foreword by Afrika Afeni Mil l s
Christine Mason Randy Ross Orinthia Harris Jillayne Flandersforeword by Afrika Afeni Mil l s
Christine Mason Randy R oss O rinthia Harris Jillayne FlandersCopyright © 2024 by Solution Tree Press
Materials appearing here are copyrighted. With one exception, all rights are reserved. Readers may reproduce only those pages marked “Reproducible.” Otherwise, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission of the publisher.
555 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404
800.733.6786 (toll free) / 812.336.7700
FAX: 812.336.7790
email: info@SolutionTree.com
SolutionTree.com
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/diversityandequity to download the free reproducibles in this book.
Printed in the United States of America
Names: Mason, Christine Y. (Christine Yvonne), 1949- author. | Ross, Randy, author. | Harris, Orinthia, author. | Flanders, Jillayne, author.
Title: Little learners, big hearts : a teacher’s guide to nurturing empathy and equity in early childhood / Christine Mason, Randy Ross, Orinthia Harris, Jillayne Flanders.
Description: Bloomington, IN : Solution Tree Press, 2024. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2023051943 (print) | LCCN 2023051944 (ebook) | ISBN 9781958590317 (paperback) | ISBN 9781958590324 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Early childhood education--Social aspects. | Anti-racism. | Social justice and education.
Classification: LCC LB1139.5.S64 M37 2024 (print) | LCC LB1139.5.S64 (ebook) | DDC 372.21--dc23/eng/20231108
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023051943
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023051944
Solution Tree
Jeffrey C. Jones, CEO
Edmund M. Ackerman, President
Solution Tree Press
President and Publisher: Douglas M. Rife
Associate Publishers: Todd Brakke and Kendra Slayton
Editorial Director: Laurel Hecker
Art Director: Rian Anderson
Copy Chief: Jessi Finn
Senior Production Editor: Miranda Addonizio
Text and Cover Designer: Laura Cox
Acquisitions Editors: Carol Collins and Hilary Goff
Assistant Acquisitions Editor: Elijah Oates
Content Development Specialist: Amy Rubenstein
Associate Editor: Sarah Ludwig
Editorial Assistant: Anne Marie Watkins
Racism, such an ugly beast, is far too prevalent and far too powerful a driver of inequities, hurt, and injustice. With racism, all of us are less. With racism, all of us are impacted by the pain and the loss of opportunities to truly know each other and to experience fuller, more meaningful lives.
We truly believe that the work to overcome the huge shadow left by racism must begin with our youngest children. To help educators, schools, and childcare centers move forward, we have built a bridge—a bridge from past practices to mindful, heart centered schools. Writing this has been a true labor of love. As we have written, we have cried, we have shouted out in anger, and we have learned.
This was not an easy book to write—there is so much to be said and there is so much news coming to the forefront each day, giving us the impetus to pause and reflect. And yet, we didn’t want to overwhelm educators but rather to curate the information.
We thank the many who have had a huge part in supporting us as we moved forward with this work—the other authors and researchers whom we have cited, organizations that are leading the way, and the staff at Solution Tree, especially Miranda Addonizio, who, as our editor, has shepherded our work for many, many months. To Nicole Benequechea, Meghan Wenzel, Hallie Williams, Tyra Petit, Amelia Murray, Margaret Bass, Sabrina Chan, Chandni Lai, Alexis Richmond, Whitney Becker, and Leah Bullinger—all research assistants and interns with the Center for Educational Improvement—our heartfelt appreciation for your assistance in conducting background research, as well as framing issues, proofreading, and providing the perspective from the vantage point of young professionals.
We thank the many people—academics, parents, early care professionals—who agreed to be interviewed for this book and who shared their excitement for our deep exploration of racial and cultural bias along with the creation of so many positive paths leading us forward. These include Erica Almaguer, Lorelei Ballesteros, Mayra Cajamarca, Kori Hamilton Biagas, Kamilah Drummond-Forrester, Tammy Dunn, Dr. Sheila Gould, Holly Hazard, Dr. Kathy Hirsch-Pasek, Toni Jones, Dr. Ryan Lee-James, Dr. Peggy Martalock, Dr. Ousmane Power-Greene and Melissa Power-Greene, Ivonne Ortega, Dr. Martin Reinhardt, Mia Schultz, Suzanne Stillinger, Alya Stoffer-Koloszyc, and Mrs. H. Vang.
And to Melanie Meren, Dr. Uma Alahari, Erica Almaguer, and Afrika Afeni Mills, who provided reviews and feedback of early drafts of our material, we express our gratitude for how you helped us zero in on the needs and concerns of early educators, narrowing our topics and focusing on antiracism through a mindful, compassionate approach.
Chris
To my coauthors, thank you for persevering, for the many Zoom calls, for your dialogue and debate, for your deep caring, for your understanding of the power of speaking out against bias and injustice, and for the many words, phrases, paragraphs, and pages that you wrote and rewrote—for sharing your lives and your passion for this work.
As always, thanks as well to my loving and supportive family, and to my church community, including Elder Robert Faison, Rev. Carolyn Boyd, Rev. Kristen McBrayer, and members of Emmaus who helped guide me to understanding White privilege and antiracism as we planned and led workshops for our community. Thanks, too, to Andrew Batcher for organizing the work in Northern Virginia celebrating Martin Luther King Day and setting up Virginia Listening Tours to respond to threats to disempower educators and block truth-telling, as well as to Melanie Johnson and Raquel Ramos of the National Indian Education Association for our travels along the road to Native brilliance and the educational sovereignty of Indigenous peoples.
Randy
Thanks first to my coauthors, especially Jill, who said to me, “Just write one chapter on bullying for this book about antiracism and early childhood.” One chapter? Ha! To Orinthia, for inspiring me to go deeper and think harder. To Chris, for successfully pulling together all our disparate ideas and writings to make a (hopefully) creative and valuable contribution in these challenging times.
Also, my deep appreciation for all I have learned over the decades from my many mentors and friends—Black, Indigenous, and other people of color who have shared their lives, struggles and joys with me. And for family: thank you to my long-gone parents—Sidney and Lee Ross—who grounded me in my earliest years in what has been my lifelong path of working for a just society. To my Bengali family who always lovingly shared your ways, thank you. I am forever grateful to my husband Ernie Brill, long my partner in challenging racism and anti-Semitism. To my daughters, Shivani and Tara Ganguly, for your support through hard times and for reminders to not work so hard! To my now six-year-old grandson, Sidney Ganguly, may you—like all Brown and Black children—grow up to live in a safe, joyful, and just world.
Orinthia
I would first like to thank Jesus Christ, whose teachings of love, compassion, and equality have guided me throughout this journey. His example of embracing diversity and fighting against injustice has served as the bedrock of my writings for this book. To my loving husband, Arthur Harris IV, your support and encouragement have been the foundation of my success. Your commitment to fostering inclusivity and belonging in our four young children, Arthur V, Jeremiah, Zaria, and Ezra, is truly commendable. I am blessed to have you by my side. And last but certainly not least, I would like to extend my deepest appreciation and gratitude to my incredible mom, Bishop Toni Jones, who has played an instrumental role in shaping my self-perception and instilling in me a profound love for my Blackness. From not allowing me to perm my hair to encouraging me to play in the sun because darker skin was beautiful, you were teaching “Black girl magic” before the movement even existed. You not only dedicated your life to empowering me to recognize the beauty and importance of my Blackness, but your genuine love for all children has maintained your unwavering dedication to the Head Start program for over forty years and counting. Your wealth of experience and extensive knowledge in early childhood education have been an invaluable resource throughout the creation of this book.
My journey, culminating in this book (for now), began with an interview with Nicole Coakley, an incredibly smart, talented, early childhood educator who had not quite realized her potential. She continues to amaze me, and I will never be adequately able to thank her for bringing me along in her world. The network of teachers, principals, and colleagues I have met over the course of my
career have each contributed to making me ask the question, “Is this the best thing for our children?” That question has never stopped circling in my head.
I thank my coauthors: Chris, Orinthia, and Randy, for your prodding and patience, and making me smarter.
Finally, though, my family is my touchstone. They give me space and time and remind me every day what is most important. It is my hope that this work might provide some new ideas, provocative conversations, and deeper understanding of how we all live in this world as we make it a better place for not only my grandchildren, but everyone’s grandchildren.
Solution Tree Press would like to thank the following reviewers:
Uma Alahari
Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education
University of Massachusetts Global Irvine, CA
Erica Almaguer
Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Development Department and Director of the Associated Students
Early Childhood Education Center
San Francisco State University San Francisco, CA
Melanie Meren
Fairfax County School Board
Representative
Hunter Mill District, Fairfax County Public Schools
Fairfax, VA
For reflections about how race and racism have impacted the lives of the authors, see page 239.
Christine Mason, PhD, is the founder and senior scholar of the Center for Educational Improvement (CEI) and an assistant clinical professor of psychology at Yale University. An educational psychologist, researcher, and entrepreneur, Christine served as the executive director of CEI from 2009 to 2023, the co–principal investigator of the Compassionate Leadership Academy from 2022 to 2023, and the cohost of the Cultivating Resilience of the Whole Community Approach for Alleviating Trauma in Schools podcast from 2021 to 2023. She is the lead author of six books on topics related to mindfulness, student well-being, and school leadership. Two of those books, coauthored with Michele Rivers Murphy and Yvette Jackson, are published by Solution Tree: Mindfulness Practices: Cultivating Heart Centered Communities Where Students Focus and Flourish (2018) and Mindful School Communities: The Five Cs of Nurturing Heart Centered Learning (2020). Her newest release is Leading With Vitality and Hope: Embracing Equity, Alleviating Trauma, and Healing School Communities (2023).
Christine’s career has centered on school leadership, uplifting schools, and increasing compassion in schools. She has served as a professor in special education, and from 1987 to 2014 as director of research and professional development for several national organizations, as well as serving as the interim principal at a private boarding school in northern India in 2009. Since 2017, she has
collaborated with colleagues at Yale University and its Region 1 Mental Health Technology Transfer Center in addressing the mental health and psychological safety of children and youth in schools.
Earlier in her career, Christine chaired early childhood conferences, taught early childhood special education courses, and supervised preservice early childhood preservice teachers and graduate students. Her work in equity was also enhanced by her experience as a resource room teacher at Glasgow Middle School in Alexandria, Virginia, which served students from eighty countries; her doctoral research in Columbus, Ohio; school-improvement work in Washington, DC, and Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio; and leadership of a Department of Education early research initiative and professional learning for a DC-based Transition to Teaching research initiative that served over 80 percent of the charter schools in high-poverty areas of Washington, DC.
To learn more about Christine’s work, visit www.edimprovement.org.
Randy Ross, MA, MS, has more than fifty years’ experience as a writer, teacher, administrator, coach, and facilitator of dialogue and professional learning. For nearly thirty years, she has worked with community, school, district, and state education leaders on equity issues in school climate, social-emotional learning, discipline, interracial dialogue, and anti-bullying policies and practices.
Randy began her career as an early childhood teacher and as a caseworker in a family daycare program, both in Brooklyn, New York. She began her leadership career as interim director of the Connecticut State Head Start Training Center and taught early childhood education courses at several community colleges. Randy went on to teach middle school, serve as a K–5 principal, and work in the Office of Bias Crime and Community Relations under the New Jersey attorney general. While there, she led interracial dialogue activities and initiated New Jersey Cares About Bullying. For the next nine years, she worked at Brown University’s New England Equity Assistance Center, where she consulted with school districts, state departments of education, and the U.S. Department of Education’s Region 1 Office of Civil Rights. After retiring from that position, Randy worked as an independent equity consultant with numerous school districts and several state departments of education. She also managed a three-year, $1.5 million grant-funded project on school climate improvement with five middle schools in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Randy has published many articles online and in educational publications, including A Teacher’s Resource Guide to the Prudence Crandall Museum, articles on bullying and harassment for the Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community Violence, and “Creating Equitable School Climates,” for the NASBE Standard (journal of the National Association of State Boards of Education). After serving on various commissions and nonprofit boards across her long career, Randy is currently co-chair of the Board of SEL4MA and National Advisor to SEL4US, where she co-facilitates the Social-Emotional Learning and Equity Community of Practice.
Randy earned her BA and MA in anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley and went on to gain an MS in educational leadership from Bank Street College of Education in New York City.
Orinthia Harris, PhD, has over two decades of extensive experience in both classroom and extracurricular settings. Affectionately known as Dr. OH, she is the founder and executive director at STEMearly LLC, an organization dedicated to reigniting the passion to teach while equipping both educators and students with the essential tools for thriving. Her workshops and training sessions encompass STEM education through a hands-on, experiential approach and an array of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging topics. She has presented at numerous national conferences, such as those of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the National Head Start Association, Smart Start, and the Division for Early Childhood within the Council for Exceptional Children.
Orinthia has also served as a faculty member for STEM and antiracism for CEI since 2014. Within CEI, she has collaborated with institutions such as the State University of New York, the National Indian Education Association, the Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association, the Center for Applied Special Technologies, and Yale University. Dr. Harris also has certifications as a CLASS specialist with Teachstone, as an early childhood trainer accredited by the Maryland State Department of Education, and as a trainer for the Mid-Atlantic Equity Training Consortium. She was selected as a 2023 Exchange Leader through the Exchange Leadership Initiative, contributing to the initiative’s mission of elevating leadership within the early care and education field.
