Transforming the Legacy of Colonial and Racialized Inequities in Childcare Systems in the United States: (Re)Framing Futures Through Black Feminist Thought
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2024
Transforming the Legacy of Colonial and Racialized Inequities in Childcare Systems in the United States: (Re)Framing Futures Through Black Feminist Thought
Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and childcare systems in the United States have been grounded in colonial and racist origins and capitalistic frameworks, and continue to contribute to contemporary inequities. In this article, we suggest a reframing of ECEC, one inspired by Black feminist thought that problematizes economic rationales for childcare, and the devaluing of educator knowledges, especially educators of color. Through a discussion of Black Feminist Care and professional learning as one site of transformation, we illustrate how Black feminisms can uproot oppressive systems, disrupting and transforming childcare in a way that is anti-racist and equitable.
AilwoodJ. (2008). Mothers, teachers, maternalism and early childhood education and care: Some historical connections. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 8(2), 157–165.
2.
ArndtS.UrbanM.MurrayC.SmithK.SwadenerB.Ellegaard Roskilde SygehusT. (2018). Contesting early childhood professional identities: A cross-national discussion. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 19(2), 97–116. https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949118768356
3.
BassL. (2012). When care trumps justice: The operationalization of Black feminist caring in educational leadership. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 25(1), 73–87.
4.
BlochM. N. (1987) Becoming Scientific and Professional: An historical perspective on the aims and effects of early education. In PopkewitzT. (Ed.), The formation of school subjects: The struggle for creating an American institution (pp. 25–62). Falmer Press.
5.
BlochM. N.HolmlundK.MoqvistI.PopkewitzT. S. (Eds.). (2003). Governing children, families, and education. Palgrave Macmillan.
6.
BoutteG. S.KingJ. E.JohnsonG. L.KingL. J. (2021). We be lovin’ Black children. Learning to be literate about the African Diaspora. Myers Education Press.
7.
BradyJ. (2022). Exploring the role of Black feminist thought in pre-service early childhood education: On the possibilities of embedded transformative change. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 23(4), 392–407. https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491221136584
CagliariP.CastagnettiM.GiudiciC.RinaldiC.VecchiV.MossP. (Eds.). (2016). Loris Malaguzzi and the schools of Reggio Emilia: A selection of his writings and speeches, 1945–1993. Routledge.
10.
CannellaG. S. (1997). Deconstructing early childhood education: Social justice & revolution. Peter Lang.
11.
CastilloX. G. (2017). “Caballito blanco, ¡vuelve pa’ tu pueblo!”: Troubling and reclaiming the historical foundations of Chilean early childhood education. Global Studies of Childhood, 7(2), 159–178.
12.
CheruvuR. (2019). Disrupting standardized early education through culturally Sustaining pedagogies with young children. In NxumaloF.BrownC. P. (Eds.), Disrupting and countering deficits in early childhood education (pp. 103–118). Routledge.
13.
CollinsP. H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment (1st ed.). Routledge.
14.
CollinsP. H. (2008). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment (3rd ed.). Routledge.
15.
CollinsP. H. (2022). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment (30th Anniversary ed.). Routledge.
CrenshawK. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1, 139–167.
18.
CrenshawK. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299.
19.
DahlbergG.MossP.PenceA. (2013). Beyond quality in early childhood education and care: Languages of evaluation. Routledge.
20.
DavisA. Y. (1983). Women, race, and class. Vintage.
21.
DavisA. Y. (2003). Are prisons obsolete?Seven Stories Press.
22.
DavittG.RyderD. (2018). Dispositions of a responsible early childhood education leader: Voices from the field. Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy & Practice, 33(1), 18–31. https://doi.org/10.21307/jelpp-2018-003
23.
DelpitL. (2012). “Multiplication is for white people”: Raising expectations for other people’s children. New Press.
24.
DerenoncourtE.KimC. H.KuhnM.SchularickM. (2022). Wealth of two nations: The U.S. racial wealth gap, 1860–2020. National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved May 13, 2023, from https://www.nber.org/papers/w30101/
25.
DillardC. B. (2012). Learning to (re)member the things we’ve learned to forget: Endarkened feminisms, spirituality, & the sacred nature of research & teaching. Peter Lang.
26.
Evans-WintersV. E.LoveB. L. (Eds.). (2015). Black feminism in education: Black women speak back, up and out. Peter Lang.
27.
