Practicing Anti-Racism as Inclusion: Start in Early Childhood!

Abstract

The mission of the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) is to promote policies and advance evidence-based practices that support families and enhance the optimal development of young children (0-8) who have or are at risk for developmental delays and disabilities. DEC is an international membership organization for those who work with or on behalf of young children (0-8) with disabilities and other special needs and their families. The Division for Early Childhood, as individuals and as a system, recognizes we must acknowledge and address the explicit and/or implicit bias that disproportionately impacts the trajectory of children of color and their families. We seek to support and advocate for increasing the diversity of leadership across the early intervention and early childhood special education workforce, intentionally working with families as partners; and actively acknowledging when and how bias impacts our systems, children, and families. We seek to reduce bias to achieve inclusion, equity, and social justice across services and settings.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aboud

F. E.

(2008). A social-cognitive developmental theory of prejudice. In Quintana

S. M.

McKown

(Eds.), Handbook of race, racism, and the developing child (pp. 55–71). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Aboud

F. E.

Doyle

A. B.

(1996). Does talk of race foster prejudice or tolerance in children? Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science/Revue Canadienne des sciences du Comportement, 28(3), 161–170.

Aboud

F. E.

Tredoux

Tropp

L. R.

Brown

C. S.

Niens

Noor

N. M.

(2012). Interventions to reduce prejudice and enhance inclusion and respect for ethnic differences in early childhood: A systematic review. Developmental Review, 32(4), 307–336.

Allport

G. W.

(1954). The nature of prejudice. Addison-Wesley.

Annamma

S. A.

Connor

D. J.

Ferri

B. A.

(2016). Touchstone text: Dis/ability critical race studies (DisCrit): Theorizing at the intersections of race and dis/ability. In Connor

D. J.

Ferri

B. A.

Annamma

S. A.

(Eds.), DisCrit: Disability studies and critical race theory in education (pp. 9–32). Teachers College Press.

Bar-Haim

Ziv

Lamy

Hodes

R. M.

(2006). Nature and nurture in own-race face processing. Psychological Science, 17(2), 159–163. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01679.x

Barnett

W. S.

(2007). Benefits and costs of quality early childhood education. The Children’s Legal Rights Journal, 27, 7–23.

Beachum

F. D.

Gullo

G. L.

(2020). School leadership: Implicit bias and social justice. In Papa

(Ed.), Handbook on promoting social justice in education (pp. 429–454). Springer. https://doi.org/10/1007/978-3-030-14625-2_66-1

Bigler

R. S.

Liben

L. S.

(2006). A developmental intergroup theory of social stereotypes and prejudice. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 34, 39–89.

10.

Bradshaw

C. P.

Mitchell

M. M.

Leaf

P. J.

(2010). Examining the effects of schoolwide positive behavioral interventions and supports on student outcomes: Results from a randomized controlled effectiveness trial in elementary schools. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 12(3), 133–148. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098300709334798

11.

Brobbey

(2018). Punishing the vulnerable: Exploring suspension rates for students with disabilities. Intervention in School & Clinic, 53(4), 216–219. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1053451217712953

12.

Brown

S. E.

(1999). The curb ramps of Kalamazoo: Discovering our unrecorded history. Disability Studies Quarterly, 13(3), 203–205.

13.

Burchinal

Magnuson

Powell

Hong

S. S.

(2015). Early childcare and education. In Bornstein

M. H.

Leventhal

Lerner

R. M.

(Eds.), Handbook of child psychology and developmental science: Ecological settings and processes (pp. 223–267). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

14.

Burns

M. P.

Sommerville

(2014). “I pick you”: The impact of fairness and race on infants’ selection of social partners. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, Article 93. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00093

15.

Byrd

Ceacal

Y. R.

Felton

Nicholson

Rhaney

D. M. L.

McCray

Young

(2017). A modern doll study: Self-concept. Race, Gender & Class, 24(1–2), 186–202.

16.

Cameron

Rutland

Brown

Douch

(2006). Changing children’s intergroup attitudes toward refugees: Testing different models of extended contact. Child Development, 77(5), 1208–1219.

17.