Orinthia has been featured as a recognized authority in early childhood and antiracism education on several podcasts. She has published several articles, such as “Getting Uncomfortable: Antiracism and Mindfulness” and “Six Models For Early Childhood STEAM.” Orinthia also has fifteen years’ experience teaching grades K–5, including ESOL. During that time, she furthered her leadership expertise as a board member for Hope Community Public Charter Schools in Washington, DC, and as acting principal for the summer enrichment program at Howard County Public Schools.
Her academic journey culminated in the attainment of a doctorate from Notre Dame of Maryland University in May of 2020, with a focus on educational leadership for changing populations.
Jillayne Flanders, BA, MEd, and CAGS, is still learning and teaching. Although she is officially retired after thirty-seven years as an elementary public school principal and teacher, Jill continues to advise, mentor, and coach aspiring teachers and administrators, and is energized by the commitment of our next generation of educators. It is her greatest goal to ensure that these new educators keep social-emotional learning, antiracism, and relationship building as the fundamental keys in supporting our children in school. She is the executive director of CEI, which is in its second year of a federal grant in partnership with Yale University for the Compassionate School Leader Academy, where Jill also serves as the executive director.
Jill previously taught grades 2–4 at Goshen Center School and served as principal at Hadley Elementary School and Plains School, all in Massachusetts. She served as president of the Massachusetts Elementary School Principals’ Association (MESPA) and as a representative to NAESP, its national association. As principal of an early education school community, Jill became a respected advocate for the youngest learners, their families, and teachers, at both the state and national levels. She was honored as the Massachusetts Principal of the Year and National Distinguished Principal in 2010. In 2011, she was elected to the NAESP Board of Directors, representing New England and Delaware, for a three-year term. Jill was a contributing author to the NAESP publications Leading Early Childhood Communities: What Principals Should Know and Be Able to Do and Leading After School Communities: What Principals Need to Know and Be Able to Do.
Jill has also served as an adjunct professor at Westfield State University and has taught and supervised aspiring teachers and administrators at Mount Holyoke College, UMass–Amherst, MESPA, and the Massachusetts School Administrators Association. She has lectured at Boston University, Springfield College, and Boston College, and contributed to the Zantz Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Jill continues to consult with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Early Learning Team and Education Personnel Advisory Committee. She has served on the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care’s Advisory Council from its inception. Jill is an active member of the Social Emotional Learning Alliance for Massachusetts and is the current Massachusetts State President of Delta Kappa Gamma, Society of Key Women Educators.
A lifelong resident of Massachusetts, Jill grew up in Scituate, and has resided in Southampton for over forty-five years with her husband. She is the proud mother of three accomplished daughters: an occupational therapy assistant, a second-grade teacher, and an ICU nurse, and grandmother to Becca, Noah, Alina, and Elise.
Jill earned her BA, MEd, and CAGS (certificate of advanced graduate study) from the University of Massachusetts–Amherst.
To book Christine Mason, Randy Ross, Orinthia Harris, or Jillayne Flanders for professional development, contact pd@SolutionTree.com.
There is a recording that went viral in the late summer of 2019 of two little boys, Maxwell and Finnegan—both two years old, one Black and one White—running toward and embracing each other. Their arms are open wide as they run, and you can hear the sounds of their excited giggles as they approach and then wrap their arms around one another. It’s so beautiful that it’s hard to put words to what I feel when I watch it. I truly believe that is the natural state of our human family—love, excitement, joy, and connection.
There is another recording from a little less than a year earlier, in 2018, of a little White girl who, when her mom asks what happened to some missing snack cakes, says that someone stole the cakes . . . and that it was a Black man. This little girl appears to be only about three years old. As with the first video, I have a hard time putting into words what I feel when I watch it, but it’s not because of beauty. How do you put into words what it feels like to witness the destructive, harmful impact of racialization on children? It feels ominous and sinister, like watching someone intentionally contaminate something pure and whole. As the lyrics of the song from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific state, “You’ve got to be carefully taught” (Hammerstein, 1949). It’s both horrifying and heartbreaking what we do to children when it comes to race, and even more so that we do to them what has been done to us.
In my work, I have the pleasure of connecting with educators across the United States who, in spite of the fear and discomfort that can come with having honest, vulnerable conversations about race, bravely lean into it. They do it in the face of bans, threats, fines, and resistance of all kinds, which, in
some places, include imprisonment. They do it so that they can heal and offer something better to the students they serve. I find so much promise, possibility, and hope in this work, and I find the same in Little Learners, Big Hearts: A Teacher’s Guide to Nurturing Empathy and Equity in Early Childhood.
It is essential that we begin with our youngest learners because the impact of racial segregation and socialization begins much earlier than most of us tend to think. EmbraceRace’s (2023) Color-Brave Caregiver Guide shares how children’s racial learning comes from many different sources. It states: Like other parts of children’s development, learning about race begins very early—even before they’re walking and talking—and continues throughout childhood. Children of all racial backgrounds are hearing and seeing lots of messages about race in their environments and are picking up on racialized patterns, even if adults don’t think they’re noticing.
EmbraceRace cites some of the sources that shape children’s racial learning, including school, neighborhood and community, family and friends, racial segregation, and the media.
Little Learners, Big Hearts provides readers with the Heart Centered Learning® (HCL) framework, which includes hope, education, acknowledgment, resolution, and teaching, and explores the essential parts that these aspects each play in supporting children to develop accurate, healthy ideas about human differences. In these pages, we learn about cultural competence and racial bias, and how to partner with families to create and sustain welcoming, compassionate, inclusive, equitable learning communities that ensure the well-being of all children. The authors accomplish this not only by offering clear steps to take, but by sharing personal stories about their own racial formation and modeling the vulnerability that is needed in order for this work to flourish.
Since learning without application is incomplete, the discussion and challenge questions at the end of each chapter invite us to deepen our self-exploration by reflecting on our own experiences and considering what we notice, how we can better collaborate with one another, and how we can strengthen our implementation of antiracist practices.
Maya Angelou (2022) said, “It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” I would say the same is true for any of us who is offered the gift of being a companion on a child’s learning journey. Little Learners, Big Hearts is the guide we need alongside us as we remove the residue of racialization from the eyes, minds, and hearts of young ones and invite them back to a way of seeing and being in the world that is life-giving, generous, empathetic, joyful, and kind.
To learn about race, children need the time, space, and supports to talk about and make sense of what they are seeing and noticing. This requires teachers to embrace the conversation, even if they experience uncertainty or discomfort while doing so.
—Rosemarie Allen, Dorothy L. Shapland, Jen Neitzel, and Iheoma U. IrukaWe know that each young child’s earliest years, from birth to eight years old, are foundational. During that critical time, young children’s brains are rapidly growing (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.). Under the best of circumstances, these can be exciting times for young children who, naturally curious, discover the world around them. Envision circle time, students eagerly participating as puppets lead the way, singing and shouting with joy.
Teachers of young children, whether you are teaching in an early childhood center or a public or private school, contribute so much to the growth and well-being of each student in your classroom. You have gotten so much right. Head Start, Montessori, and a dozen other preschool programs, interventions for young children with special needs and developmental delays, efforts to establish universal preschool—the list goes on and on. Many of you are truly heroes. You have served as a web of support for children’s amazing adventures as you have given so many children a jump start to learning. And for those of you just beginning careers in early childhood education, we lift you up for your service, your caring, and the light you bring and will bring to our youngest learners.
Since the 1960s, as people have crossed borders, sometimes fleeing unbearable conditions, educators have also introduced a wealth of multicultural experiences into classrooms, doing their best to help students and families feel a sense of comfort and support. Some of you have learned other languages to communicate more effectively, others have followed a mission to teach in our poorest areas, and yet others have gone back to school to get advanced degrees, eager to gain the most up-to-date knowledge to bring the best practices back to your school or early childhood center.
However, more work remains. Celebrating differences—as important as that is—did not truly take hold in the hearts and minds of some whom we taught. Too many of our former students are erecting barriers and furthering trauma as they contribute to racism and discrimination. Look at the evidence: hate crimes, racial violence, police brutality, racial slurs, and disregard for the dignity and value of all people. In 2021, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting documented 12,411 hate crime offenses, with crimes against individuals comprising over 67 percent of the total. These offenses were committed by individuals belonging to the White racial group more than 50 percent of the time toward a person’s race, ethnicity, or ancestry, generating shame that may linger on for years (Rosenthal et al., 2015).
Since the 2012 murder of Trayvon Martin, a widely publicized tragedy that brought issues of racial injustice into mainstream conversation—especially in the media—we have seen innumerable incidents of race-based violence, racial harassment on social media, and widespread contempt for the other (Thomas & Blackmon, 2015). Many educators have been race-conscious for decades. With anger, sadness, and alarm, however, many have come to realize that our efforts to date to bring about understanding of others and promote racial justice have only scratched the surface. These efforts have done far too little to address systemic racism or the unconscious biases that impact Black, Indigenous, and other students of color. It’s evident that our dosage was not strong enough— that many in the United States have not fully realized the inhumanity of the actions of some of our ancestors and how that inhumanity lives on in many harmful ways as systemic inequities and as intergenerational trauma.
We also see how racism impacts White-identifying students—by incorrectly teaching them that race is biological, and that Whiteness is normal, better, and more deserving (DiAngelo, 2018; Irvin Painter, 2020). Robin DiAngelo (2018) points out, “Whiteness rests upon a foundational premise: the definition of whites as the norm or standard for human, and people of color as a deviation from that norm” (p. 25). Unfortunately, there have been and continue
to be pervasive efforts to cover up, ignore, skip over, deny, or dismiss the past. And a startling amount of these efforts are from people in leadership positions (Copeland, 2023). From where the authors stand, this must not continue.
Many educators are waking up to the realization that more must be done beyond our sincere attempts at implementing multicultural curricula and promoting cultural awareness. Recognizing our unique responsibilities in the early childhood arena, many are responding to the call to address racial inequities by forming task forces, revising standards, acknowledging Indigenous lands, and more (Iruka, Curenton, Sims, Harris, & Ibekwe-Okafor, 2021).
Organizations such as the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) have added their voices to the conversation by establishing equity-focused positions. NAEYC’s (2019) equity statement asserts:
All children have the right to equitable learning opportunities that help them achieve their full potential as engaged learners and valued members of society. Thus, all early childhood educators have a professional obligation to advance equity. They can do this best when they are effectively supported by the early learning settings in which they work and when they and their wider communities embrace diversity and full inclusion as strengths, uphold fundamental principles of fairness and justice, and work to eliminate structural inequities that limit equitable learning opportunities.
In this book, we turn to these new statements and standards, shining a light on the efforts of many to remake the foundational years of early childhood education. We have a vision for a society that is transformed, and we believe this transformation must start while children are young—in homes, at childcare centers, and during preK–3 experiences. Starting with our youngest children may prevent, or at least reduce, the racial abuse BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) children receive in upper grades.
In describing racist incidents at local middle and high schools near Boston, Robert Bardwell, executive director of the Massachusetts School Counselors Association, asks this pertinent question: “What are we doing in kindergarten and second grade to promote an inclusive, supportive school environment, so hopefully these incidents never happen at all?” (Huffaker & Griswold, 2023).
We, the authors, have been on a journey together over the many months of cowriting this book and the accompanying book for leaders, Advancing Empathy and Equity in Early Childhood Education: The Leader’s Guide to Little Learners, Big Hearts. As four women educators—one Black and three White—conversations about our different experiences and ways we understand race, racism,
and antiracism, especially in early childhood, have been central to our writing process. We hope that even as you learn from the ideas we discuss and resources we cite, you will take time to think and discuss with others (as we have done) your own diverse journey to understanding racism and bringing antiracist, culturally responsive approaches to your early childhood realms. We also realize that your race or ethnicity may be a factor in determining how you approach and respond to each topic in this book. Working with reviewers and our editor at Solution Tree, we have tried to balance the voice and tone so that the information is meaningful for all.
Let’s consider the words of renowned anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela (1994):
No one is born hating another person because of the color of [their] skin, or his background, or [their] religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
Plainly said, children aren’t born with racialized beliefs. It is something that is taught and learned by proxy. Learning by proxy is the natural process of absorbing ideas and knowledge through exposure to others, which leads to unconscious assimilation. In families that express racism, the underlying tone and racist attitudes toward others can subconsciously influence a child’s feelings and attitudes. Racism is transferred in what caregivers say, and don’t say, to their children (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2021).
Though some question the need to address concerns about racial and cultural justice at such a young age, abundant evidence underscores the urgency. Research shows that both implicit and explicit bias toward other races begins as early as preschool. By the age of three, children in the United States have already begun to associate some racial groups with negative traits, and by age four, they associate Whites with wealth and higher status (American Psychological Association, 2020). By the time children enter elementary school, they have already been exposed to widespread race-based discrimination (Roberts & Rizzo, 2021).
Racism rears its ugly head in so many ways—at times visible and intentional and at others much more subtle and unintentional. But the teachers of young children are uniquely positioned to prevent racism from taking root. And this book can help; in the following sections we explain how to use the book and then provide some more detail about what antiracist instruction means.
Throughout this book, we do the following.
• Examine the genesis and evolution of racism in early childhood education.
