classroom.

Yet, it is important to distinguish between negative academic outcomes due to environmental factors and actual learning or intellectual disabilities. Moreover, these factors do not justify the disproportionality, thus, many leaders suggest that the source of this misrepresentation is within the school system itself, not the students. In the specific case of learning disabilities, some experts question the validity of this condition and suggest that the real problem is that some schoolchildren are not receiving adequate academic experiences (Fletcher and Navarrete, 2003). Furthermore, test bias, conscious or unconscious bias, cultural mismatch, and racism remain regrettable but likely factors for misdiagnosis due to the lack of diversity in the teaching force and the lack of cultural responsive training (Skiba, 2013).

The idea of children with disabilities, whether they be mild or severe has been a very controversial and misunderstood topic. In the past inclusion has brought about huge changes for not only the students, but also the parents and families of these children, and staff at schools. Teachers and education professionals were the first to really feel the wrath and intimidation of this dramatic shift in education. There were several different factors that were coming about that made it very difficult for schools and teachers, the unorganized mandates were strict and didn’t allow much time for change. “President Gerald Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) into law in 1975. Since the original passage of the EAHCA, the law has been amended four times and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)” (Conroy, Yell, Katsiyannis, & Collins, 2010, para.1).