Children’s Defense Fund. (1975). School suspensions: Are they helping children? A report. Washington Research Project. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED113797

18.

Children’s Defense Fund. (2020). The state of America’s children 2020. https://www.childrensdefense.org/the-state-of-americas-children-2020/

19.

Children’s Equity Project and the Bipartisan Policy Center. (2020). Start with equity: From the early years to the early grades. https://bipartisanpolicy.org/report/start-with-equity-from-the-early-year-to-the-early-grades/

20.

Chin

M. J.

Quinn

D. M.

Dhaliwal

T. K.

Lovison

V. S.

(2020). Bias in the air: A nationwide exploration of teachers’ implicit racial attitudes, aggregate bias, and student outcomes. Educational Researcher, 49(8), 566–578. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X20937240

21.

Clark

K. B.

Clark

M. P.

(1950). Emotional factors in racial identification and preference in Negro children. Journal of Negro Education, 19, 341–350. https://doi.org/10.2307/2966491

22.

Derman-Sparks

Olsen Edwards

Goins

C. M.

(2020). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves (2nd ed.). National Association for the Education of Young Children.

23.

Devine

P. G.

(1989). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 5–18.

24.

Division for Early Childhood. (2014). The DEC recommended practices. https://divisionearlychildhood.egnyte.com/dl/7urLPWCt5U/?

25.

Division for Early Childhood. (2020). Priority issues agenda. https://www.dec-sped.org/priorityissues

26.

Fiarman

S. E.

(2016). Unconscious bias: When good intentions aren’t enough. Educational Leadership, 74(3), 10–15.

27.

Gilliam

W. S.

Maupin

A. N.

Reyes

C. R.

Accavitti

Shic

(2016). Do early educators’ implicit biases regarding sex and race relate to behavior expectations and recommendations of preschool expulsions and suspensions. Yale University Child Study Center. https://medicine.yale.edu/childstudy/zigler/publications/Preschool%20Implicit%20Bias%20Policy%20Brief_final_9_26_276766_5379_v1.pdf

28.

Goff

P. A.

Jackson

M. C.

Leone

Lewis

B. A.

Culotta

C. M.

DiTomasso

N. A.

(2014). The essence of innocence: Consequences of dehumanizing Black children. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(4), 526–545. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035663

29.

Grindal

Schifter

L. A.

Schwartz

Hehir

(2019). Racial differences in special education identification and placement: Evidence across three states. Harvard Educational Review, 89(4), 525–553, 700–702.

30.

Hajela

Whitehurst

(2021, February). “I am a child!” Pepper spray reflects policing of Black kids. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/child-police-pepper-spray-shows-kids-exempt-75846409

31.

Harba

Grant

(1970) Black is beautiful: A re-examination of racial preference and identification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16, 398–402.

32.

James

Iruka

I. U.

(2018). Delivering on the promise of effective early childhood education for Black children. National Black Child Development Institute. https://www.nbcdi.org/sites/default/files/resource-files/Delivering%20on%20the%20Promise%20of%20Effective%20Early%20Childhood%20Education.pdf

33.

Kelly

D. J.

Quinn

P. C.

Slater

A. M.

Lee

Gibson

Smith

Pascalis

(2005). Three-month-olds, but not newborns, prefer own-race faces. Developmental Science, 8(6), F31–F36. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2005.0434a.x

34.

Kenworthy

J. B.

Turner

R. N.

Hewstone

Voci

(2005). Intergroup contact: When does it work, and why. In Dovidio

J. F.

Glick

Rudman

L. A.

(Eds.), On the nature of prejudice: Fifty years after Allport (pp. 278–292). Blackwell Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470773963.ch17

35.

Keys

T. D.

Farkas

Burchinal

M. R.

Duncan

G. J.

Vandell

D. L.

Weilin

Ruzek

E. A.

Howes

(2013). Preschool center quality and school readiness: Quality effects and variation by demographic and child characteristics. Child Development, 84(4), 1171–1190. https://doi-org/10.1111/cdev.12048

36.