• Define and explain the Heart Centered Learning® (HCL) framework in the context of antiracist early childhood education through hope, education, acknowledgment, resolution, and teaching (HEART+).
• Provide tools for enacting and sustaining an antiracist approach in early childhood.
In our companion book focused on antiracist leadership in early childhood communities, we envision HCL leadership for the future, providing guideposts on a journey leaders can take to further their own understanding of bias, build staff capacity, and dismantle racism in their schools.
We write with compassion and our hearts in mind. Intentionally framing antiracist education through the Heart Centered Learning framework (see chapter 1, page 19) gives early childhood teachers the tools they need to learn more about racism and talk with their students in ways that facilitate real, lasting change.
We share research, practical tips, and reflection questions that you can use on your own or as a part of a class or book study group. This book is divided into two parts.
1. Antiracism and Early Childhood
2. Antiracist School Culture, Curriculum, and Instruction
Part 1 establishes the groundwork for what early childhood educators need to address and why, providing a blueprint for what we might be able to do to initiate discussions in our local communities and nationally. The second part, which discusses language and literacy and topics related to school culture, spells out practical suggestions for upgrading classrooms and discipline, as well as ideas for family engagement that are sensitive to BIPOC concerns.
Each chapter begins with a principle that summarizes what readers will take away in terms of what must be done to further antiracism in early childhood.
• Chapter 1: From the foundation of Heart Centered Learning, hope, education, acknowledgment, resolution, and teaching can further much-needed compassion, justice, and equity, providing an antidote to racism.
• Chapter 2: Cultural competence begins during early childhood experiences.
• Chapter 3: To address the bias that impacts the early childhood community, including educators, parents and caregivers, and young children, early childhood teachers must increase conscious awareness of and speak out against bias.
• Chapter 4: Welcoming school communities set the stage for greater family involvement and positive experiences for all young children.
• Chapter 5: Educators can create compassionate school communities that further inclusion, equity, and a sense of well-being for all students.
• Chapter 6: Early childhood teachers have a unique obligation and responsibility to ensure emotional safety for all students.
• Chapter 7: Books and language-rich experiences for young children can advance self-identity, self-esteem, cultural competence, and equity.
• Chapter 8: Heart centered practices can strengthen students’ confidence, agency, and readiness to learn.
We have included in each chapter a wide variety of resources and examples. We suggest that you follow up on any that you find particularly relevant to your interests or that you find surprising in some way. If you are reading this book for a course or in a collaborative team within a professional learning community (PLC), you could distribute the resources and insert topics within the group, so each person follows up on one and shares back what you learned with others.
Whether you are a childcare provider or teacher, you will find many examples of how to apply the principles we explore. As you proceed through the text, we have incorporated statistical information, scenarios, and exemplars of how our guidelines are being implemented, as well as reflection and discussion questions to deepen the relevance for your immediate situation and serve as a guide to facilitate the use of this book in your individual classroom or book study group.
In Little Learners, Big Hearts, you will find the diverse voices of Blackidentifying people, White-identifying people, and other racialized groups and ethnicities; you will find voices of educators and families, students, experts, leaders, historians, other authors, anthropologists, sociologists, neuroscientists, and researchers. We have taken a wide-angle lens to examine racism, as well as putting it under a microscopic lens. We urge you to see the views of others and listen for the various voices to hear what they have to say, realizing that we are all many people—we are our race, we are our culture, we are our ancestors, and we are right now, here in this moment, much more than the sum of our parts.
You will find as you read our book that we use the terms race or racial, racism, antiracism, culture or cultural, and ethnic. Sometimes we use them together, sometimes separately, and in other places, we may just write racism. We understand that the meanings of these terms are complex, overlapping, and often (although not always) deeply interconnected. When we say racism, we generally mean for it to include lack of cultural competence. Stylistically, that is wordy and awkward to read. We typically mean racism in its broadest sense, going beyond race to include culture and ethnicity.
We include definitions of words used throughout this book in table I.1.
Antibias education. “An anti-bias program puts diversity and equity goals at the center of all aspects of its organization and daily life,” describing the broad systemic changes that are needed (Derman-Sparks, LeeKeenan, & Nimmo, 2015, p. 11). This approach is rooted in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Cohen, 1989), which encompasses the right to freedom from discrimination of all children. Such an approach “includes addressing issues of personal and social identity, social-emotional relationships with people different from oneself, prejudice, discrimination, critical thinking, and taking action for fairness with children” (Derman-Sparks et al., 2015, p. 3). With antibias education, Derman-Sparks and others (2015) describe having the courage to lead, cultivating imagination, engaging in self-reflection and growth, practicing what one preaches, accepting and learning from mistakes, and seeing turbulence as an opportunity for positive change.
Antiracist education. Antiracist education starts with a basic premise: racism is institutional and is prevalent in the broader society and the education system. In antiracist early childhood education, race is not overlooked, negated, or minimized. Rather, it is seen as a core feature, one that guides all antiracist efforts, which acknowledges and addresses the primacy of race in education and social relations (Escayg, 2020).
Cultural bias. As defined by the American Psychological Association (2023), cultural bias is the tendency to interpret and judge phenomena, in particular when concerning values, beliefs, and other characteristics of the society we belong to. This concept can lead to people creating opinions and making decisions about people before getting to know them.
Cultural competence. Cultural competence is the awareness of how culture shapes an individual’s perspectives, ideas, and experiences while recognizing the role privilege and oppression play within that context (Fisher, 2020). Author Ibram X. Kendi explains how we subconsciously have inherited beliefs about culture through a racist lens, which requires awareness and understanding of power and privilege to address and dismantle (Belli, 2020). In this text, we will consistently speak of cultural competence as the umbrella term that also implies cultural proficiency—see that definition in this table.
Cultural humility. Recognizing what we don’t know about other cultures is cultural humility. Even as we take a multicultural approach, we recognize that learning about other cultures is a life-long process.
Cultural proficiency. Cultural proficiency includes esteem and learning from differences as a lifelong practice, knowing how to learn about and from individual and organizational culture, interacting effectively in a variety of cultural environments, and advocating for others (Nuri-Robins, Lindsey, Lindsey, & Terrell, 2012).
Microaggressions. Subtle, intentional, and unintentional interactions or behaviors that communicate some sort of bias toward historically marginalized groups, often communicating hostile, derogatory, and harmful messages, are microaggressions (Sue, 2015a).
Multicultural education. Multicultural education can take on distinct definitions (Ozturgut, 2011). It can be considered a philosophical concept built on the principle of respecting freedom, justice, equality, and human dignity. One of the most commonly used definitions describes it as an educational reform movement and process with the aim to change the educational structure and open academic achievement to everyone, as equals (Banks, 2001).
Racial inequity. “When two or more racial groups are not standing on approximately equal footing,” that is racial inequity (Kendi, 2019, p. 18).
Racism. “Racism is a form of social exclusion, and racial discrimination in all its forms and manifestations is the process by which that exclusion occurs” (Saloojee, 2003). Racial discrimination manifests at the individual, institutional, structural, and systemic levels. It can result from ill will or evil motive; it can be blatant and result from deliberate differential treatment or denial of access; or it can result from apparently neutral policies and practices that, regardless of intent, adversely impact racialized individuals and communities.
Social exclusion. Social exclusion may include a nonrealization, or denial, of certain people’s civil, political, and social rights (Walker & Walker, 1997).
Our use of the term BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) is also one way we try to use inclusive language. We recognize that there is also controversy about the term BIPOC, as it implies a hierarchy among all people of color, placing Black and Indigenous people first and mixing everyone else into POC. Orinthia suggests that one historical reason supporting this term is that Black and Indigenous peoples did not come to the American continent by choice. They were either there already, as with Indigenous tribal peoples, or they were brought there as enslaved peoples. Given that at this time there is no more accurate and inclusive term, we have chosen to use BIPOC
You may wonder where in this book are discussions of biases other than racism. Aren’t all kinds of biases developing in these early years? This is an important question to ask. The history of antibias education shows how different forms of bias have received increasing attention since the 1990s. Many early childhood educators, for example, would now say that young children need to be free to explore their own gender identities to learn all about lesbian and gay families, and to be comfortable with transgender peers and adults.
We fully endorse early childhood educators addressing these and other forms of bias. At the same time, rather than casting a net wide enough to catch all forms of bias, we have chosen to focus deeply on racism, with its shape-shifting multitude of forms and faces. The question of whether individual or systemic racism is more fundamental than, for example, individual sexism or systemic patriarchy is a worthy question, but it is outside of our scope. Without any doubt, racism is fundamental to the problems we face as a nation. Most important, racism has a broad but too-often-ignored impact on young children.
In its statement “The Impact of Racism on Child and Adolescent Health,” the American Academy of Pediatrics (Trent et al., 2019) writes:
Although progress has been made toward racial equality and equity, the evidence to support the continued negative impact of racism on health and well-being through explicit and implicit biases, institutional structures, and interpersonal relationships is clear. Failure to address racism will continue to undermine health equity for all children. . . .
Today’s children . . . are increasingly diverse. Strategies to address health and developmental issues across the pediatric lifespan that incorporate ethnicity, culture, and circumstance are critical to achieving a reduction in health disparities.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has put it well. We believe that racial health equity and equity in early care and education are undeniably linked together. Hence, our focus in this book is on dismantling racism in early childhood care and education through antiracist actions and strategies, designed and implemented from the practice of mindfulness.
Each chapter in this book includes and ends with some questions to deepen your self-reflection and challenge you to move beyond your present comfort zone. To start you on that journey, we offer eleven questions to consider that we adapted from the Interaction Institute for Social Change (2019). Not all these questions will feel relevant to everyone. Choose those that feel suited to you now. You may find others appropriate at a later time, or you may want to begin a journal to reflect on your ideas about racism and education as you read this book. These questions may also be useful for discussions with other staff or even students’ family members. Visit go.SolutionTree.com/diversityandequity for a reproducible version of these questions to download and share.
1. How do you define your racial and cultural identity? Do you have just one or multiple racial and cultural identities? Which ones, and why do you choose those?
2. How important to you are your racial and cultural identity or identities? Why?
3. Did you grow up in a family, school, community, or other country where there were many people of different racial and cultural identities? Explain.
4. Did one or both of your parents, caregivers, or other family members (such as grandparents) speak a language other than English? If they did or did not, how has that affected your ideas about families that speak a language other than English at home?
5. Have you ever felt pressured to identify with one racial or cultural group over another? If so, how did you handle that pressure?
6. Do you feel privileged or not privileged in ways other than your racial identity? (Examples include financial status or struggles, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, such as Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or no religious preference, and so on.)
7. Do you have close friends who define their racial identity differently than you? If so, how difficult (or not) is it to discuss your racial and cultural backgrounds and other differences?
8. Do you believe that you don’t see color when you interact with others whose skin color and features may look different than your own?
9. Has anyone ever said to you, or implied, “You sound (or act) like a White person.” If so, how did that feel, and how did you respond, if you did?
10. If you consider yourself BIPOC, how comfortable are you in friendships with White people? What qualities do you need to see in a White person to feel comfortable?
11. Have you ever intervened when someone else acted or spoke in a way you felt was racially or culturally insensitive, hurtful, or even potentially violent? How did you feel if you did or did not intervene?
Some words of caution: change is hard, whether personal, professional, or institutional. It takes time and patience. Going beyond your own comfort zone means taking the risk of being uncomfortable. When that happens, it is easy to feel frustrated, to fall into the extreme of isolating, denigrating, or even attacking others whose responses to these and similar questions may be different than your own.
This is a journey with many different paths and paces. Free speech, civility, and respect are prerequisites for change in a multiracial democracy. Without a commitment to these principles, you may end up creating more fear and negativity. Neither of those will lead to opening your own or others’ minds and hearts. We urge you to be compassionate toward others with whom you may disagree. Those are moments when a few deep breaths, or even a short mindfulness activity, may help you move forward in a conversation about challenging racial or cultural topics.
As we lay out our vision for what can shift—what must shift—for all people to be respected and to feel safe and secure on our streets, in our schools, and in our homes, we ask you to focus first on your own experiences. Educators are embedded in a society in which racial biases are pervasive and harmful (Nosek et al., 2007), and our conscious and unconscious biases are part of the problem, even as we strive to be part of the solution.
As of 2021, White teachers make up 62.3 percent of the early childhood teaching force (Zippia, n.d.). Many White teachers work from within a hegemonic, Western, epistemological framework—in other words, they view the world
through a lens centered on dominant Euro-American assumptions and implicit biases. This often predisposes them to have lower expectations of Black students and a lack of respect for the students’ families and primary culture (Boykin, 1992; Darder, 1991; Scheurich, 1993). Such powerful social conditioning has serious implications in teacher-pupil interactions, teacher expectations, and teacher responses to student behavior. Although many early childhood teachers are caring and compassionate, their implicit or explicit racial bias has been implicated as one driver of racial inequality in education (Dixson & Rousseau, 2005; Warikoo, Sinclair, Fei, & Jacoby-Senghor, 2016).
We each have our own history, biases, and struggles to overcome injustice. It is crucial for teachers to examine their own beliefs, racism, and prejudices (Castagno, 2014; Henze, Lucas, & Scott, 1998; hooks, 2003; Matias & Mackey, 2016). You can learn about each of the authors’ own history and struggles to understand and deal with racism in our stories at the end of this book (see the appendix on page 239). We encourage you to read about us and then reflect on your own life.