FaulknerM.GerstenblattP.LeeA.VallejoV.TravisD. (2016). Childcare providers: Work stress and personal well-being. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 14(3), 280–293. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X14552871
28.
GilliganC. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development. Harvard University Press.
29.
HarmonF. (2023). “I am not your babysitter”: A qualitative case study of the professional identity of early childhood educators through a culturally responsive lens [Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University]. TAMU Campus Repository. https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/200065
30.
HarmonF.RitterE.ViruruR. (2022). Waves upon waves: Highlighting the invisibility of the early childhood workforce through conversations with fourth wave, Black and postcolonial feminisms. In LangfordR.RichardsonB. (Eds.), Feminisms and the early childhood educator subject: A critical conversation (pp. 83–97). Bloomsbury.
31.
hooksb. (1995). Art on my mind: Visual politics. The New Press.
32.
hooksb. (2000a). Feminism is for everybody: Passionate politics. South End Press.
33.
hooksb. (2000b). Feminist theory: From margin to center (2nd ed.). South End Press.
34.
hooksb. (2003). Teaching community: A pedagogy of hope. Routledge.
35.
hooksb.Mesa-BainsA. (2006). Homegrown: Engaged cultural criticism. South End Press.
36.
KaminskyJ. A.GandiniL. (2011). The challenge of diversity: An interview with Carol Brunson Day and Margie Carter. Innovations in Early Education, The International Reggio Exchange. Retreived February 19, 2024, from https://www.reggioalliance.org/downloads/narea11.4.pdf
37.
KaomeaJ. (2005). Reflections of an “always already” failing Native Hawaiian mother: Deconstructing colonial discourses on indigenous childbearing and early childhood education. Hulili: Multidisciplinary Research on Hawaiian Well-Being, 2(1), 67–85.
38.
KhalifaM. (2018). Centering ancestral knowledges: Leadership in learning environments. The Family Leadership Design Collaborative. The Kellogg Foundation and University of Washington, Seattle.
Ladson-BillingsG. (2009). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
41.
LordeA. (1984). Sister outsider: Essays and speeches by Audre Lorde. Crossing Press.
42.
Mac NaughtonG.DavisK. (Eds.). (2009). “Race” and early childhood education: An international approach to identity, politics, and pedagogy. Palgrave Macmillan.
43.
MaparyanL. (2012). The womanist idea. Routledge.
44.
McleanC.AustinL. J. E.WhitebookM. (2021). Early childhood workforce index 2020. Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved February 8, 2024, from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5k46c178
45.
MeinersE. R. (2007). Right to be hostile: Schools, prisons, and the making of public enemies. Routledge.
46.
MoragaC.AnzaldúaG. (1981). This bridge called my back: Writings by radical women of color. Persephone Press.
NagasawaM. K.PetersL.BlochM. N.SwadenerB. B. (2023). Transforming early years policy in the U. S.: A call to action. Teachers College Press.
49.
NdimandeB. S. (2021). [Re]Imagining childhood in the global south: South African experiences. In YellandN.PetersL. E.FairchildN.TesarM.PérezM. S. (Eds.), The Sage handbook of global childhoods (pp. 19–29). Sage.
50.
NgangaL. (2015). Culturally responsive and anti-biased teaching benefits early childhood pre-service teachers. Journal of Curriculum and Teaching, 4(2), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.5430/jct.v4n2p1
51.
NoddingsN. (1984). Caring: A feminine approach to ethics and moral education. University of California Press.
52.
NunleyP. (2020). Spirit molestation: Identity development abuse in western early childhood education programmes serving Black African American students. International Journal of African Renaissance Studies, 15(2), 30–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/18186874.2021.1884986
53.
NxumaloF. (2019). Decolonizing place in early childhood education. Routledge.
54.
NxumaloF.CedilloS. (2017). Decolonizing place in early childhood studies: Thinking with Indigenous onto-epistemologies and Black feminist geographies. Global Studies of Childhood, 7(2), 99–112.
55.
OverstreetM. (2017). Culture at the Core: Moving from professional development to professional learning. Journal of Ethnographic & Qualitative Research, 11, 199–214.
56.
Pacini-KetchabawV.NxumaloF.RowanM. C. (2014). Researching neoliberal and neocolonial assemblages in early childhood education. International Review of Qualitative Research, 7(1), 39–57.
57.
