Starting with the self: Conceptualizing an anti-racist early childhood pedagogy by critiquing white educators’ social-emotional competencies

Abstract

While much research attention has focused on young children's social-emotional (SE) competencies, an increasing body of evidence points to the importance of educators’ SE skills. Indeed, scholars have suggested that such skills support educators’ emotional well-being which, in turn, prevents burnout and facilitates a positive learning environment for young learners. Although the preceding benefits are well recognized, scholars have yet to fully explore how the interconnected domains of SE competence are linked to and support anti-racist pedagogy in early years classrooms. Drawing on systemic racism theory, this paper builds on and broadens the scope of the extant anti-racism in early childhood literature by focusing on (i) the positionality of white educators as it pertains to anti-racist pedagogy; (ii) conceptual and practical connections between anti-racist pedagogy and white educators’ SE competencies; and (iii) identifying how educators can evaluate and improve their pedagogies in a play-based early years classroom.