• What about you? What is your experience with racism?
• What about your ancestors? How were they impacted by racialization?
• How do you define yourself? Do you identify with one or more races?
• How are you reconciling your personal history with what happens in classrooms?
• How do you address bias when you see it, in others or in yourself?
By examining the pedagogy of antiracist early childhood educators, we can learn to acknowledge our own biases. We know that teachers who disregard the impact of their prejudices cannot actively shift biases and dismantle racism. White teachers like Suzanne Stillinger from New Village preschool in Massachusetts (see chapter 2, page 72) are able to create antiracist early childhood spaces because they are aware of and acknowledge their struggle with implicit and explicit bias, both in and out of the classroom. To be effective, teachers must be aware of, acknowledge, and confront racism and biases head-on. This is an ongoing process that never truly ends.
Black educational leaders such as Yvette Jackson (see Aim High, Achieve More, Jackson & McDermott, 2012) have spoken far and wide about the need to have both high expectations and self-determination for all students—that these
two aspects are indispensable to equity. In the early childhood area, this means that books are available with a range of vocabulary levels, that more advanced vocabulary and critical thinking are a part of classroom discussions, and that students receive a rich array of opportunities for self-guided learning. This is needed because students of color are sometimes not adequately engaged in rigorous, culturally responsive learning. Furthermore, such an approach honors their intellectual skills and capacity.
By tuning into student strengths and providing educational opportunities for students to explore, to problem solve, and to use higher-level thinking skills, we are giving them opportunities to advance lifelong skills. Additionally, students benefit from antiracist instructional practices that help them better understand their own biases (both implicit and explicit) as well as ways to address racism when they see and hear it.
Efforts to bring antiracist instruction to students have roots in a historical continuum of movements that includes multicultural education, cultural competence and humility, antibias education, and finally, antiracism. Figure I.1 shows this progression. Note that these are not distinct approaches and that embedded within each of the historical approaches are features from earlier trends.
Looking back to the 1960s, sweeping social changes like the Civil Rights Movement and later demographic shifts due to changes in immigration laws led educators to respond with attempts to better understand and serve the needs of students with diverse backgrounds and identities. And a series of injustices, such as the murders of Trayvon Martin in 2012 and George Floyd in 2020, furthered a movement to help people, particularly in the United States, understand our inherent or implicit bias versus overt bias and readily visible racism. These cases gave teachers an opportunity to have meaningful discussions regarding race, equity, and justice. They also reinforced the idea that BIPOC children
and adults are much less likely to be treated equally until deeply held perceptions about them are changed.
Then, Ibram X. Kendi (2019) helped refocus the public conversation to antiracism—what an antiracist society might look like and how we can play an active role in building it. BIPOC people and many White people had been defining these issues and fighting against racism for decades, even centuries, but the public conversation had been episodic and inconsistent. A broad-based, widespread, and sustained antiracist movement, with greater White participation, in education, in other fields, and among the general public, is expanding. That very fact has led to intense and dangerous, even violent, reactions from those forces determined to prevent racial progress.
Each of the movements shown in figure I.1 adds value to how we approach equity and cultural competence in classrooms. However, rather than just being a progression, each is an important component for creating a sound education that honors the needs of each student and of each educator, with due consideration of race and ethnicity, and antiracist education relies on elements from each of the other approaches (figure I.2). Our companion book for leaders offers more detail on the social and historical context of these movements.
Multicultural Education Cultural Competence/ Humility Antibias
The combination of all these substantive approaches should theoretically result in significant changes in how race is viewed and how we treat one another. Yet will these efforts be sufficient to achieve lasting change?
One of the first critical steps to becoming an antiracist educator is self-awareness or consciousness (see chapter 1, page 19). Enter the world of authors who can
show an antiracist approach to early childhood education with the following resources.
• How to Raise an Antiracist (Ibram X. Kendi, 2022)
• Raising Antiracist Children: A Practical Parenting Guide (Britt Hawthorne, 2022)
• Social Justice Parenting: How to Raise Compassionate, Anti-Racist, Justice-Minded Kids in an Unjust World (Traci Baxley, 2021)
Early childhood teachers have an ideal opportunity to shape learning in such a way that young children can draw their own conclusions despite the racialized rhetoric that exists in their environment outside of the classroom. Students look to us, the teachers, to understand how to navigate racial norms and what’s appropriate to say and do. However, there is still “a profound gap between when adults believe children can begin to process race, and when the scientific literature suggests many children can do so” (Sullivan, Wilton, & Apfelbaum, 2021). Teachers are responsible for finding ways to prevent and counter the influence of bias and stereotypes before it becomes too deeply ingrained in their students.
As Rosemarie Allen, Dorothy Shapland, Jen Neitzel, and Iheoma Iruka (2021) indicate:
To learn about race, children need the time, space, and supports to talk about and make sense of what they are seeing and noticing. This requires teachers to embrace the conversation, even if they experience uncertainty or discomfort while doing so.
Imagine if every early childhood teacher would take an antiracist approach in their classrooms. What if every three- and four-year-old in our early childhood classrooms exited preschool with acceptance for all people? For too long, we have examined racism through a racialized lens centered on the relationship of race to being marginalized and knowing that we live with a broken system—that is, a system fraught with bias and discrimination, from hiring and promotion practices to implementation of curricula that are White-centric. Frustrated by what seems to be an overwhelming task of bringing about change, we have tried to operate as best we can within this broken system. Perhaps it’s time to change this perspective.
Through the Heart Centered Learning framework (Mason, Rivers Murphy, & Jackson, 2018; 2020; see chapter 1, page 19) and the many ideas we suggest for changing mindsets, building positive school cultures, influencing instruction, and enhancing interactions with families, this book will equip early childhood
teachers with the knowledge and practices needed to become antiracist educators. Using the framework we propose, educators can overcome many obstacles through a united, intentional effort to begin our work with young children and the adults who support them.
In Little Learners, Big Hearts, we provide multiple examples of what we can do as educators to add positive value to the experiences of all the students and families we serve. This means that we will have the opportunity to right wrongs, make amends, and help alleviate trauma, including intergenerational trauma faced by students, their families, and their communities who have experienced racism and discrimination.
As students come through the doors to our classrooms, they bring with them their families—the parents or caregivers, siblings, and extended families that are part of their everyday lives. With racism, they bring the hurt and pain of feeling excluded. As Nicole Louie and Mariana Pacheco (2021) say in their article, “Love
We imagine schools as places where children learn to love each other and learn through loving each other. . . . This love-centered teaching requires shifting how we think about content learning, away from an individual’s unidimensional travel along a linear path from basics to mastery, toward a learning community’s deepening multidimensional understandings of important questions and ideas, through the coordination of multiple perspectives. (p. 184)
As kind, caring, and meaningful forces in the lives of our students, we have a tremendous power—and obligation—to make sure not only that they learn to read, write, add, and subtract but that they also learn about themselves and gain an awareness of their own emotions and feelings along with understanding the emotions and feelings of others. From this awareness can come tremendous growth and healing.
If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you do not see.
—James BaldwinPrinciple 1: From the foundation of Heart Centered Learning, hope, education, acknowledgment, resolution, and teaching can further muchneeded compassion, justice, and equity, providing an antidote to racism.
If early childhood educators are to become consciously aware of the needs of young children and implement practices to support students who at an early age may have experienced racism, then they need to step forward into the antiracism arena that Kendi (and others we cite throughout these pages) has described. Stepping into that realm means going beyond compliance as new standards and protocols are adopted. Simply addressing issues as they arise is inadequate. Educators need to affirm the gifts and talents of all young children, even as we consciously seek to contribute to their resilience and to build foundational skills from birth to eight years old.
In this book and the accompanying leader’s guide, we devote thousands of words to helping readers understand how to integrate antiracism throughout all aspects of early childhood education. The significant change we propose in Little Learners, Big Hearts requires a holistic perspective so that messages of inclusivity, compassion, and love are echoed throughout childhood. Heart Centered
Learning focuses less on academic expectations and more on social-emotional needs (Mason et al., 2020) by providing a framework for infusing five powerful components throughout the school day—the five Cs of (1) consciousness, (2) compassion, (3) confidence, (4) courage, and (5) community. Since Christine first developed HCL in 2009, it has evolved as a way to help teachers and others in schools center on developing compassion in classrooms and school communities. The five Cs also form the core foundation of what we call the HEART+ (hope, education, acknowledgment, resolution, and teaching+) approach. This approach to antiracism in early childhood settings begins with verbalizing support, having dialogues, and taking actions that demonstrate commitment to this path of antiracism, all of which name and affirm hope.
While any one of the five Cs of HCL are worthy of focus by themselves, when teachers treat them as a hierarchy, they unlock a powerful process that begins with consciousness and culminates in compassionate action. This process provides guidance to nurture awareness of self and others, foster compassion, and implement exercises to build skills, confidence, and courage—all within the context of a heart centered community. As shown in figure 1.1, HEART+ and HCL are connected, and HCL is embedded as the core foundation within the HEART+ approach. HEART+ is the antiracist manifestation of HCL.
Our vision is that each school, each classroom, and each educator will see and acknowledge (become conscious or mindful of) the often overwhelming grief of those traumatized through racism, seek a just resolution, and move forward (develop confidence and courage to engage in compassionate action). Moreover, as we do this, we will show compassion for all—and the forgiveness that is necessary to help ourselves and others move away from guilt and toward healing and wholeness.
The five Cs of HCL are a common thread that early childhood educators can weave throughout classrooms, instruction, and interactions to address racism in its myriad forms, from the overt to the subtle microaggressions that occur in surprisingly diverse ways. With the HCL framework, educators help students build a firm foundation through mindfulness and each of the five Cs to ultimately achieve compassionate action. This framework also helps educators ensure that interactions with families, classroom organization, social-emotional learning (SEL), and the culture of the school and the classroom support equity, diversity, inclusion, and justice. We need educators who adopt practices that address multiculturalism, cultural competence, antibias, and antiracism so that these practices are all infused throughout the curriculum.
Once we are consciously aware of racism, for example, we are more able to enhance our compassion for those who have experienced racism. With practice over time, students and staff then can become more competent in developing and using antiracist, compassionate responses, increasing their confidence and courage, or their abilities to be antiracist and compassionate under difficult circumstances. For example, we would ideally like to prepare students to stand up for someone who is being harassed or bullied. This may take courage. With HCL, we suggest that all instruction occurs in a heart centered community where each student feels a sense of belonging and caring.
Let’s look at what antiracism might mean for each of the five Cs. See figure 1.2 (page 22). As you read through each scenario, imagine how BIPOC students might experience the situation—how their experience might contribute to feelings of inequity and injustice. Imagine as well how you might handle such a situation. As you do this, you can build on the examples we have inserted in the Action column.
BIPOC students are excluded during playtime.
A new student (a recent immigrant) is joining the classroom.
Consciousness Teacher models and discusses inclusiveness, helping to pair up students.
Compassion Teacher takes several actions, learning about the student’ s culture, welcoming the family, and helping the student build friendships and acclimate to this new setting. This also helps to build community.
Student is hesitant about how to interact with others during playtime.
Confidence Teacher sits on the floor with students and becomes a playmate—participating in the play and prompting students, asking questions, and helping with such things as turn taking. Teacher finds opportunities to repeat this type of play activity so that the student becomes more at ease and confident.
Teacher observes a student being bullied in racial terms; the student doesn’t seem to know what to do.
Ensure that the classroom is an inclusive community.
Courage Teacher builds courage by helping create a support network so that other students can help and also by directing the student about what to say, perhaps even modeling: “I was playing with this—wait your turn” or “That wasn’t nice—stop!”
Community Teacher finds ways to build community through giving helper roles and being accepting of students from various family structures (single parent, married, extended family, same-sex parents, and so on) as well as various ethnicities. Teachers can acknowledge diverse cultures during circle time, discussions, book reading, and language time— perhaps even introducing a few words from the native language of students in the school.
With the five Cs, teachers find ways to reinforce each of the Cs over the course of a year. As stated in Cultivating Happiness, Resilience, and Well-Being Through Meditation, Mindfulness, and Movement (Mason, Donald, Khalsa, Rivers Murphy, & Brown, 2021), educators within a school can also decide as a team to emphasize certain Cs during various years. For example, consciousness might be a priority for kindergarten and grade 1, with grades 2 and 3 opting to infuse compassion throughout those school years. The Cultivating Happiness book links each of the five Cs to various yoga, movement, meditation, and mindfulness activities, and as with Christine’s other work, proceeds from the premise that it all begins with consciousness—that conscious awareness of what is—of how I am feeling, of how peers and others may be feeling, of what is important to them, and how I might be a supporter (Mason, Donald, et al., 2021).
We suggest that teachers examine what is happening through a heart centered lens, envisioning what the impact might be of certain issues, and how to add to a compassionate response and understanding through supportive actions and behaviors. This involves infusing the five Cs throughout curricula, instruction, and classroom policies and routines.
As you read through this chapter, we ask you to consider three fundamental questions related to antiracism, perhaps even making notes to yourself as you proceed.
1. How well am I doing?
2. How well is my community doing?
3. How could we improve?
Here, we discuss how HCL intersects with antiracism as well as a classwide approach to heart centered mindfulness.
