Online Webinars and Learning Opportunities
Online Webinars and Learning Opportunities
Child Care Aware of America
Early Childhood experts talk about how to improve the early childhood education system to provide equal access to tools and opportunities. This three-episode webinar series will feature "honest dialogue about the state of our country, [Child Care Aware of America's] position, mental health and health trauma that exists as a result of systemic racism and how we create an equitable system to support providers, children and families."
Learning for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance)
Learning for Justice offers hundreds or free lesson plans, professional development opportunities, research and more to assist teachers in teaching topics like race, injustice, equity, bullying and more.
National Association for the Education of Young Children
As an organization at the forefront of the early childhood education field, the National Association for the Education of Young Children provides a number of resources on teaching children about race and racial injustice.
Reflecting on Anti-bias Education in Action: The Early Years
"A new film, Reflecting on Anti-bias Education in Action: The Early Years, produced by Debbie LeeKeenan and John Nimmo, features vignettes of anti-bias strategies in early childhood classrooms interspersed with teachers reflecting on their practice. Debbie and John partnered with filmmaker Filiz Efe McKinney of Brave Sprout Productions to create a film that shifts the focus away from the talking heads of experts and on to the voices of teachers committed to equity on a daily basis. By taking viewers into diverse early childhood classrooms, the film seeks to demonstrate the importance of teacher reflection on identity, context, and practice in anti-bias education and provides a much-needed resource for teacher education and professional development."
Click here to view the film.
Becoming Upended: Teaching and Learning about Race and Racism with Young Children and Their Families.
"Many parents and teachers of young children share Ellie’s concern that children should be shielded from learning explicitly about race and racial differences. Adults often worry that introducing these topics too early could be harmful (Husband 2010). Early childhood educators who wish to make space for learning about race and racism in their classrooms may feel unprepared to approach these complex issues (Vittrup 2016). Shaped by their own experiences with issues of race and racism, parents and teachers may hold differing views regarding the appropriateness of teaching about this topic in the early childhood classroom.
Research demonstrates that children’s awareness of racial differences and the impact of racism begins quite early (Tatum 2003; Winkler 2009). Multiple studies document the ways that young children take notice of racial differences and note that as early as preschool, children may begin excluding their peers of different races from play and other activities (Winkler 2009). Many argue that creating safe spaces for children to explore these topics is more important than ever[.]"
Understanding Anti-bias in Early Childhood Education
"Just about every subject area in the typical early childhood program has possibilities for anti-bias education themes and activities. For instance, early childhood education themes of self-discovery, family, and community are deeper, and more meaningful, when they include explorations of ability, culture, economic class, gender identity, and racialized identity."
Don't Look Away: Embracing Anti-Bias Classrooms
by Iheoma Iruka, PhD, Stephanie Carenton, PhD, Kerry-Ann Escayg, PhD and Tonia Durden, PhD
"Every day, 250 children are suspended from school. Many are children of color, deprived of opportunities to experience learning at the same rate and quality as white children. Many families don’t feel heard or respected in their child’s schools.
"Don’t Look Away: Embracing Anti-Bias Classrooms" leads early childhood professionals to explore and address issues of bias, equity, low expectations, and family engagement to ensure culturally responsive experiences. Importantly, this book will challenge you to consider your perceptions and thought processes:
- Identify your own unconscious biases—we all have them!
- Recognize and minimize bias in the classroom, school, and community
- Connect with children and their families
- Help close the opportunity gap for children from marginalized communities
This book offers strategies, tools, and information to help you create a culturally responsive and equitable learning environment."
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
PBS offers this resource guide for parents to use as they plan to talk to their children about race.
National Museum of African American History & Culture
"Talking about race, although hard, is necessary. We are here to provide tools and guidance to empower your journey and inspire conversation."
Counseling Today
Author Derald Wing Sue presents a number of strategies for having deep, meaningful and productive talks about race and racism and avoiding actions that diminish the seriousness of conversations about race.
Dismantling Racism Works - dRworks workbook
Dismantling Racism Works hosted workshops and led advocacy work for over a decade. In 2017, they stopped offering workshops, but turned the workbook they used into a website. The online workbook guides viewers through a history of racism, a definition of racism, outlines common assumptions and internalizations about race, gives tips for analysis and details action steps for change.
Racial Equity Tools
The Racial Equity Resource Guide is a 100+ page guide that includes dialogue guides, featured papers and magazines, workshops available, lists of institutions studying structural racism and advocating for racial justice, recommendations for articles, books, and documentaries, a glossary of terms, and more.
21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge
Hosted by Food Solutions New England, "The Challenge will raise your awareness, change your understanding and shift the way you behave."
"The Challenge goes beyond individual or interpersonal racism by helping to demystify structural and institutional racism and white supremacist patterns that are sometimes invisible to people. Finally, the Challenge inspires you to act, on your own or with others in your organization, business or group, to dismantle these systems."
Edutopia - Creating a Culturally Responsive Early Childhood Classroom
"As educators, we are constantly striving to engage our students in their learning. We know that students are more engaged academically and have improved social and emotional outcomes when they see and hear themselves reflected in the classroom environment and instruction. So, we make our lessons into games, we build positive-incentive systems, and we let our students take the lead in classroom procedures. While these help, they are not enough. Too often, we miss asking ourselves a more critical question: Is this what my students need to be learning? Should my students be engaged in this content?"