This book explores racism and antiracist practice in early childhood education (ECE), exploring how different theoretical lenses can enable students and practitioners to consider the complexity of race and racism in early childhood and education and the impact it has on young children’s lives. Written by academics and practitioners based in the USA and the UK, the chapters cover a range of Issues and theories including, race and play, decolonial approaches in ECE, Marxism, critical pedagogy, child-centered pedagogy, pro-Black pedagogies, Black feminist perspectives, critical race theory and immigration. Throughout the book, new conceptualisations of race and anti-racist praxis emerge that have the potential to transform children’s lives not only in day to day practice but also one's way of being in the world.
Victoria Bamsey is Associate Head of the School Teaching Learning and Quality at Plymouth Institute of Education, UK.Lynn J. McNair is Lecturer in Education (Early Childhood Practice and Froebel) at The University of Edinburgh, UK.Nakissa Campbell is Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Studies at the University of East London, UK.
List of ContributorsPrefaceForewordAcknowledgementsIntroduction, Victoria Bamsey (University of Plymouth, UK)Part 1 (Re)conceptualizing Practice1 Re-positioning Race as Part of Everyday Activity, Victoria Bamsey (University of Plymouth, UK)2 Let Us Learn from Our Children: Anti-racist Practice in Early Childhood, Lynn J. McNair (University of Edinburgh, UK)3 Subaltern Practitioners Emerging through Hegemonies of Early Childhood Education, Nakissa Campbell (University of East London, UK)Part 2 Anti-racism in Practice4 Diversity in Unity: Developing an Anti-racist Framework within Froebelian Pedagogy, Shaddai Tembo (Bath Spa University, UK) and Simon Bateson (Bath Spa University, UK) 5 Anti-racist Practice through a Critical Pedagogy Lens, Fatemeh Sadeghi (University of Edinburgh, UK), Selvarani Selvaraja (The Promise, UK), Simon Leitch (South West Education Improvement Collaborative, UK) 6 Who Is at the Centre? Rethinking Child-centred Pedagogy, Identity and Difference in Early Years Settings: The Case for Peace Education, Jan Georgeson (University of Plymouth, UK)Part 3 International Perspectives of Anti-racism7 Racism in the Architecture: Pedagogies of Refusal, Discomfort and Place, Tracy Dayman (University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha, New Zealand)8 Herstory: Exploring Black Women Educators’ Cultivation of Homeplace for the Support and Nurturing of Black Children, Francheska D. Starks (University of Tennessee, USA) and Missy D. Cosby (University of Tennessee, USA)9 Race (Un)Awareness: Immigrant Early Childhood Teachers and Self-Identity, Ayesha Rabadi-Raol (Sonoma State University, USA)Conclusion, Lynn McNair (University of Edinburgh, UK) and Victoria Bamsey (University of Plymouth, UK)
With the growing challenge to equality, diversity and inclusion in policy and practice, this book could not be timelier. It offers thoughtful, theory-based and lived-experience informed, complementary, as well as contrasting, perspectives on anti-racist practice in early childhood education to stimulate reflection and debate among educators, practitioners and students.