We encourage educators to turn to heart centered mindfulness as they cultivate multiculturalism, cultural competence, antibias, and antiracism. By heart centered mindfulness, we mean ways of implementing the five Cs with a mindfulness focus—always beginning with conscious awareness. We also use the term to differentiate our suggestions from other mindfulness approaches, which may not systematically include the five Cs. Consider the following ways of engaging with heart centered mindfulness.
• Multicultural education: Practice deep curiosity about your own culture. From that cultural self-awareness, study the culture of your students and their families. Reflect on the strengths of your cultural background and how they contribute to your confidence in yourself. How can you support the cultural strengths of your students to nurture their self-confidence?
• Cultural competence: Practice compassion for what you and others do not know about cultures other than your own, though this does not mean avoiding accountability. Teachers who are culturally competent are also advocates for others; they use culturally responsive teaching methods to foster awareness and knowledge of the facts and nuances to cultural variability, but they focus on allyship and not seeing themselves as “saviors.” Reflect on what it means to advocate for yourself and others whose differences from those around them may mean being ignored, discounted, demeaned, or excluded. How does this commitment express itself in culturally responsive teaching practices?
• Antibias: Practice courage to name your own biases, whether those are racial or otherwise. While everyone has biases of some kind, they are not inevitable, and you can persevere in uncovering them. Reflect on what this courage means to you. Why do we say it takes courage to face our own biases before we can become antibias early childhood educators?
• Antiracism: Practice willingness to recognize your own implicit racial bias. This is a sensitive subject for many reasons. Some may feel shame at the United States’ history as a nation built with the labor of enslaved people and barely paid immigrants, stolen sacred land, and suppression of Indigenous languages and cultures. Some may want to believe that everything is OK—that what we’ve done is good enough. And some want to believe that individual efforts and talents, with no help from privilege, have brought us success or that any lack of success is because “others” are getting free handouts. Those who are White may deeply fear being called racist, and this fear may block them from the heart centered awareness and courage needed to bring unconscious racial bias into consciousness. Reflect on your own implicit racial bias (about characteristics such as skin color, hair texture, facial features, or speech patterns) and how you feel when those thoughts enter your mind. What can you do with that new awareness?
The shifts we are proposing require that educators’ conscious understanding of individuals from diverse cultures be a paramount consideration in planning, in moment-to-moment interactions with students, and in communications with families. Research evidence supports the importance of the heart for perceiving needs and making high-quality decisions (Mason, Donald, et al., 2021; McCraty & Childre, 2010; Mikels, Maglio, Reed, & Kaplowitz, 2011). Rollin McCraty and Doc Childre’s (2010) research documents heart intelligence: how the heart sometimes perceives needs and reacts faster than the brain—actually sending input to the brain for decision making. To say this simply, we need educators who operate from their hearts as much as their heads as they work with young children.
The questions for early childhood educators center on how much they can do and how far they can go. How much can you contribute to the changes needed and how far are you willing to go in supporting changes that could turn around centuries of inequity? The problems are substantial, and the solutions must match the need. Half-hearted or timid efforts, even if well-meaning, will not bring about the transformation required for true equity and justice. Yet, we will find our way as we proceed. Having courageous conversations (see Community Reflection and Conversation Among the Adults, chapter 3, page 96) means that we intentionally enter into difficult conversations with colleagues and families.
Look at it this way: If students spend fifteen years in school from preK (age three) to grade 12 (age eighteen), how much more could their education offer to create a sense of safety, security, and well-being for all? The approach we are proposing is to start at preK and commit early childhood years to building a firm foundation steeped in compassion, equity, justice, and antiracism.
So, what would this holistic, heart informed approach look like? Mindfulness is, of course, a major part.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is part of a heart centered approach to early learning and ties in most directly to conscious awareness or being aware in the moment, without judgment (Kabat-Zinn, 2013). According to Rhonda V. Magee (2022), “Mindfulness can assist us in upending racism, othering, and all forms of social-identity-based harms at their roots.” A meta-analysis indicates that mindfulness has been shown to minimize bias as measured by the Implicit Association Test (IAT; see chapter 3, page 81) and that mindfulness both inhibits bias against groups and also improves antibias attitudes and actions (Chang, Donald, Whitney, Miao, & Sahdra, 2022).
As Mason and colleagues (2018, 2020) indicate in two books on mindful school practices, teachers can strengthen mindfulness by helping students understand their emotions and help them pay more attention to sensory input. Here are a few examples of mindfulness exercises (figure 1.3).
Student is crying or is angry.
Mindful response: Pause to make a brief statement helping student acknowledge emotion: “I can see you or upset (hurt, feeling bad, angry). How can I help?”
Purpose: Lets students know that you are aware of their feelings and that you care. Helps students problem solve solutions.
Student is about to go outside; there is snow on the ground.
Student grabs a toy from another student.
Mindful response: “Looks like it may be cold outside—let’s find your mittens.”
Purpose: Increases students’ understanding or labeling of physical sensations and also provides a compassionate, caring response.
Mindful response: “Jamie was playing with this. You need to wait your turn.” If necessary, prompt student to return the toy, perhaps saying to Jamie, “In five minutes, let’s give Jason a turn.” Watch the clock and help make sure the turntaking takes place.
Purpose: Helps students become more aware of others, including steps to being more considerate of others.
There are many ways to increase students’ mindful awareness: through discussions, conversations, direct teaching, and also puppets, role plays, and reading and discussing children’s books. Teachers can use a few key phrases across many situations.
• “How do you feel?”
• “How does [name] feel?” or “[Name] feels sad (happy, angry).”
• “How can I help you?”
• “How could you help [name]?”
• “Please remember to share.”
• “[Name] needs a turn.”
• “Remember to wait your turn.”
• “Use your words.” (In a classroom where a student is screaming or hitting.)
If you elect to use puppets, you can create scenarios where there is a conflict, and the puppet characters first respond in a way that doesn’t consider the feelings of others, and then replay the scenarios, helping to make sure the puppet character acknowledges the needs of others.
Sesame Street provides many excellent examples of compassionate mindfulness. Ones that we recommend include “Good Neighbors Are Compassionate” (bit. ly/3N69dED) and an episode of Elmo’s World on kindness (bit.ly/45SHv6V).
As educators practice mindful techniques with their students, they can also attend to their own mindfulness. The following mindfulness exercise increases your awareness of your reactions to racism or how racism has brought feelings of hurt, pain, or anger into your life. It is adapted from a post by mindfulness expert and author Julie Potiker (2019).
Next time you find yourself feeling hurt, shame, or guilt, try the following.
1. Name the emotion: Pause long enough to name your emotion. Call it out. Recognize it for what it is. This simple step begins to calm your brain down and give you some space around your feelings.
2. Locate your emotion in your body: See if you can feel where the emotion is in your body. Do you feel it in your stomach? In your jaw? In your neck? Where do you feel tension or discomfort?
3. Apply soothing touch: Place your hands over the location where you feel the emotion in your body. Imagine warm oil or a warm compress opening up the constricted area. If that doesn’t work, you can place your hands anywhere on your body that you find comforting, such as over your heart, on your belly, cradling your face, around your shoulders in a hug, and so on. When you give yourself this soothing touch, you are loving yourself. This takes you out of reactivity mode and into a more loving, calm space. You are releasing the nurturing hormones of oxytocin and endorphins, which calm your system.
4. Switch your focus: Focus on something you are grateful for. Pull up a wonderful memory and marinate in those feelings to install the
goodness in your body and mind, pushing the mental state into a neural trait so the happy bridge gets reinforced in your brain.
As Magee (2022) suggests:
Mindfulness, when offered as an isolated breath-based practice for increasing focus and concentration, is not likely to create changes in how we perceive one another, act, and enact institutions. . . . the science of mindfulness must be transformed, becoming infused not only with a focus on traditionally marginalized communities and cultures, but with a focus on collectives rather than on individuals.
Magee (2022) recommends practicing STOP, which entails the following.
1. Stop or pause.
2. Take a conscious breath.
3. Observe what is happening in your body, what emotions, thoughts, and sensations may be known and acknowledged.
4. Proceed with presence and awareness of our power to make a positive difference.
Magee (2022) goes on in her article to recommend that we cultivate STOP in collectives (groups, organizations, or institutions) to self-examine how we feel in the moment.
A classroom relying on heart centered, mindful guidelines and activities will find that over a period of a few weeks, the atmosphere of the classroom will shift. As students begin to feel that they are supported and that rules and protocols are fair and kind, we help to nurture feelings of safety and trust (Mason et al., 2020).
The following two activities further a compassionate, antiracist approach through building the self-esteem of each student and helping students develop strategies to self-regulate and manage their emotions. In antiracist classrooms, these types of activities are foundational to establishing trust, goodwill, and cooperation.
1. Sweet Words Jar: When the teacher hears students saying something kind about another student, the teacher writes the words on a slip of paper and puts it in the jar. Teachers can also ask each student once a week to say something positive about another student. Teachers can record these statements as well and put them in the jar, along with relevant quotes from books that are read in class. Then at circle time, the teacher can periodically open the jar and take out a few quotes to read and discuss (Resilient Preschools, 2020).
2. Calmness Elevator: The teacher brings into the classroom one or two large cardboard boxes to be made into “elevators.” Children can help decorate the boxes with beautiful pictures inside and out. When a student is angry, they can visit the box and count to ten, imagining going up ten floors on the elevator. The teacher will prompt the child to look at the beautiful pictures, absorbing a sense of well-being and happiness (Resilient Preschools, 2020).
Role plays can be a positive experiential learning strategy. There are times when role plays are appropriate and can help students work together against an injustice, such as bullying. Miranda Paul and illustrator Ebony Glenn’s (2020) book, Speak Up, contains many potential scenarios for role plays in early childhood settings.
However, role plays can be fraught with racial harm when White educators use them without considering how their own unconscious bias might impact their students. For example, a New York teacher suggested a role play in which his mostly Black students were told to pick cotton (Heyward, 2022). Re-enactments of the Underground Railroad have been widely used, even in elementary schools (Lopez & Rath, 2023), frequently causing traumatic experiences for Black students. While these teachers may not be consciously motivated to promote racism, the result nevertheless was the same.
From an interview with Mia Schultz, an educator and equity coordinator, we get a vivid example of what it’s like for students in a classroom where the teacher hasn’t embraced heart centered mindfulness (M. Schultz, personal communication, October 18, 2022). As a young single mother, Mia moved with her young children to Vermont when her children were in third and fifth grade. Mia, who is biracial herself, can easily pass for White, but her children have darker skin and were two of the very few Black students in their school. In our conversation, Mia recounts many incidents not only with her own children but also with those whom she has helped as a volunteer and as an equity coordinator for the NAACP in a region of Vermont. Interestingly, many of these incidents occurred during February—Black History Month. Her story reminds us of the racist experiences that may occur when one who is BIPOC lives in a predominantly White community. They also alert us to the potential for otherism, or exclusion due to differences from an accepted norm, as
students of different skin colors or cultures move into areas populated largely by White people.
In one disturbing incident, Mia describes how a teacher, when teaching about the origins of slavery, instructed her then eighth-grade son, the only Black student in the class, to take on the role of being a slave on a slave ship as it was headed across the ocean. This resulted in Mia’s Black son being the one reliving the horrors of racism as the White students relived being the doers of racism. When Mia complained, the teacher tried to justify her actions.
While this student was no longer in early childhood, this example illustrates how these ugly situations can persist, beginning in students’ youngest years and continuing into the later years of school. As pointed out by the Zinn Education Project (2022), inappropriate role plays include activities where some students take on the role of the oppressor, and as that site urges, we need to take an approach of carefully thinking through the value of a role play and its purpose, as well as how it could end up reinforcing discrimination or racism.
Mia indicates that some of the racist harassment her younger child experienced from other students was the most vicious during recess. This should be seen as a reminder to staff to ensure adequate supervision. It may also be an indication that students knew that the harassment was wrong and that staff might intervene, even with punishments.
As it relates to this chapter, we must ask, “Where is the conscious awareness of the horrific impact of such a role play? And where is the conscious awareness of the inequity and injustice in asking a Black child to portray such a role?”
In related news, a group of educators in a Texas school district in July 2022 suggested that teachers introduce slavery in second grade as involuntary relocation (Heyward, 2022). While the board of education rejected this recommendation, an article in Capital B by Guilia Heyward (2022) names several similar occurrences, such as another example in Texas in which a teacher asked students to list “the pros and cons of slavery” as part of a lesson on a “balanced approach” to slavery.
As we write this book, lawmakers in thirty-six states have introduced various legislation to restrict how racism is discussed in schools, while seventeen states have proposed legislation to expand discussions of racism through antiracial bias training and providing additional lessons about prominent Blacks or Asians (Du, 2022).
To guide early childhood educators on a path to more fully supporting equity and full inclusion for all young learners, particularly as we consider the pervasive need to address racism, we developed the acronym HEART+. HEART+ (hope, education, acknowledgment, resolution, teaching+) is firmly grounded in HCL and the practice of the five Cs, offering a transformative path tailored to the needs of early childhood educators. This transformative journey begins with mindfulness and consciousness, fostering an environment of self-awareness and empathy. The integration of antiracism into this process is pivotal, as it guides educators to channel their awareness toward dismantling systemic biases and promoting equity.
