Early care and education environments are opportunities for us to invest in and create the kind of world we want to live in. We at the Devereux Center for Resilient Children want to live in a world where the safety, dignity, and inherent goodness of each child is understood, honored, and celebrated. During these early and critical years of development, we have the beautiful and overwhelming honor to help shape children’s sense of identity, community, connection, and interconnection. Creating these communities requires us to confront bias and uproot oppressive systems that hinder our ability to create a true sense of belonging. Let us take a closer look at confronting our bias by exploring some key questions.
- What is bias?
- How does bias show up in our work with young children?
- What is the impact of bias on young children?
- What are three things we can do to challenge our own bias?
What is bias?
Bias is what happens when, despite our best intentions and without our awareness, stereotypes and assumptions creep into our minds and affect our actions.
How does bias show up in our work with young children?
Bias often shows up in subtle and sneaky ways. Bias can play a part when we ask a child who looks like us a few more curious questions than a child who we share less in common with. It may show up in the way we over-supervise one child over another based on a “feeling” we harbor about that child’s ability to be safe. Bias can show up in the way we decorate our classroom, how we relate to a child’s family member, in the books we choose, or even in the moments we are silent when we should speak up.
Even when teachers have knowledge of child development, they view Black boys as older, less innocent, as criminals, and more culpable than their white peers.
(Goff, et al, 2014 l Wright & Counsell, 2018)
The thing about bias is that it often happens without our knowing. This unintentional bias can result in micro-aggressions – the kinds of remarks, questions, or actions that are painful because they have to do with a person’s membership in a group that’s discriminated against or subject to stereotypes. And a key part of what makes them so disconcerting is that they happen casually, frequently, and often without any harm intended, in everyday life.
What is the impact of bias on young children?
When children, especially children from historically marginalized groups, experience bias and micro-aggressions in our early care and education environments, we are not honoring the safety, dignity, and inherent goodness of each child. Children who are made vulnerable by oppressive systems should be free from bias in their early care and education experiences. Experiencing implicit and explicit bias in what should be safe spaces can cause stress, harm, and even trauma.
Racialized trauma is simply traumatization that results from experiencing racism in any of its many forms. This does not have to be one major isolated event, but rather it can result from an accumulation of experiences like daily subtle acts of discrimination or micro-aggressions.
(Lawrence and Keleher, 2004)
In addition to the harm that can be caused by bias related to race, it is also critical that we examine the impact of bias related to religion, sexuality, gender identity, family composition, ability, etc. Opening our eyes, hearts, and minds to the subtle and harsh ways bias can impact young children is the first step to helping us make changes to create the world children deserve to live in!
What three things can we do to challenge our own bias?
- Explore your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs.
- Set expectations, standards, and boundaries for yourself.
- Support your learning, curiosity, and connection with others.
1. Explore your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs.
Ask questions like:
- How are you feeling about a child or their family?
- What is happening in your body around this child?
- What are your deeply held beliefs?
- How might your personal identity alter the way you view others?
- How might bias be impacting your experience or understanding?
- How might bias be impacting your actions?
2. Set expectations, standards, and boundaries for yourself.
Use statements like:
- I am committed to equity.
- I strive to be anti-racist in my practices.
- I seek to honor, understand, and celebrate each child.
- My work seeks to elevate and celebrate historically marginalized children and families.
- I am working to eliminate bias that could harm children and families.
3. Support your learning, curiosity, and connection with others.
Ask yourself questions like:
- What do you need to keep learning about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging?
- What are some internal biases that you want to deconstruct?
- How can you more intentionally and authentically connect?
- Are there any relationships you would like to repair or heal?
These three things were created to help us create the type of world we want to live in: a world free from bias; a world where everyone belongs. Explore the following resources to join us in our continued effort to learn and shape children’s sense of identity, community, connection, and interconnection.
- NAEYC Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education Position Statement
- ZERO to THREE – The ABCs of Diversity and Inclusion
- Bank Street Education Center – Culture, Race, and Equity
- Start Early – Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Early Childhood Classroom
- CASEL – How Does SEL Support Educational Equity and Excellence?
- Creating Culturally Responsive Early Childhood Classrooms
- Culturally Responsive Teaching in Early Childhood Education
By Rachel Wagner, MSW
February 18, 2025
