due tomorrow..... please read first....
Chapter 2
Children’s Identity Development
This is my daughter, Sadie, as an infant.
Steps in the Development of Prejudice
| Awareness | Being alert to, seeing, noticing, and understanding differences among people even though they may never have been described or talked about. |
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| Identification | Naming, labeling, and classifying people based on physical characteristics that children notice. Verbal identification relieves the stress that comes from being aware of or confused by something that you can’t describe or no one else is talking about. Identification is the child’s attempt to break the adult silence and make sense of the world. |
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| Attitude | Thoughts and feelings that become an inclination or opinion toward another person and their way of living in the world. |
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| Preference | Valuing, favoring, and giving priority to a physical attribute, person, or lifestyle over another, usually based on similarities and differences. |
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| Prejudice | Preconceived hostile attitude, opinion, feeling, or action against a person, race, or their way of being in the world without knowing them. |
Ask Yourself:
1. Do these descriptions fit with what you already know about children’s development?
2. Does any of this surprise you?
3. Is any of this hard to accept? Why?
Ask Yourself:
What is new here?
How does knowing this change the urgency with which we address these issues with children?
Children’s Questions & Comments about Diversity
| Gender | Race/Culture | Class | Disability | Age | Sexual Orientation |
| Am I a boy? | What’s my color (skin)? | Is my dress pretty? | What’s that? (pointing to a person in a wheelchair) | How old am I? | Are we gay? |
| How do I know if I’m a girl? | What color are my eyes? | See my new shirt! | Am I handicapped? | How old are you? | What is he? |
| When I grow up I’m going to be a daddy. | When I get big, I’m gonna have skin like yours. | I like your new toy. Can I be your friend? | Are my eyes gonna get broken? | I’m three. | She likes girls. |
| You cut your hair. Now you have boy hair. | You talk funny. | She can’t be our friend. She has ugly clothes. | Deaf people can’t work. | You’re a baby. | Do you have two moms? |
| He’s not a boy. He has an earring. | Where do you come from? | He’s not my friend. He’s dirty. | Blind people can’t have babies. | When I grow up I’m gonna do that. | You can’t have two dads. |
| That’s a girl toy. | You eat that? | She’s weird. | That’s a baby toy. | Girls can’t marry girls. | |
| You can’t do that, you’re a boy. | You’re not an Indian. Where’s your horse? | I don’t like him. He can’t talk. | Grandmas can’t do things. They’re old. | You’re gay! | |
| Get out of here! No boys allowed. | You can’t play. You got brown skin. | I’ll help her. She can’t do it. | No little kids allowed. | Boys can get married if they love each other. | |
| We don’t like girls. | White girls go first. | He’s not right. | That’s gay! |
These are the actual words of children. Have you heard them?
Here are four ways to explain why children develop prejudice.
These explanations come from our understanding of Child Development, learning theory, and socialization.
Concepts Young Children Can Understand
Everyone is worthy.
Everyone is lovable and capable.
Everyone is equal.
Everyone deserves respect.
Everyone is important.
Everyone has feelings.
People are similar.
People are different.
Some physical attributes stay the same.
Some physical attributes change.
It is important to try new experiences.
We can learn about the daily life of people we know.
Culture comes from parents and family.
There are different kinds of families.
Families live in different ways.
Source: York, S. (1991). Roots & wings: Affirming culture in early childhood programs. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.
Outside of an early childhood program, especially one that implements an anti-bias curriculum, many children do not learn these concepts—but they can understand them if we teach them.
Keep this in mind as you move through the rest of this week’s PowerPoint.
Learning about Differences
Denver, Colorado (19:35-33:05)
Watch Video
Anti-Bias Goals #2 & #3:
Goal 2--Diversity: Children will express comfort and joy with human diversity, use accurate language for human differences, and form deep, caring connections across all dimensions of human diversity.
Goal 3--Justice: Children will increasingly recognize unfairness (injustice), have language to describe unfairness, and recognize that unfairness hurts.
Multicultural Education Goals for Early Childhood Programs
Related to anti-bias education and sharing many of the same principles, is Multicultural Education. But be advised that it is distinctly different in its focus on culture, race, and language and realizing the ideal of a multicultural, multiracial society.
Here are the goals of Multicultural Education:
To teach children to respect others’ cultures and values as well as their own
To help all children function successfully in a multicultural, multiracial society
To develop a positive self-concept in those children most affected by racism, such as children of color
To help all children experience the differences as culturally diverse people and their similarities as human beings in positive ways
To encourage children to experience people of diverse cultures working together as unique parts of a whole community
Source: Klein, M.D., & Chen, D. (2001). Working with children from culturally diverse backgrounds. Albany, NY: Delmar.
Linda Alston, Teacher, Denver, CO
“Starting Small”
No Name Calling
This is an educational initiative in schools.
It is based on the understanding that children have been hurt and hurt others based on misunderstandings.
Children need our support in managing their feelings of vulnerability and pain in nonhurting ways.
Today’s Activity:
Take out a piece of paper.
On one side of the paper write a name you have been called that you didn’t like.
On the other side of the paper write how being called that name made you feel.
Post in our Discussion forum using the sentence stems: I want to be called ___ AND I don’t want to be called ___because it makes me feel ___.