As early childhood educators progress through HEART+, they transition from hope, aspiring to create inclusive environments, to education, a commitment to ongoing learning about racism, bias, and privilege, which informs their teaching practices. Acknowledgment follows, encouraging educators to address historical and contemporary injustices, fostering a more equitable early childhood education landscape. The resolution stage prompts early childhood educators to take action, working toward a more just society for the students in their care. The teaching phase empowers them to share their knowledge, creating communities of understanding and acceptance among their peers and young students. We include the “+” as a reminder that addressing racism will also depend on local context and circumstances.
HEART+ thus becomes a tailored roadmap, specifically designed to help early childhood educators nurture inclusive and equitable learning environments. By combining HCL with HEART+, educators can lead the way in fostering transformative change, ensuring that all young children receive a foundation of acceptance and support as they embark on their educational journey.
We ask that educators take on a personal mission to more fully explore these principles to use in their day-to-day interactions with students and families from diverse cultures. Figure 1.4 (page 32) displays some considerations to guide this work.
The following sections unpack each component of HEART+.
Antiracist education is an exercise of hope. This exercise of hope is more than just wishful thinking, which only leads us to a passive acceptance of what is. Hope serves as our beacon, inspiring us to join the struggle for a future where
Discussing race and fostering antiracism should be woven into early childhood programs to meet recent professional guidelines. Using literature, the classroom environment, and other curricular activities promotes the development of cooperative and prosocial behaviors, empathy, conscience, sense of fairness, and early literacy goals. These are all aspects of developmentally appropriate practices (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009).
Antibias, and specifically antiracism interventions, seem to be most effective in young children (see Brown, 2011). Early childhood teachers may be uniquely positioned to prevent children’s racial stereotype and prejudice development.
Increasingly, early childhood educators are willing to go beyond the established antibias approach to directly address overt and even implicit racism in their classrooms. Remaining silent about issues of oppression suggests acceptance. “Although we are not teaching children prejudice, we are not teaching them not to be prejudiced,” either (Boutte, 2008, p. 171).
liberty and justice truly extend to all. This journey demands both confidence and courage, as it compels us to navigate uncharted territory and occasionally venture beyond the boundaries of our comfort zone as we boldly speak out against racism.
It is the practice of dismantling systems of oppression, the practice of freedom and truth-telling. Hope changes our perspective and fills us with possibility and anticipation of how we can work to dismantle racism and systems of oppression in the midst of what seem like horrible and despairing circumstances. Hope gives us a glimpse of how antiracist work is changing early childhood education. It then becomes an invitation to partner with others taking action for a better future.
Where do your school and community fall with helping to build a sense of hope for young children and families? Here are some indicators of hope.
• Evidence of equity (in housing, employment, wages, jobs, and so on)
• Loving support demonstrated with kindness and compassion
• Dismantling of barriers (legislation, judicial systems, increased opportunities, and so on)
• Students who report feeling safe, loved, and valued Teachers can further a sense of hope by having positive regard for each student, by bringing enthusiasm for life into their classrooms, and by doing what they can to encourage and uplift students and each other. Specific activities that may promote hope include the following.
• Planting seeds, and caring for plants, and waiting expectantly for the plants to emerge from the soil and for blossoms and flowers to appear
• Building something together, again with that sense of expectation for the future
• Maintaining a routine so that students learn about consistency and the value of waiting—whether it is waiting for a snack or waiting for a favorite activity or story
• Helping students name their own strengths so they begin to identify their own individual positive attributes
It’s this latter activity that we want to focus on. Strengths-based thinking, rather than deficits-based thinking, is a common thread in antiracist practices. NAEYC (2019), in its guiding principle regarding equity, recommends that educators and their wider communities “embrace diversity and full inclusion as strengths, uphold fundamental principles of fairness and justice, and work to eliminate structural inequities that limit equitable learning opportunities.”
“Embrace diversity and full inclusion as strengths.” As strengths: this certainly goes far beyond learning about other cultures.
Why is this mindset shift so important for instilling hope, and how can teachers make sure students embrace their strengths?
Shifting to a strengths-based thinking mindset is empowering as it centers on what teachers and students can do to overcome challenges. It is proactive in that it encourages them to see potential rather than dwelling on setbacks. When teachers mindfully guide students in reflecting on their strengths, they contribute to building resilience and instilling hope, which is the basis for antiracist education.
Young children benefit when they see their own social identities, including race, culture, and gender, in the individuals who educate and care for them (Dee, 2005; Egalite & Kisida, 2018). Early childhood educators have the opportunity to create learning communities that nurture students’ development while acknowledging and valuing the diverse and intertwined social identities they hold, including race, language, abilities, gender, socioeconomic status, and more (Division for Early Childhood [DEC] & NAEYC, 2009; NAEYC, 2019).
When diversity is framed as a strength, fostered through love, compassion, forgiveness, and hope, it exposes students to various cultural and social groups in a way that prepares them to become better citizens in their communities. Exposing young children to diverse ways of being ultimately instills compassion, kindness, open-mindedness, and empathy, teaching them how to treat people with respect regardless of their background. Celebrating these differences also improves their self-confidence and how they see themselves. By recognizing and affirming their own identities and those of others, young children develop a sense of self-worth. This recognition fosters hope by promoting a positive self-image as well as an understanding that their individuality is valued.
Take a moment to list some of the strengths of cultures represented in your school or community.
As we consider the hope in recognizing diversity as a strength, we turn again to NAEYC (2019) and its statement on equity. In that statement, NAEYC (2019) recommends that educators find ways to help young children:
• Demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social identities
• Express comfort and joy with human diversity, use accurate language for human differences, and form deep, caring human connections across diverse backgrounds
• Increasingly recognize and have language to describe unfairness (injustice) and understand that unfairness hurts
• Have the will and the skills to act, with others or alone, against prejudice and discriminatory actions
Each of these actions can also build a sense of hope, a sense of the possibilities for the future.
To build hope, imagine a society where young children are taught to love: the intentional practice of equipping students with the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to feel and show empathy for others. From an antiracist perspective, we know that good, positive intentions are insufficient. Educators also need to teach students to actively identify and oppose prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people based on their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group.
In this society, liberty and justice for all are a perpetual manifestation in the lives of all Americans. This promise must be collectively and intentionally pursued by those who have the ability to dismantle racism by empowering future generations.
Teachers have the power to make significant positive changes through their ability to inspire and empower our youngest learners to see inequity and take an early stand against it. As Kendi (2022) says in his book, How to Raise an Antiracist, be aware of the “promotion of mistrust” (p. 7), where parents may have warned their children to mistrust another race. A good way to counteract this is to help supply parents with information to teach their children about other races or cultures.
Do you have any fears about how to address racism for students in your community? Three fears that are common to many in these situations are that
(1) you don’t know enough, (2) you are afraid you may say the wrong thing, and
(3) you might not know how to take action (Californians for the Arts, 2022).
Now, imagine the concern over saying or doing the wrong thing as a teacher, as you interact with students, families, and colleagues—the fear that you will not handle a situation correctly. We can overcome fears with knowledge—by talking about them and by becoming more informed.
In the article “Black Boys and Policing: Rethinking the Community Helpers Curriculum,” Brian L. Wright (2021), associate professor and program coordinator of early childhood education, and coordinator of the middle school cohort of the African American Male Academy at the University of Memphis in Tennessee, describes in vivid terms the type of education educators need: When educators lack the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to infuse the curriculum with readings, activities, and assignments that challenge, nuance, and position and challenge students of color—Black boys in particular—in positive and affirming ways, they (wittingly and perhaps unwittingly) can (re)traumatize these children in disorienting and damaging ways.
Wright suggests a need to reexamine our curricula—asking who are Black boys’ community helpers and who are not? Black people are five times more likely to be arrested than White people (Srikanth, 2020). Teachers can educate themselves about The Talk that Black parents inevitably have to give their children to prepare them for interactions with police officers (see chapter 4, page 122). Educators also need to acknowledge the differing realities and interactions Black boys and men have with police, the results of which too frequently include severe injuries or even death.
When you consider the enormity of handling racism in school settings and your own role, what comes to mind? How much do you know about all your students, their families, their strengths, and their struggles? The book Finding Your Blind Spots by author and educator Hedreich Nichols (2022) may be helpful. It’s written for K–12 teachers, but its lessons about self-reflecting to acknowledge and mitigate biases can apply to educators of young children as well.
One way to increase our understanding of our own biases around equity is to keep a journal, reflecting on what you observe during the day that has a component of bias or racism. Reflect as well on the good—where you saw evidence of cooperation, dignity, regard, and helpful interactions. Reflect on your own role.
In the realm of early childhood education, it’s essential to consider the demographics of your school community. Are you part of the dominant demographic within that community? Understanding the daily lives of others, especially those from diverse ethnic backgrounds, is crucial. As educators, we should strive to be aware of the unique experiences that students and families from different backgrounds may have. If you find yourself in a position of authority, the way you engage in decision making and demonstrate respect for the lives and experiences of others is fundamental in creating an inclusive and equitable learning environment.
In Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism From the Inside Out, mindfulness practitioner Ruth King (2018) writes about racism, saying, “The world’s heart is on fire, and race is at its core. . . . Racism is a heart disease” (p. 4). Describing the need for change, she asks:
• How do I work with my thoughts, fears, and beliefs in ways that nurture the dignity of all races?
• How do I comfort my own raging heart in a sea of racial ignorance and violence?
• How do my actions reflect the world I want to live in and leave to future generations?
• How do I advocate for racial justice without causing harm and hate, internally and externally? (King, 2018, p. 9)
Here are some reflection questions you can use to help you explore mindsets around equity.
• How has race intersected with your journey as a teacher?
• What is your personal vision and belief system around race and equity?
• How have you benefited from and leveraged your education to get where you are?
• How are your experiences different from or similar to those of the students you serve?
• How do you model vulnerability when talking about issues of equity, inclusion, and race?
• How much of your personal journey do you bring into the classroom? Are there areas where you need to set aside your past in order to be more supportive of students?
In her book, King (2018) also talks about the “messiness” of this work. Messy, certainly. Learning about racism and how to combat it is not a linear endeavor. The education you will experience will be an education not only of your mind, but also your heart, and you will need to give yourself time and patience as you learn new ways of interacting with students, staff, and families to honor and promote equity and the cultural strengths of diversity.
As you learn more about antiracism, you may also find that you begin to look at everyday encounters with students and families differently. Your sensitivity will increase.
Creating antiracist early childhood spaces begins with considering how our lives intersect with issues of racism, prejudice, and bias. Racism is pervasive; it’s in the news, on our social media platforms, and in our politics. But denial of racism is just as pervasive; as Kendi (2018) puts it, “The heartbeat of racism has always been in denial, and the sound of that heartbeat is ‘I’m not racist.’”
In our minds, we may be struggling to understand how we could even begin to acknowledge the full extent of racism in a way to bring justice. Yet, individuals, groups, communities, institutions, governments, and leaders can do so much. Some acknowledgment should involve official statements from leaders,
but there is much that teachers in classrooms can do. We mustn’t simply close our eyes and pretend that women and men were not beaten, that families were not torn apart, that even today, families who are legal residents of the United States are not living in fear of decisions that could force them to return to countries they had escaped. However, in early childhood settings, it will be most crucial to acknowledge the past wrongs as young children age. So much more can be discussed with third graders in comparison to younger children.
Historically, many young White children haven’t had discussions about racism, and most do not know what it feels like to be a target of racism. In sharp contrast, children of color often experience racism, sometimes at an early age. As young children mature, their cumulative experiences shape their lives and beliefs so that by the time they reach adulthood, a great divide easily may develop between the needs, power, and beliefs of White individuals and those of BIPOC adults. With increased awareness and attention of media, this gap is closing, even as there is some resistance from those in power. With an antiracist approach, educators have the opportunity to increase the awareness of all young children about racism and to actively work towards increasing compassion, equity, and justice for all people. One way to honor those of diverse cultures is to acknowledge the pain of the past—the inequities and traumas that have brought us to where we stand today. We stand in a country that is divided in so many ways and that disagrees about the value of individual lives, the value of education, and how to move forward.
Acknowledging systemic racism and its impact on us individually and collectively as early childhood educators will take mindful self-reflection. This self-reflection must be based on the acknowledgment of the history of racism and its impact on individuals, communities, and society as a whole. The mindful self-reflection of our biases, assumptions, and privilege is a process that requires self-education to ground our acknowledgment in truth. As individuals, we can self-reflect, but as members of organizations, we can also collectively and publicly acknowledge the truth of the past, starting with the following suggestions.
• Listen seriously to diverse groups and perspectives. Learning about systemic barriers racially marginalized people have faced and how this leads to legitimate anger and grievances can make uncomfortable but necessary conversations possible.
• Instead of judging differences by our own cultural standards, pursue dialogue filled with diverse perspectives.
• Lobby for policies, representatives, and leaders who understand and work to address these systemic barriers.
We cannot acknowledge what we do not know. While much has been written about antiracism in the early childhood classroom in America, how to create antiracist early childhood spaces remains a highly contested topic. More often than not, early childhood educators and programs think or teach about race, bias, and equity from two approaches: (1) the colorblind approach that assumes that “we are all one” and that the color of one’s skin makes no difference to our lives and (2) the celebration of differences approach (Doucet & Adair, 2013). These stem from beliefs that, if educators teach love, kindness, and fairness only, then they do not need to point out or discuss racial bias or inequalities with our young learners. While love, kindness, and fairness can go far, there is more work to be done.
