Transcript Talking to Children About Race

Talking to Young Children About
Race
Why Is It Important And How Can It Be
Done In A Developmentally Appropriate
Way?
Stone Soup Conference
October 22, 2013
Anne Marie Davidson
AJ Pappanikou Center for Excellence in
Developmental Disabilities
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Objectives
 Participants will:
 Develop a better understanding of their racial and
cultural history
 Increase their knowledge of the use of persona dolls
as an anti-bias teaching strategy
 Increase their knowledge of the use of authentic
multi-cultural literature as an anti-bias teaching
strategy
 Practice using persona dolls and an authentic
multicultural literature assessment tool
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Ground Rules
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Deep Structure of Culture
• Culture is a set of rules for behavior, influencing, not causing,
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behaviors themselves
Culture is shared behavioral characteristics of groups passed
from one generation to another
Culture is learned, not something we are born with
Individual members of a culture are embedded to different
degrees within their culture resulting in variations of
behaviors and attitudes
Cultures borrow and share rules through contact with each
other
Members of a cultural group may be proficient at cultural
behavior but unable to describe the rules
Carol Brunson Phillips, Culture as a Process
Town Meeting: Exploring Your
Culture
 Patterns of communication
 Social values
 Preferred ways of learning
 Child rearing practices
 Family Structure/adult child interactions
 Outward displays of culture
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Influence of Culture on Development
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Culture shapes who children are and
how they experience the world. Through
participation in everyday cultural
practices and family traditions, children
learn meaning systems, social identity,
language, values, beliefs, behavioral
norms, and roles intended to develop the
competencies appropriate to their culture.
How Do You Experience Race?
 What is race?
 Share your earliest memory of race
 And a most recent
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What is Race?
 Race is a social-political construct
 Race can be redefined by social,
economic and political forces
 Racism is a system of advantage
based on race, Wellman, 1977
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Racial questions start early
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Like many African Americans, I have many
race-related memories beginning when I was
quite small. I remember being about three years
old when I had an argument with an African
American playmate. He said I was “black.” “No
I’m not,” I said, “I’m tan.”
 Beverly Daniel Tatum, 1997
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Young Children and Race
 Many people believe that young children are “color-blind” and do
not notice differences. As children grow, their attitudes about the
differences that they observe quickly begin to reflect our society’s
prejudices.
 For more than 50 years, studies have shown that by the time
children are three years old, they are already beginning to
respond differently to skin color and other racial cues (Clark and
Clark 1947, Goodman 1952, Katz 1982).
 Specifically, these studies have found that even at this young
age, both African American and white children demonstrate a
preference for white people and objects while exhibiting negative
attitudes towards dark or black people and objects.
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What children say – The Early Childhood
Research
 “Renee (4, white) [is pulling] Lingmai (3, Asian) and
Jocelyn (4.5), white) across the playground in a
wagon…[Renee gets tired] and drops the handle of the
wagon… Lingmai eager to continue this game, jumps
from the wagon and picks up the handle. As Lingmai
begins to pull, Renee admonishes her, “No, No. You
can’t pull this wagon. Only white Americans can pull
this wagon.”
-D. Van Ausdale and J.R. Feagin, The First R: How Children Learn Race and Racism,
in L. Derman-Sparks, What If All the Kids Are White?
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What children say – The Early
Childhood Research
 C (3, black) cuddles a black doll and says, “This is
my baby.” T (4, white)replies: “I don’t like it, it’s
funny. I like this one (holding a white doll), it’s my
favorite. I don’t like this one (pointing to the black
doll). Because you see I like Sarah, and I like
white. You’re my best friend, though you’re
brown.’” (B. Brown, 1998, p. 16)
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What adults think
 “Most adults refuse to accept that
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little children would make knowing
use of the ugliness inherent in racist
epithets, emotions and behavior...in
particular, white adults abdicate their
responsibility to recognize and
combat racism when they deny that
race and racism can even exist in
serious forms among young
children.”
What children say – The Early
Childhood Research
 A European American child came home from
school and told her mother that she needed her
hair done in many small braids. When her mother
asked her about the reason for this urgent need,
she replied, “There’s only one African-American
girl in my class. The other kids tease her about
her braids. I want braids too, so she won’t be the
only one.”
 T. Whitney, Kids Like Us: Using Persona Dolls in the
Classroom
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What children say – The Early
Childhood Research
 Examples of preschoolers’ responses when asked,
What is fair? What is unfair?
 “Everybody should get to talk” (3 year-old)
 ‘One person doesn’t get to be the boss all the time”
(4 year-old)
 “If somebody gets too much, that’s not fair” (4 yearold)
 “You have to be sure everybody knows not to be
mean” (4 year-old)
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Talk, talk, talk
 Conversations are a vital part of early childhood
anti-bias and multicultural education because they
enable children to connect with others and to
begin to see the implications of certain
assumptions (Engaging Young Children in Activities and
Conversations about Race and Social Class, Rebekka Lee,
Patricia Ramsey, and Barbara Sweeney, 2008)
 Children’s relatively early cognitive development
makes it difficult for them to discern between
accurate depictions and stereotypes about race
and social class prevalent in the media and in their
communities (Aboud 1988; VanAusdale & Feagin 2001; Katz
2003)
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Engaging
Young
Children in
Activities and
Conversations
about Race
and Social
Class
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Research Base
 Tourist approach
 Meaningful activities and questions
 Simulations
 Role playing
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What Works?