PérezM. S. (2019). Dismantling racialized discourses in early childhood education and care: A revolution towards reframing the field. In NxumaloF.BrownC. P. (Eds.), Disrupting and countering deficits in early childhood education (pp. 20–36). Routledge.
58.
PérezM. S.CahillB. (2015). “Readiness” as central to the (re)production of quality discourses in the United States: An early childhood public policy analysis. In CannellaG. S.PérezM. S.LeeI. F. (Eds.), Critical examinations of quality in childhood education and care: Regulation, disqualification, and erasure (pp. 8–25). Peter Lang.
59.
PérezM. S.SaavedraC. M. (2017). A call for onto-epistemological diversity in early childhood education and care: Centering global south conceptualizations of childhood/s. Review of Research in Education, 41(1), 1–29.
60.
PérezM. S.SaavedraC. M.JonesN. N.Abril-GonzalezP. (2022). Woman of color feminisms as a vehicle for racially-just methodologies in educational research. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 45(4), 323–329.
61.
PhillipsD.AustinL. J. E.WhitebookM. (2016). The early care and education workforce. The Future of Children, 26(2), 139–158.
62.
PiantaR.DownerJ.HamreB. (2016). Quality in early education classrooms: Definitions, gaps, and systems. The Future of Children, 26(2), 119–137.
63.
PolakowV. (2007). Who cares for our children: The child care crisis in the other America. Teachers College Press.
64.
Rabadi-RaolA. (2021). Telling tales for justice and equity: Storytelling as public nepantla pedagogy. Occasional Paper Series, 46, 35–46.
65.
RideauxK.PérezM. S. (2019). Countering color-blindness in early childhood education: Enactments of social justice education by Black women educators. In KesslerS. A.SwadenerB. B. (Eds.), Educating for social justice in early childhood (pp. 20–33). Routledge.
SkerrettM. (2017). Countering the dominance of a global north in early childhood education through an Indigenous lens in the global south. Global Studies of Childhood, 7(2), 84–98.
68.
SmithK.AlexanderK.CampbellS. (Eds.). (2017). Feminism(s) in early childhood: Using feminist theories in research and practice. Springer.
69.
Souto-ManningM.CheruvuR. (2015). Multiculturally sustaining pedagogy in early childhood teacher education. In CouseL. J.RecchiaS. L. (Eds.), Handbook of early childhood teacher education (pp. 288–203). Routledge.
70.
SpringerK. (2005). Living for the revolution: Black feminist organizations, 1968–1980. Duke University Press.
71.
StarksF. D. (2022). Centering Black women’s ways of knowing: A review of critical literacies research in early childhood. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 22(3), 335–356. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984221121156
72.
SwadenerB.PetersL.BentleyD.DiazX.BlochM. (2020). Child care and COVID: Precarious communities in distanced times. Global Studies of Childhood, 10(4), 313–326.
73.
TaylorK. (2017). How we get free: Black feminism and the Combahee River Collective. Haymarket Books.
Texas Workforce Commission. (2024). What is the child care services (CCS) program and how can I become a contracted provider? Retrieved February 8, 2024, from https://www.childcare.texas.gov/subsidy
76.
ThompsonA. (2004). Caring and colortalk: Childhood innocence in White and Black. In WalkerV. S.SnareyJ. R. (Eds.), Race-ing moral formation (pp. 23–37). Teachers College Press.
77.
TrewV.SquiresK. (2019). Encounters with Reggio Emilia: Relationships, equality, and citizenship in our early learning setting. Journal of Childhood Studies, 44(5), 13–23.
78.
ViruruR. (2001). Early childhood education: Postcolonial perspectives from India. Sage.
79.
ViruruR.NasserR. (2017). Wa’allah, the woman she should go direct to Paradise: Perceptions of motherhood in Qatar. Global Studies of Childhood, 7(2), 148–158.
80.
WalkerA. (1983). In search of our mother’s gardens. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
WellsM. B. (2015). Predicting preschool teacher retention and turnover in newly hired Head Start teachers across the first half of the school year. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 30(Part A), 152–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2014.10.003
83.
WhitebookM.McleanC. (2017). Educator expectations, qualifications, and earnings: Shared challenges and divergent systems in ECE and K-12. Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, University of California, Berkeley.
84.
YoonH. S.TempletonT. N. (2022). Reflecting, representing, and expanding the narrative(s) in early childhood curriculum. Urban Education, online first.