As we said in the introduction (page 1), we want to acknowledge all early childhood educators for the journey you are on: for your contributions, your love of children, and your caring concern. And as we recognize your greatness, we also ask that you consider how you can play a role in challenging the inequities and injustices that remain. Breaking through discomfort, educators can lead constructive discussions. You can provide space for students to share their experiences, questions, and thoughts. For young children, this may involve observing how students of various races interact in your classroom to see whether there are any biases (see chapter 2, page 55) that lead students to prefer one race over another or any bias that leads to physical aggression against students of one race or another. Discussions for our youngest learners can often take place through the use of books (see chapter 7, page 177) and in play centers (see chapter 8, page 209).
As students age, discussions can also turn to acknowledging the historic and current accomplishments of individuals from various races. We want young children to see themselves in positions of success, achievement, leadership, and agency or self-determination. So, our early acknowledgment will come from a place of naming the good and building a sense of self-esteem, even as we take time to acknowledge past and current injustices. As teachers, we want to do our part to help students develop an inner compass and a sense of fairness and justice that is shared across races and cultures.
Don’t expect yourself to be perfect but take heart that it will get easier with practice (National Education Association [NEA] Center for Social Justice, 2020). There are a variety of resources we recommend to guide the work of acknowledging racism and promoting antiracism in your classroom. Figure 1.5 (page 40) summarizes the highlights from each of these.
“10 Principles for Talking About Race in School” (NEA Center for Social Justice, 2020)
Encourage selfexpression and give students the right to take a pass and not share.
What barriers to learning might some students be experiencing? How can you address these?
“Addressing Race and Racism Head-On in the Classroom” (Gonser, 2021)
Make sure students see themselves in your classroom (books and posters).
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You (Reynolds, 2021)
“10 Resources for Teaching AntiRacism” (Fingal & Mack, 2020)
A brief succinct history of Black people in the United States and ways to discredit racist notions. This is a good review for teachers.
This source includes links to sites focused on learning for justice, racism and poverty, history, and culture.
Bring in examples of success of various races across curricula—for example, in science, studying inventors of different races.
This source includes a teacher’s guide and ideas for research and book clubs.
Be aware that race is a social category and power dynamic. Therefore, it is critical to address more than equity—to also focus on justice.
Feature stories of resistance and resilience, not just about the injustices.
This source provides links to foundations such as the Obama Foundation and the 1619 Project.
This source includes discussion of environmental racism and other resources such as digital platforms.
Developed by the International Society for Technology in Education, this references digital resources and key challenges for teachers in terms of equity and access.
As we have come to learn, some early childhood classrooms can have an undercurrent of hatred, discrimination, and racism. Some early childhood educators become silent perpetrators of racism, not necessarily acting and speaking in ways that support it, but still, perhaps unwittingly, perpetuating it. Here are a few behaviors that can perpetuate racism in the early childhood classroom.
• Refusing to consider that one may be acting out of unconscious racism toward children, families, or colleagues
• Adopting a colorblind approach to teaching and learning
• Lacking representation of various cultures and races in the curriculum, learning materials, and classroom environment
These actions or behaviors may not be overt or intentionally discriminatory but will have a negative impact on the classroom environment. Creating antiracist early childhood classrooms requires that the often more subtle forms of racism be intentionally addressed. If not, the unintentional and subtle ways that racism is a part of early childhood will continue to have a negative impact on young children, especially those from BIPOC communities.
The negative effects of what was omitted in common teacher practices of the 1990s and early 2000s can be felt in the United States as Black Lives Matter protests erupt across the country and throughout the world. Schools as institutions serving the common good have a role and responsibility to speak out. Reflecting on the Black Lives Matter movement, Shanna Bent, founder, creative director, and designer of womenswear label Maison Bent, explains:
It is a reflection that people are really beginning to understand—that racism is no longer a figment of our imagination. It is no longer something that only we as black people have to fight against. It is for this very reason that we need to never be silent, continue to speak out and share our stories as this is the only way change can happen. If we stop talking, the issue becomes irrelevant and forgotten. (Obasi, 2020)
To resolve issues of racism will take individual and community action. It starts with sharing hope with others, compassionately extending our voices and our hands to uplift those who have been harmed by racism. We also advance hope by educating ourselves—an internal process, one guided by our own internal yardsticks. Once again, however, our self-education will involve action steps—reading, listening, talking, doing. Teachers enhance their self-education by learning from families and students about their culture and traditions and bringing that knowledge into our classrooms to share with others. Christine remembers well the times when she thought that she was asking students to share so that they would feel included, only to realize how much she was learning from her students.
Open acknowledgment of the harms caused by racism is also characterized by action, such as citing aloud statistics regarding the genocide of Indigenous people and the full impact of crowding thousands of Africans into slave ships to bring them to a new continent to work without a sense of choice or dignity,
pay, and concern for their families, their health, or their lives. The greatest benefits come when acknowledgment impacts a wider circle.
When we get to resolution, we first review what we have learned and acknowledged and then consider how to address the harm. Resolution can be broad and sweeping. Or it can be facilitated by addressing what has been acknowledged—addressing it with positive actions that benefit those who have been most impacted by racism.
The resolution and teaching phases both involve practical classroom strategies. They encompass curriculum, pedagogy, and classroom climate and provide concrete steps, initiatives, and teaching approaches that lead to actionable, compassionate change within the educational setting. As we teach, we must be aware that racism exists within the hearts, minds, and actions of many in the United States. Explicit racism is frequently conveyed through bullying behaviors, while unconscious racism may be conveyed in more subtle ways. Both forms are damaging and can be found among people of diverse backgrounds throughout our communities.
Later in this book (chapter 6, page 166) we discuss bullying, providing several examples of how teachers can address bullying. What is the resolution? We believe it starts first with deepening our understanding of the harm that has been done and is being done—with conscious awareness of the damage.
Microaggressions are more nuanced than bullying but nonetheless damaging. Assuming that a student or family who is BIPOC is somehow “less” in some way is damaging. Sometimes, a perpetrator of a microaggression is not even aware that the microaggression has occurred. One common example of a microaggression in an early childhood classroom is when a teacher mispronounces or consistently misrepresents students’ names. This can send a message that their names are difficult, less important, or not worthy of being pronounced correctly. In young children, this can create a sense of otherness and contribute to feelings of alienation or shame.
Orinthia recalls stories told by a friend whose children consistently experience this microaggression and who decided to homeschool during their early years because of this and other race-related issues. Her name is Dr. Christelene Horton, from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Her husband, Jah-Sahrrang, is of Korean, Mexican, and Native American descent. They relocated their young family when both received prestigious positions at a major university. They have four children: Jah-Ikaiah (15), Kaiori (13), Saichiko (11), and Jai-Muid (9). After the countless times they corrected and asked educators to correctly
pronounce their two older children’s names, they decided it was not worth the fight. Dr. Horton said it would be better to keep them at home because “open racism was the norm in school” (C. Horton, personal communication, 2017). As a result, they both homeschooled their children for over ten years. They only enrolled them in public school in 2021, after accepting government positions and relocating to a different state.
Another common example of a microaggression that may occur in an early childhood classroom is the use of stereotypical comments or assumptions based on a student’s race or ethnicity. Long-term assumptions may result in differences in expectations, and educators may display other assumptions, such as believing that a student is not as intelligent, that a family is backward, or that an immigrant family is draining resources meant to be reserved for U.S. citizens. The solution? First, work on yourself so that you are not adding to the problem—that is why self-education is so critical. Understand the implicit bias that may be inherent in your experiences and work to counteract that bias (see chapter 3, page 81).
Institutional racism will shift as each of us individually shifts our mindsets. The attitudes of those who surround young children impact them—the fear, hatred, and microaggressions that are directed toward them and their families. Educators need to be aware of this and take steps to stop the microaggressions, hate, and fear, even as we seek to provide safe, nurturing environments that will aid with the mind-body-spirit healing that many students need.
Resolution starts at the individual level and includes systemic policies. Educators can consider the need for pay equity, greater access to leadership positions, and resolving issues of equity and injustice through highlighting educators from diverse backgrounds. You can take care that students feel your support for them as you continue to acknowledge the contributions of BIPOC people in your classroom curricula and instruction.
Resolution involves concern for the other. As Martin Luther King Jr. (1968) said, others may have asked, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” But the Good Samaritan came by and reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”
Conscious awareness of inequities, concern for the other, ending microaggressions, and providing safe, nurturing environments will all build toward resolution, shifting mindsets and moving beyond the status quo. Here are a few things you may be able to do even as we realize that there is a larger societal role.
• When you see or hear something, say something: “It’s always beneficial to speak up. People can’t know how to change their behavior if no one lets them know what they’re doing is wrong, harmful, or offensive” (Cabral, 2022).
• Watch out for bullying and peer aggression (see chapter 6, page 155) and intervene as needed.
• Use children’s books (see chapter 7, page 177) such as Kendi (2020b) and Lukashevsky’s Antiracist Baby to teach lessons about celebrating differences, speaking up, and promoting equity.
Resolution in the classroom will also come through exercises that help students understand differences. Two classroom activities that we recommend include I Am Different books and the windows and mirrors exercise.
Using heavy construction paper, create booklets. Second and third graders could even develop the following activity on a computer and share with a slide show.
Students can draw and bring in photos of their families, friends, and pets. Teachers can also take photos of students’ hands, which could lead to a discussion of the color of their skin. Students can dictate or write stories about their lives. Key questions they can answer might include: Who is in your family? How old are you? How many sisters and brothers do you have? Depending on the age of the students, you could also ask, “What language do you speak?” If their native language is other than English, be sure to include several words from their native language.
There could be several sections in the book: What I like to do, My favorite foods, and My favorite book, for example.
When books are complete, the teacher can help students share them with others and lead a discussion, perhaps during circle time, about differences and similarities. Such discussions can play a vital role in teachers’ resolve to dismantle racism. These discussions help young children develop empathy by encouraging them to consider others’ experiences and perspectives. By engaging in meaningful conversations through activities like this, young children can develop a sense of curiosity, appreciation, and respect for different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Using mindfulness and age-appropriate language and concepts, teachers can guide the discussions to challenge stereotypes and biases that students may have internalized about themselves or others. These discussions also empower students to courageously share their experiences and traditions.
Another way to help young children to grow in their understanding of racism and antiracism is to adapt the windows and mirrors exercise (Michie, 2014).
For the first part of the activity, have several hand mirrors in one of your preschool centers. As part of playtime, students can look into the mirror and talk about themselves: their eyes, nose, ears, hair, and their skin color. They can also compare skin colors, helping them see the beauty in each of them and in each skin color, including the various hues and shades.
In another center, students can draw pictures of themselves and their families. Depending on the age of the students, you can help them find a crayon color that most closely matches their skin color. Crayons and markers that offer a more diverse range of skin tone colors are readily available. Several companies have recognized the importance of representation in art supplies, and they have developed products specifically designed to reflect a broader spectrum of skin tones. Crayola and RoseArt are two of the most popular brands offering crayons and markers with a diverse range of skin tone colors. Reinforce the idea of the beauty of each color—the beauty of each one of them.
After students have completed several days of experiences with mirrors, move on to the second part and combine this with a window activity. Talk about windows and how sometimes when we look through windows, we see interesting things outside. Then, help students make cards where they can open “windows” and see a picture of themselves as well as of a friend, a family, or a pet—something else students want to share.
Teachers can help students make windows by cutting out squares from one sheet of construction paper. If the sheets are left with one side attached, the “window” can be opened. Position two windows on one page and two drawings (one of a student and one of someone or something else). The underlying picture is then taped or glued beneath the sheet with the windows.
This can be modified so that students either tell a story that is written down by an adult, or, depending on the age of the students, they write a few lines to tell their own stories. A windows and mirrors activity like this provides opportunities for young children to see themselves reflected in learning materials as well as to learn about others from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. This can help promote resolution in antiracist classrooms because it gives students and teachers the space to begin conversations about race early.
Some teachers and students can struggle with reacting to things that are not proximate to how they see life, but intentional activities like the two above
provide a platform for productive struggle. Remember, resolution only applies if teachers take action.
Once we have gained insight and knowledge, acknowledging the injustice that has occurred and have set about to resolve concerns, we then need to teach in a way that begins to dismantle racism. Our daily interactions with students and other teachers in the building should promote a sense of equity, justice, and fairness for young children as we help them (and our colleagues) celebrate diversity as a strength. As the practical work of an antiracist early childhood educator, teaching should be simultaneously mindful of self and others. Antiracist teaching goes beyond lesson plans, curriculum, and instruction, although these are also critical components.
We base our definition of teaching on the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), the most evidence-based and widely used assessment of teaching quality for early childhood (Teachstone, n.d.). CLASS is a research-based method of measuring, evaluating, and improving teacher-student interactions. CLASS enables high-quality interactions that lead to improved academic and SEL outcomes for students. Over two hundred research studies have demonstrated that children in classrooms with more effective teacher-student interactions, as measured by CLASS, make gains in areas critical for success in school and life (Cash, Ansari, Grimm, & Pianta, 2019; Hamre, Hatfield, Pianta, & Jamil, 2014; Justice, Jiang, Khan, & Dynia, 2017; Teachstone, n.d.).
