Abstract
Overview
The experiences of children in the early grades are routinely documented from the perspective of statistics and developmental theories (Nguyen and Jenkins, 2020). In early childhood, there is a scarcity of literature that invites us to examine young children's experiences with the challenges of systemic racism. Typically, early learning is associated with elements of innocence, confining early childhood education with assumptions that young children are too delicate or fragile to discuss the impacts of oppression, racism, marginalization, segregation and whiteness. However, in Segregation by Experience: Agency, Racism, and Learning in the Early Grades, by Jennifer Keys Adair and Kiyomi Sánchez-Suzuki Colegrove, the reader is immersed as a participant in the complex, complicated and racialized world of early years schooling.
In chapter 1, Adair and Colegrove introduce the foundation of the book's purpose, origins and methodology, setting the tone of its theoretical approach grounded in Mills’ (1997) theory of the ‘racial contract’. Utilizing a Foundation for Child Development grant, Adair and Colegrove developed a study to “figure out how children's agency … affects academic and social development” (Adair and Colgrove, 2021: 1). The book's strength rests on Adair and Colegrove's years of experience as early childhood education scholars and their qualitative methodology, which includes interviews, focus groups and participant observations, paying homage to the seminal work of Joseph Tobin's video-cued ethnography style (Tobin et al., 2009). For a full academic year, the researchers filmed the actions and agency of a 1st-grade public school classroom in Texas. Then, taking footage from the ethnographic videos, Adair and Colegrove curated a 20-minute film, which was presented through focus groups to classroom participants and over 250 principals, superintendents, teachers, five-to-seven-year-olds, and immigrant parents throughout Texas. In chapter 1, the authors also provide a brief historical recapitulation of the disparities of children of color in the US educational system, applying Mills’ (1997) oppositional and political theory of the ‘racial contract’ – a concept which argues that the trajectory of people of colour aligns in the maintenance of the dichotomy of full personhood (persons with agency) versus sub-personhood (persons who need to earn agency). The reader is reintroduced to this theory continuously throughout the book as an elemental framework of the authors’ findings in the study.
In chapter 2, the authors introduce Ms Bailey's classroom. The reader is immersed in the varied experiences of an inquiry-based classroom where the children have agency to choose their learning interests, connect with their community, and be co-constructers of their knowledge. Throughout this chapter, the reader is introduced to the children in Ms Bailey's class, developing an understanding of who they are and their strengths, challenges and varied capabilities. Within these capabilities, the children ignite conquests of inquiry and challenge the rules of the ‘racial contract’. Even with the documented success of the children's learning with agency, the authors are careful not to romanticize what they observe with the teacher and the children by also documenting times of struggle.
In chapters 3–6, the authors’ conceptual orientations and experiences presenting their ethnographic research to a wider audience are made known to the reader. In chapter 3, the authors engage in critical self-reflection and confess how they had high hopes for positive reviews and praise but then unexpectedly grappled with swift critique from community-based teachers and children. The researchers initially interpreted their findings to show how the children in Ms Bailey’s classroom were empowered with agency over their learning experiences and, because of this, experienced vitality. Through this vitality, the children ‘mattered’ and were able to see significance in their learning. However, after showing their film, the authors’ findings evolved to an understanding that even when given opportunities for progressive and sustainable learning practices, the ‘racial contract’ rules shackle communities of color. For example, many teachers communicated after watching the film that children should prove themselves to be obedient before being given control over themselves or their environment. Even when the authors attempted to provide a different learning perspective through the film, they were met with the reminder that, in communities of color, the struggle of being respected with full ‘personhood’ comes at the cost of their agency.
Recognizing this dilemma, in chapter 7 the authors affirm children's segregation by experience, which is defined as “an act of segregating children of color from the enactment of their agency” (Adair and Colgrove, 2021: 141). In this chapter, the authors analyse specific responses to their research, particularly from teachers, administrators and children in the community-based focus groups. From these responses, they suggest that the ‘racial contract’ rules, coupled with a deficit perspective of learning and social engagement, contribute to withholding a child's agency in school. The authors further argue that preventing a child of color from engaging and enacting their agency is an active act of segregation that supports the ideas of white supremacy and controls communities of color under the notion that agency must be earned and is not a human right. Towards the end of the chapter, the authors provide insights, techniques and tools to unsign the ‘racial contract’, and discuss the significance of connecting ‘agency as a pedagogical stance’ to counter the racist system of rules that continuously position children of color in a deficit state.
Reviewer’s reflections
In Segregation by Experience, Adair and Colegrove push boundaries and challenge perspectives on how teachers should support children of color and centre their agency within their learning experiences. Their emphasis on the voices of teachers, administrators and children is to be respected. I also appreciated the rich resources, quotes, and theoretical framework from critical scholars and scholars of color. The diverse sources make it an excellent tool for early childhood education scholars teaching early childhood education pre-service teachers and educators to recognize and deconstruct modern segregation practices in the early grades. Overall, this book is a vital resource for understanding the significance of agency with children of color and provides vivid examples of building that agency through reflective practice and incorporating agency as pedagogy.