 Art Activities
 Songs
 Books
 Puzzles and Games
 Role Play (doll houses and dolls)
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What Are Persona Dolls?
 A strategy to open up discussion among children
about sometimes difficult topics to talk about
 The Dolls visit children in the program and invite
the children to talk with them
 The Dolls help children learn about similarities and
differences among people and to appreciate the
hurt that prejudice and discrimination can cause
 Children are encouraged to actively challenge,
together with others, biases, discrimination and
exclusion
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Persona Dolls
 Each doll is given it’s own identity usually by the
teacher but should reflect children in the class, the
whole staff must agree on these features
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Name
Birth date
Family make-up
A history
Race
Cultural background
Language(s)
Personality traits, shy, curious, caring, etc.
Personal likes and dislikes
What Does It Look Like?
 The Persona Doll sits on the lap of the teacher
 The Doll does not speak
 The teacher “listens” to the Doll and acts as the
Doll’s voice
 The teacher tells the children what the Doll wants
to share, leads the conversation, invites the
children to tell about themselves and lets them
develop their thoughts
 The Doll shares a variety of stories, happy, sad,
funny, difficult, and problematic
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Creating Stories
 First Story
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The first story should introduce the children to the doll. Share basic
information such as the doll’s name, who he/she lives with, age, etc.
You can explain that it is the doll’s first day and ask the children to help
make him/her feel welcome. Ask for ways that they can do that and
then support children to complete those actions such as say hello and
introduce themselves, ask the doll to sit next to them, read a story to
the doll
 Second Story- follow this process from Kids Like Us:
Using Persona Dolls in the Classroom, Trisha Whitney,
1999
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Introduction- reacquaint the children with who the doll is
Situation- outline the situation to be discussed
Feelings- ask the children how the doll is feeling
Discussion and problem solving- ask children what the doll could do
Resolution- give the story an ending, incorporating ideas the
children have offered
Possible Story Themes
 Building Connections
 Validating and Supporting Differences
 Managing Conflict
 Introduce Diversity
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How Persona Dolls Support Children
 Express their own feelings/increase feeling word
vocabulary
 Develop empathy
 Learn to interact respectfully with others who are
different from themselves
 Develop an understanding of fairness
 Prompts children to think about how they can
protect themselves against and challenge unfair
behavior
 Supports problem solving
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First Multicultural
 A recent term
 Describes people from a non-white background,
people of color, or people of all cultures regardless
of race
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What Is Authentic Multicultural
Literature?
 Various perspectives from various sources
 Authentic books include only those written by a
member of that ethnic group, it’s cultural
traditions and it’s people
 Some believe there are exceptions such as
authors who have lived within the culture they
are writing about all or most of their lives or
provide an accurate representation of the
culture being portrayed
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Authentic Multicultural Literature
Con’t
 In it’s most authentic form it focuses on the reality
of various cultures
 Includes evidence that the author and illustrator
are intimately familiar with the nuances of a culture
 Illustrations and text are free of stereo-types and
misrepresentations
 Includes nuances, values, and beliefs of a culture
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Common Issues in Selecting Multicultural
Books for Children
1. Popular but problematic books
 Brother Eagle, Sister Sky
 2. A single book can adequately portray that group’s
experience
 3. A wide range of quality books are available in libraries
and bookstores.
 4. Time- to learn about a culture, to locate books, to
evaluate
 Examining Multicultural Picture Books for the Early Childhood Classroom:
Possibilities and Pitfalls, Jean Mendoza and Debbie Reese
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Authentic Multicultural Literature
Assessment
 High literary quality
 No distortions or omissions of history
 Stereotyping
 Loaded words
 Lifestyles
 Dialogue
 Standards of success
 The role of females, elders, and family
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Authentic Multicultural Literature
Continued…
 Possible effects on child’s self-image
 Illustrations
 Relationships between characters
from different cultures
 Heroines and heroes
 Copyright date
 Assessment Summary page
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Activity
 Choose a book someone brought in
 Read the book aloud to table mates
 Read each indicator and rate it as a group
 Complete the assessment summary page as a
group
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Using Multicultural Literature in the
Classroom
 Multicultural Literature Review:
 Does it meet the goals/criteria of authentic
multicultural literature/multiculturalism and
your curriculum? How?
 What discussion topics would you select?
 Who is the audience/age level?
 How to introduce it
 Guiding questions to ask
 How would you evaluate the impact?
 Follow-up-family involvement ideas, other
extension activities
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Thank you!!!
 Anne Marie Davidson
 [email protected]
 860-679-1589
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