Mahon-Reynolds

Parker

(2016). The overrepresentation of students of color with learning disabilities: How “working identity” plays a role in the school-to-prison pipeline. In Connor

D. J.

Ferri

B. A.

Annamma

S. A.

(Eds.), DisCrit: Disability studies and critical race theory in education (pp. 145–153). Teachers College Press.

37.

Mantzicopoulos

(2005). Conflictual relationships between kindergarten children and their teachers: Associations with child and classroom context variables. Journal of School Psychology, 43(5), 425–442. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2005.09.004

38.

Milner

H. R.

(2013). Why are students of color (still) punished more severely and frequently than white students? Urban Education, 48(4), 483–489. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085913493040

39.

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2019). Advancing equity in early childhood education. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/position-statements/equity

40.

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2020). Developmentally appropriate practice position statement. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/position-statements/dap/contents

41.

National Center for Learning Disabilities. (2020). Significant disproportionality in special education: Current trends and actions for impact. https://www.ncld.org/sigdispro/

42.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network. (2006). Infant–mother attachment classification: Risk and protection in relation to changing maternal caregiving quality over time. Developmental Psychology, 42, 38–58. https://doi.org/:10.1037/0012-1649.42.1.38

43.

Price

C. L.

Ostrosky

M. M.

Mouzourou

(2016). Exploring representations of characters with disabilities in library books. Early Childhood Education Journal, 44(6), 563–572.

44.

Rausch

Joseph

Steed

(2019). Dis/ability critical race studies (DisCrit) for inclusion in early childhood education: Ethical considerations of implicit and explicit Bias. Zero to Three, 40(1), 43–51.

45.

Shin

Burns

M. P.

Yun

Sommerville

J. A.

(2011). When a friend doesn’t look like me: ]12-month-old infants overcome race bias and prefer social individuals [Poster presentation]. Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research and Child Development, Montreal, Canada.

46.

Shonkoff

Phillips

(Eds.). (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods. National Academy Press.

47.

Skiba

R. J.

Horner

R. H.

Chung

Rausch

M. K.

May

S. L.

Tobin

(2011). Race is not neutral: A national investigation of African American and Latino disproportionality in school discipline. School Psychology Review, 40(1), 85–107, https://doi.org/:10.1080/02796015.2011.12087730

48.

Slater

Quinn

P. C.

Kelly

D. J.

Lee

Longmore

C. A.

McDonald

P. R.

Pascalis

(2010). The shaping of the face space in early infancy: Becoming a native face processor. Child Development Perspectives, 4(3), 205–211.

49.

Small

D. A.

Pope

D. G.

Norton

M. L.

(2012). An age penalty in racial preferences. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 3, 730–737.

50.

Staats

(2016). Understanding implicit bias: What educators should know. American Educator, 39(4), 29–33, 43.

51.

Sullivan

Wilton

Apfelbaum

E. P.

(2020). Adults delay conversations about race because they underestimate children’s processing of race. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General Psychological Science, 17(2), 159–163.

52.

Todd

A. R.

Thiem

K. C.

Neel

(2016). Does seeing faces young Black boys facilitate the identification of threatening stimuli? Psychological Science, 27, 384–393.

53.

U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights. (2018). Civil rights data collection, 2015–16. https://www2.ed.gov/ocr/docs/crdc2015-16.html

54.

U. S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights Data Collection. (2014, March 21). Expansive survey of America’s public schools reveals troubling racial disparities. https://www.ed/gov/news/press-releases/expansive-survey-americas-public-schools-reveals-troubling-racial-disparities

55.

U. S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights Data Collection. (2020, October). The use of restraint and seclusion on children with disabilities in K-12 schools. https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/restraint-and-seclusion.pdf

56.

Yoshikawa

Weiland

Brooks-Gunn

Burchinal

Espinosa

Gormley

W. T.

Ludwig

Magnuson

Phillips

Zaslow

(2013). Investing in our future: The evidence base on preschool. Society for Research in Child Development.

57.

Zimmermann

C. R.

(2018). The penalty of being a young Black girl: Kindergarten teachers’ perceptions of children’s problem behaviors and student–teacher conflict by the intersection of race and gender. Journal of Negro Education, 87(2), 154–168. https://doi.org/10.7709/jnegroeducation.87.2.0154