Early Childhood Educators Workshop
Understanding young children's racial identity development. A reflection on my past.
I attended a predominantly Latino and Black school from my Head Start program to the Catholic school where I entered at Kindergarten and graduated in eighth grade. My future possible self as a Latina was nurtured at home and school. Though I didn't understand the impact of my micro and macro environments, I clearly benefited from my surroundings. I lived in a strong Latino household where culture, history, music, and language where overtly, and sometimes covertly, expressed and I attended a school community whereby my neighbors, the church, clubs, and peers I socialized with were of Latino or Black heritage. All around me, adults communicated goals of academic success, family commitment, and racial-ethnic and cultural pride.
Racial identity is a key component of early childhood, adolescent, and adult development. Theorists agree that a complete understanding of one's own and other people's racial identity has a positive impact on school/classroom environments as well as possibly increasing the academic achievement of students of color. What happens to children and young people if that understanding is skewed, eclipsed, negated or denied? What are the challenges to teacher-student relationships when adults have a limited sense of their own racial identity?
Persona dolls is a strategy created by Louise Derman-Sparks and her colleagues in the early 1990s. Persona dolls are a powerful tool for affirming young children’s identities and teaching them about diversity and anti-bias practices. This classroom tool provides a vehicle for teachers to take on challenging topics like the death of a loved one, a parent’s lost income, and other COVID-19 and race-related injustices children see and experience. These diverse persona dolls also provide a means to develop social-emotional literacy that supports prosocial behavior and emotional well being. Participants will understand the benchmarks that inform young children’s development of difference and walk away with specific strategies to launch the use of persona dolls in their classrooms.
I attended a predominantly Latino and Black school from my Head Start program to the Catholic school where I entered at Kindergarten and graduated in eighth grade. My future possible self as a Latina was nurtured at home and school. Though I didn't understand the impact of my micro and macro environments, I clearly benefited from my surroundings. I lived in a strong Latino household where culture, history, music, and language where overtly, and sometimes covertly, expressed and I attended a school community whereby my neighbors, the church, clubs, and peers I socialized with were of Latino or Black heritage. All around me, adults communicated goals of academic success, family commitment, and racial-ethnic and cultural pride.
Racial identity is a key component of early childhood, adolescent, and adult development. Theorists agree that a complete understanding of one's own and other people's racial identity has a positive impact on school/classroom environments as well as possibly increasing the academic achievement of students of color. What happens to children and young people if that understanding is skewed, eclipsed, negated or denied? What are the challenges to teacher-student relationships when adults have a limited sense of their own racial identity?
Persona dolls is a strategy created by Louise Derman-Sparks and her colleagues in the early 1990s. Persona dolls are a powerful tool for affirming young children’s identities and teaching them about diversity and anti-bias practices. This classroom tool provides a vehicle for teachers to take on challenging topics like the death of a loved one, a parent’s lost income, and other COVID-19 and race-related injustices children see and experience. These diverse persona dolls also provide a means to develop social-emotional literacy that supports prosocial behavior and emotional well being. Participants will understand the benchmarks that inform young children’s development of difference and walk away with specific strategies to launch the use of persona dolls in their classrooms.
Microaggressions: Navigating the hurt & Building resilience
Dr. Derald Wing Sue is the leading author of racial microaggressions, “the brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities that communicate hostile or derogatory racial slights and insults to people of color.” Participants will use the power of story to process racial stress and racial microaggressions. As a foundation, Dr. Chap will refer to the scholarly work of Dr. Derwld Wing Sue, Dr. William E. Cross, Dr. Janet Helms and Dr. Howard Stevenson. These frameworks will help us talk about ways to address and heal from racial stress in the workplace, consider ways to apply this knowledge to our own work as anti-racist educators, and practice doing the work we need to do with students.
Through dialogue, video clips, and a look at racial identity development and the microaggression process model, participants will learn effective strategies for nourishing the soul, building resilience, and educating others. In small and whole groups shares audience members will come to a better understanding of how to recuperate from delivering and/or receiving racial microaggressions.
Through dialogue, video clips, and a look at racial identity development and the microaggression process model, participants will learn effective strategies for nourishing the soul, building resilience, and educating others. In small and whole groups shares audience members will come to a better understanding of how to recuperate from delivering and/or receiving racial microaggressions.
Raising Children's Healthy Self-Awareness
In today’s society, young children receive daily messages about race, ethnicity, skin color, gender, family structure and ability. When these messages are affirming, they aid in the development of a healthy sense of sense. However, negative messages about children’s identity are also absorbed through explicit and implicit means.
How, then, can educators, parents, and caregivers help preschool and elementary children know themselves well and love themselves even more? Join me in an exploration of children’s development of difference and strategies for affirming identity.
How, then, can educators, parents, and caregivers help preschool and elementary children know themselves well and love themselves even more? Join me in an exploration of children’s development of difference and strategies for affirming identity.
Racial Identity Development: It's a journey, not a destination
Racial identity is a key component of early childhood, adolescent, and adult development. Theorists agree that a complete understanding of one's own and other people's racial identity has a positive impact on school and/or classroom environments as well as possibly increasing the academic achievement of students of color.
What happens to children and young people if that understanding is skewed, eclipsed, negated or denied? How can we take our anti-racist teaching practice to the next level, become more comfortable in our identities as anti-racist educators, and practice doing the work we need to do with students. To do this work, we must continue to examine our identities from a critical race perspective.
Participants will use racial identity models to make sense of their own development before discussing where students fall on this spectrum. After acknowledging the racial lens through which they see the world, workshop participants will review racial identity theories, view films that highlight the systematic effects of racism, and discuss best practices that help students develop the positive and resilient racial self-concepts needed to counter bigotry, prejudice and benign neglect present in our schools today.
What happens to children and young people if that understanding is skewed, eclipsed, negated or denied? How can we take our anti-racist teaching practice to the next level, become more comfortable in our identities as anti-racist educators, and practice doing the work we need to do with students. To do this work, we must continue to examine our identities from a critical race perspective.
Participants will use racial identity models to make sense of their own development before discussing where students fall on this spectrum. After acknowledging the racial lens through which they see the world, workshop participants will review racial identity theories, view films that highlight the systematic effects of racism, and discuss best practices that help students develop the positive and resilient racial self-concepts needed to counter bigotry, prejudice and benign neglect present in our schools today.
NOTE: In our strange new world of social distancing, my goal is to connect with you on continuing to build skills and develop strategies for your organization. Workshops are conducted via Zoom or other platforms that keep us all safe.
Working with our Faculty and Staff Diversity Group, Chap helped clarify our sense of purpose as a collective within the school community. She also led a presentation on affinity spaces in schools, which included practical considerations and a timeline for implementation. Over the course of the meeting, the group's shared knowledge about affinity groups — the definition, intention, design, and the connection to identity development and community health — rocketed exponentially.
Chap also worked with our parents; she tailored a workshop on identity and diversity to fit the needs of our parent body. Participants left the interactive, super-engaging session with a common vocabulary and understanding around identity, diversity, families, and the school community, as well as a greater connection to each other.
Further, Chap is an invaluable professional support for me in my role as Diversity Coordinator at Brooklyn Heights Montessori School. She has helped me refine ideas and presentations, strengthened my messaging, and offered numerous resources to supplement my work with the school. When something comes up, I know I can turn to Chap for professional guidance and inspiration.
Rebecca Duvall, Librarian and Diversity Coordinator
Brooklyn Heights Montessori School, New York, NY