The 2019 study by Anne Henry Cash and her colleagues reveals statistically significant differences in language and literacy skills between students who consistently received high-quality instructional support and those who received low-quality support, with greater gains observed after two years of high-quality support. The researchers found that while students can benefit from high-quality instructional support over two years, few actually have access to such opportunities (Cash et al., 2019).
We take a deeper dive into what antiracist teaching looks like through the three domains that make up CLASS’s Teaching Through Interactions framework (Teachstone, n.d.) to give appropriate practical guidance for your journey toward becoming an antiracist educator: (1) emotional support, (2) classroom organization, and (3) instructional support.
Teachers’ emotional support fosters positive peer interactions and can reduce behavior problems. When students are in a classroom with high levels of interaction, they have better problem-solving and mathematical skills (Egert, Dederer,
& Fukkink, 2020). Sensitive and responsive antiracist educators acknowledge students’ individual differences and respond to them quickly and in a way that matches their needs. For example, a BIPOC student feels happy because she sees that a Black girl will play the title character in the Disney remake of The Little Mermaid. The teacher responds to the student in a way that shares that happiness and enthusiasm. The teacher can reaffirm by saying, “Yes, mermaids come in all different colors,” rather than recalling that the original character was a White girl. Then, after the film is viewed, continue with a discussion about the film, including what the students particularly enjoyed. Teachers could also consider using a film such as this to lead a classwide discussion so that more students might view this version of the film.
All students deserve to be affirmed and feel that they can bring their whole selves not only into the classroom but into the world. This is about more than just their race. It is also about their culture, gender, language, and indeed all aspects of identity. Teachers endeavoring to be antiracist have clear language around what a culture of respect means in the classroom and focus their interactions on ensuring all students feel like they belong. When students feel cared for, safe, and secure, they are better able to interact with others, engage in their world, and learn (Mincemoyer, 2016). See chapter 6 (page 155) for more on this topic of emotional safety.
When engaging in emotionally supportive antiracist teaching practices, effective antiracist teachers will be non-neutral in analyzing equity and social justice issues, knowing and believing that not all views are equally acceptable. As teachers become educated about antiracism, they will be better prepared to challenge other adults’ racist, sexist, or offensive views. We encourage teachers to strive for the following.
• Be non-neutral when encountering race and equity issues.
• Remember that the same treatment is not necessarily equitable treatment.
• Really recognize and accept different expression styles and value all forms of expression.
• Maintain your calm, if at all possible, even when challenging views you consider offensive.
This domain concerns how the classroom is structured to promote learning. It is less about the physical organization of the classroom than about how classroom organization enables specific teaching behaviors to help students develop
skills to regulate their own behavior, get the most learning out of each day, and maintain interest in learning activities. This domain measures how effectively teachers prepare an environment in which students can learn. It looks at how time is spent, ensuring that teachers are making the most of every moment.
Many teachers look to inclusive teaching practices to deliberately cultivate a learning environment where all students are treated equitably, have equal access to learning, and feel welcomed, valued, and supported in their learning. Inclusive teaching, while an important first step in challenging systemic inequities, stops short in its analysis of structural racism, power relations, and social justice. Antiracist pedagogy teaches about race and racism in a way that fosters critical analytical skills and reveals the power relations behind racism, including how race has been institutionalized in U.S. society to create and justify inequalities (Kishimoto, 2018).
The following three questions are a few the CLASS tool uses to help guide teachers toward success in mastering classroom organization (Teachstone, n.d.).
1. Are there clear expectations?
2. Are there clear routines and procedures?
3. Are there clear strategies for engagement?
Looking at these three questions through an antiracist lens will help guide early childhood teachers as they practice antiracist pedagogy. When asking these questions in isolation, teachers inadvertently uphold systemic racism and maintain the status quo. Through an antiracist lens, we might want to ask about the who and the what
1. Who has determined the expectations? A member of the dominant race or culture? Was there any input from other races or cultures?
2. Who has set the routines and procedures? Are these inclusive of the ways of other ethnicities or cultures?
3. Who has determined the strategies for engagement? Are culturally sensitive processes available to students?
The instructional support domain addresses the extent to which teachers challenge students to engage in higher-order thinking, rather than rote learning, throughout the entire day. The focus is on both direct and indirect learning rather than the specifics of the content or thematic unit.
A national overview of CLASS scores in 2020 reveals that instructional support is the most challenging of the three domains, with the lowest average score. Using a 7-point scale, the results showed instructional support at 2.94. Emotional support was highest, at 6.03, and classroom organization was second at 5.78 (Teachstone, n.d.).
Following are three questions to help teachers mindfully approach instructional supports with an antiracist lens. Each question will be covered in detail in subsequent chapters, along with practical applications.
1. Am I facilitating learning and development in a way that decenters Whiteness or the dominant race or culture and honors others’ methods of thinking and being? (See chapter 2, page 70.)
2. Am I promoting higher-order thinking and encouraging language use from an antiracist stance? (See chapter 7, page 181, and chapter 8, page 215.)
3. Am I providing feedback to my students that honors each of them and challenges negative stereotypes? (See chapter 6, page 155.)
The last part of HEART+ is the +, which we have included as a reminder that whatever you do needs to be adapted to your local environment and to build HEART in a way that considers the local context. In some situations, you may need to focus more on hope; in others, you may want to work on self-education. And as you consider the local context, you may also want to broaden your understanding of the history, the trauma, and the current strengths and needs of students and families in your local community.
For example, if you are serving a school with a large Cambodian population, you will want to understand the culture of the Cambodian communities, how they are dealing with their historical trauma of genocide and refugee camps, how they have adjusted to being in the United States, and what could help improve their sense of belonging, being welcomed, and being invited to participate in school activities. If your classroom included photographs, cultural symbols, and music from Cambodia, that could be a step in the right direction.
As another example, imagine you hear a group of your young students talking about recent incidents involving the police. You want to help them grasp the critical role of rules and fairness in society. To do this, you might introduce a story or picture book that illustrates a situation where a community has rules to ensure everyone is treated fairly. After reading the story, you could lead a
discussion by asking open-ended questions like, “Why do you think rules are important?” or “How can we make sure everyone is treated fairly?”
During this conversation, you might gently introduce the concept of rules for police officers, just as we have rules in our classroom or at home. You can explain that sometimes people discuss how to improve these rules to make sure everyone is treated fairly. You may share simple, age-appropriate suggestions for improving police training, such as “learning to be kind” or “helping people in need.” Throughout the discussion, you’ll emphasize the importance of being respectful and caring toward others.
By focusing on basic concepts like fairness, kindness, and rules that apply to everyone, you can navigate a sensitive topic in an age-appropriate and balanced manner. This approach encourages young children to think critically while fostering an inclusive and respectful classroom environment. Approach these conversations with care and sensitivity while encouraging open dialogue. Maintaining an open and inclusive classroom community where diverse viewpoints are respected is vital to avoid indoctrination and promote independent thinking among students. In this way, you are speaking up in age-appropriate ways, rather than being silent, and you are supporting an antiracist agenda and actions that may lead to healing.
• How do we connect what we are learning to our students and families?
• Will we have backup and support from each other throughout this process?
• We may not be experts, and that is OK.
Approaching early childhood through a HEART+ lens provides an opportunity to see anew or to begin again. As we do this, we are also weavers, weaving threads of race consciousness into our early childhood centers and classrooms, creating a new cloth. As we end this chapter, we refer you to the three questions we asked you to keep in mind as you read through our HEART+ recommendations: (1) How well are you doing? (2) How well is your community doing? and (3) What could you do to improve?
As you think about HEART+—hope, self-education, acknowledgment, resolution, and teaching, all in your local context—consider your daily activities, your interactions with students and families, and what you hear from them. Are they feeling loved, supported, and valued? When racism appears, have you found ways to talk about what you see and hear? Are you embedding ideas about antiracism into your classroom, your instruction, and your interactions?
We’ve woven the heart centered approach to addressing racism and building compassionate communities throughout this book. To help readers readily identify how developmental practices, attitudes, family interactions, school culture, emotional safety, literacy, and student interests and agency are shaped by our consciousness and compassion, we include references to some of the ways we address heart centered learning and HEART+ in each chapter. Figure 1.6 provides an overview.
As you read each chapter, please be aware that we have included up-to-date research, policies, and practices to help guide the self-education of our readers. This may be most useful when educators at your school collaborate in increasing your collective awareness and responsiveness to the local, as well as the larger, societal needs.
Chapter 1: Racism and Antiracism
The HEART+ of the Matter
Chapter 2: Early Childhood as a Foundational Time
HCL and HEART+ Introduces both
Chapter 3: Bias in Early Childhood
HEART+: Education, teaching
HCL: Consciousness, compassionate action, confidence
HEART+: Education
HCL: Consciousness, courage
Students’ identies are influenced by their cultural and racial alignment, socioeconomic status, cultural norms, and teachers’ awareness of the strengths inherent in various cultures.
We can better understand our own bias and its impact on others through self-education and becoming more aware of our bias. Courage and a HEART+ approach can help reduce this bias and the associated trauma.
Chapter 4: Families and Antiracism
HEART+: Education, acknowledgment, resolution
HCL: Courage, community
Chapter 5: Antiracist School Culture
HEART+: Hope, education, resolution, teaching
HCL: Five Cs
Chapter 6: BiasRelated Teasing, Peer Aggression, and Bullying in Early Childhood
Chapter 7: A Rhythm to a Rhyme— Challenging
Stories, Literatures, and Curricula
Chapter 8: Promoting Heart, Curiosity, and SelfDetermination
HEART+: Education, teaching
HCL: Five Cs, compassionate action
HEART+: Hope, education, acknowledgment, resolution
HCL: Consciousness, confidence, courage
HEART+: Hope, teaching
HCL: Consciousness, confidence
Teachers can further student growth and feelings of well-being by learning about their cultures, creating partnerships with families, and supporting a community of learners. Compassionate educators strive to understand trauma experienced by students and their families, acknowledge its impact, and work alongside others to resolve inequities.
School culture is impacted by funding, resources, the culture of students and their families, and the attitudes and compassionate understanding of teachers and administrators. The tenets of HEART+ and HCL can help resolve community inequities.
Teachers can reduce and prevent trauma that stems from peer aggression and bullying through increasing their own understanding of the roots of bias and infusing compassionate practices in their classrooms.
Books provide a rich resource for helping young children learn about others who look like them or different from them. With books, teachers have powerful tools for helping students develop confidence and promoting awareness and compassionate action to address racism and inequity.
Young learners can gain confidence and skills as they explore their environments, led by their individual interests. Teachers applying HEART+ principles can advance not only academic learning, but also students’ sense of joy and excitement.
Instructions: Use these questions to deepen your self-reflection about the topics presented in chapter 1.
• Are you implementing mindfulness or Heart Centered Learning in your classroom? If so, how? Are you working with other staff? Are there opportunities for improvement?
• Which area of HEART+ is your area of strength? Where could you deepen your knowledge and understanding?
• What could you do to strengthen a heart centered approach to addressing racism and cultural awareness? What actions do you commit to?
Instructions: Use these questions to challenge yourself to move beyond your present comfort zone.
• Examine equity, inclusion, and justice for people of color in your community. Do you see examples of a mindful, heart centered approach? If racial tensions are present, do they influence what teachers and staff say as you address racism?
• Which groups of people in your school or community are most in need of support from a heart centered, mindful lens? Is there anything more you or your colleagues could be doing to be supportive? Have you considered resolution or reparation for Indigenous or Black families, and if so, what are your conclusions?
It is never too early to start talking about racial equity with young children, write authors Christine Mason, Randy Ross, Orinthia Harris, and Jillayne Flanders.
In their book Little Learners, Big Hearts: A Teacher’s Guide to Nurturing Empathy and Equity in Early Childhood, informed by the Heart Centered Learning approach, they use the principles of HEART+—hope, self-education, acknowledgment, resolution, teaching, and local needs—as a guiding framework to facilitate antiracist education in early childhood. When those whose mission it is to teach, empower, and care for our youngest learners have the tools they need to reflect on and learn about racism, our youngest learners benefit, and real, lasting change is possible.
Preschool and K–3 teachers and childcare providers will:
• Promote empathy for and understanding of backgrounds, cultures, and identities that are different from what students may be used to
• Use mindfulness and reflection to move past discomfort and engage in challenging conversations
• Take part in an ongoing process of acknowledging and confronting biases
• Shape young children’s learning in a way that allows them to draw their own conclusions
• Be kind, caring, and meaningful forces in the lives of all students and their families
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/diversityandequity to download the free reproducibles in this book.
“Realizing that change must come, the authors have given us a road map—one honoring the agency and identity of each child and filled with practical examples and exercises. A must-read for all who care about our children, our future!”
—Yvette Jackson
Adjunct Professor, Columbia University; Senior Scholar, National Urban Alliance for Effective Education
“This book provides a helpful guide to nurture the paradigm shift that must happen in early childhood programs to create antiracist school communities that foster empathy, equity, and healing in public school systems.”
—Melanie Johnson Director, Whole Child Initiative at the National Indian Education Association
“As a former elementary principal, it is apparent to me that many of our students come to kindergarten with their school identities as learners already established. Engaging preschool communities through intentional practices to address the basic principles of antiracism and social justice is a win for those working to better the outcomes for all students of all ages.”
—Kristin Jackson Program Director, Communities in Schools, Wilmington, North Carolina