To Do:
Activity &
Discussion 1
Anti-Bias Interactions: Goals & Guidelines
Goals in Learning about Differences and Similarities:
To encourage children to ask about their own and others’ physical characteristics
To provide children with accurate, developmentally appropriate information
To enable children to feel pride, but not superiority, about their racial identity
To enable children to develop ease with and respect for physical differences
To help children become aware of our shared physical characteristics– what makes us all human beings
Guidelines for responding to children’s curiosity and discomfort with differences:
Immediately address a child’s negative response to an observed difference.
Help the child figure out why he or she is uncomfortable.
Explain what responses are hurtful and offer alternative responses.
1. View this week’s PowerPoint and use it to inform your responses to the scenarios. 2. See Announcement for Scenario assignments. (Scenarios on Slide 9.) 3. Respond to your assigned scenario in our Discussion forum by addressing all of these issues in your post: a) What are the children noticing? Acknowledge this. b) Remind them that words hurt, if applicable. c) Gently correct any misconception about differences. d) Remember that children don’t know that some physical characteristics stay the same (and can’t be changed). Remember Ben, “New.” E) Use quotation marks to indicate specifically what you would say to the children involved. Remember, we are all learning here. This is new territory for many. There are no right or wrong answers, just efforts to be intentional in our interactions with children and to work toward realizing the anti-bias goals.
To Do:
Discussion 2
Scenarios: 1. Sonia (2) keeps staring at Benjamin’s foot, which has a brace on it. When Benjamin walks, Sonia tries to imitate his leg movements. Their teacher, noticing Sonia’s behavior, walks closer to her. 2. “Brian acts like a baby. He doesn’t talk right and he scribbles and he doesn’t even know how to write his name,” five-year-old Sheldon complains to his teacher. 4. Rachel, who has been playing with Kimiko, a child who recently arrived from Japan, asks the teacher, “Can you make my eyes look like Kimiko’s? If I learn to speak Japanese, will I have eyes like hers?” A few minutes later, the teacher sees Rachel trying to make her eyes look like Kimiko’s. How should she intervene? 5. Jill arrived this morning with a stereotypic “Indian Warrior” figure. Sue and Kenji immediately told her. “Don’t show that to Suzanne (a Cherokee child). It will hurt her feelings. It isn’t the way Indians look.” 6. The teacher invites Jose to tell a favorite story in Spanish to an English-speaking group of preschoolers. A few children begin to giggle. The teacher stops Jose to speak to the children. 7. A four-year-old White child asks a visitor to her classroom, “What’s your name?” The visitor answers, “Rayko.” “That’s a funny name,” responds the child.
Adapted from: Derman-Sparks, L. (1989). Anti-bias curriculum: Tools for empowering young children. Washington, DC: NAEYC
Next Week: Building an Anti-Bias Program
Read Chapter 3.
For the Book Response assignment, I will be giving you a video clip to watch of a children’s book reading. There is nothing you need to do to prepare aside from keeping up with your reading.
Stages of Racial Awareness and Prejudice
Infants: Self-Awareness
Recognize familiar people and show fear of strangers
Recognize and actively expl ore faces to discern “what is me” and what is not me”
Developing a sense of trust in the world
Experience and show fear and anger
Toddlers: Identify self as an individual
Experience and show shame
Are sensitive and “catch” feelings from adults
Begin to mimic adult behav ior
Ask “What’s that?”
Twos: Identify people wit h the words, me, mine, and you
Need independence and a sense of control
Recognize physical characteristics
Classify people by gender
Learn names of colors
Can tell the difference between black and white
May begin to use social labels
Threes and Fours: Better at noticing differences among people
Can identify and match people according to their physical characteristics
Ask “why” questions
No gender or ethnic constancy ( don’t know that gender and skin color remain constant throughout life)
Susceptible to believing stereotypes
Make false associations and overgeneralize
Mask fear of differences with avoidance, silliness
Fives and Sixes: Understand cultural identity and enjo y exploring cultural heritage
Can identify stereotypes
Explore real and pretend, fair and unfair
Tend toward rigid thinking and behavior
Show aggression through insults and name -calling
Sevens to Nines: Gender and racia l constancy
Understand group membership, form groups to distinguish the mselves from others
Can consider multiple attributes
Aware of racism against own group
Ask “What are you?”
Want/need a wealth of accurate information
Developing personal strength
Nines to Twelves: Interest ed in, and aware of, world events
Interested in ancestry, history, and geography
Can put self in another’s shoes
Aware of cultural/political v alues
Understand racism
Can compare and contrast minority/majority perspective
Can use skills to take social action
Source: York, S. (2006). Roots & wings: Affirming culture in early childhood programs. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Important Note: At age ten, racial
attitudes tend to stay constant unless the
child experiences a life-changing event.
Four Explanations for Children’s Pre -Prejudiced Behavior
Children as Models Children imitate the prejudiced comments and behavior they see
from their parents, other adults, and older children in their lives.
Children as Mirrors Children’s prejudiced behavior and thinking is a reflection of
society’s values, attitudes, and prevailing stereotypes. They mimic
what is seen and heard on TV, read in books, and lived out through
situations.
Children as Victims Children, who themselves have been shamed and humiliated by
adults and older children, transfer their anger and negative feelings
onto others who they see as less powerful and less desirable. This
is especially true of children living in families with rigid rules and
dominating parents who don’t allow the child to express feelings of
anger, hurt, and sadness.
Children as Limited Thinkers Cognitive development follows a predictable sequence from
simplistic thinking to more complex reasoning. Preschoolers can
only understand the world and other people from their own
experience and are likely to confuse facts and focus on irrelevant
details. Young children reach false conclusions about the world
because they build their own beliefs by making incorrect
associations between events and ideas.