Contents
Introduction:
Embracing Social Justice in Early Childhood Education — ix
Language Matters — xv
Part One:
Prioritize anti-bias, culturally sensitive teaching and learning. — 1
What Color Is Beautiful? — 3
Why an Anti-Bias Curriculum? — 7
Developmental Themes, Tasks, and Goals in Anti-Bias Work — 13
Raising Issues of Race with Young Children — 17
Using Persona Dolls to Help Children Develop Anti-Bias Attitudes — 23
Miles of Aisles of Sexism: Helping Students Investigate Toy Stores — 29
Where Are the Game Girls? — 35
Rethinking ‘The Three Little Pigs’ — 41
What If All the Kids Are White?:
Anti-Bias Themes for Teaching Young Children — 43
Unwrapping the Holidays:
Reflections on a Difficult First Year — 49
Part Two:
Make ample time for play and exploration. — 55
The Scripted Prescription:
A Cure for Childhood — 57
What About Play? 61
Confession:
My Students Play in the Classroom — and It’s Good for Them — 65
Playing with Gender — 67
Cybertots:
Technology and the Preschool Child — 75
Part Three:
Use curriculum approaches that are responsive to children’s developmental and intellectual pursuits.— 85
Why We Banned Legos: Exploring Power, Ownership, and Equity in the Classroom — 87
‘Lego Fascists’ (That’s Us) Vs. Fox News — 95
‘I Just Want to Read Frog and Toad’ — 99
Tuning In to Violence:
Students Use Math to Analyze What TV Is Teaching Them — 103
Talking with Children About War and Peace — 108
Testing Tots:
Why We Need a Better Means of Evaluating Our Nation’s Children — 109
Testing Lang — 113
Think Less Benchmarks:
A Flawed Test Does More Harm than Good — 115
From Critique to Possibility:
New Zealand’s Radical Approach to Assessment — 119
Part Four:
Cultivate a sense of place — of belonging to a particular patch of earth and sky — and a connection to the earth and its creatures. — 121
A Pedagogy for Ecology — 123
Bringing the Earth Home:
Professional Development on Ecology — 131
Don’t Know Much About Natural History:
Education as a Barrier to Nature — 133
Food Is Not for Play — 137
Lessons from a Garden Spider:
How Charlotte Transformed My Classroom — 139
Part Five:
Emphasize children’s social-emotional learning. — 145
Holding Nyla:
Lessons from an Inclusion Classroom — 147
Fairness First:
Learning from Martin Luther King Jr. and Ruby Bridges — 151
Staying Past Wednesday:
Helping Kids Deal with Death and Loss — 155
Part Six:
Learn from and stand with families. — 159
Welcoming Kalenna:
Making Our Students Feel at Home — 161
Holiday Lessons Learned in an Early Childhood Classroom — 165
Strawberry Fields Forever?:
An Early Childhood Teacher Draws on Her Past to Teach Children of Migrant Farmworkers — 171
Talking the Talk: Integrating Indigenous Languages into a Head Start Classroom — 175
Heather’s Moms Got Married — 177
Bringing the Lives of Lesbian and Gay People into Our Programs 180
Activism Brings Us Power:
An Interview with lda Magaña — 183
Part Seven:
Advocate for children, families, and early childhood workers. — 187
Who Cares for Our Children?:
The Childcare Crisis in the Other America — 189
It’s All of Our Business:
What Fighting for Family-Friendly Policies Could Mean for Early Childhood Educators — 197
Improving Conditions and Status for Early Childhood Educators — 201
Caught in a Quagmire:
The Effort to Improve Wages and Working Conditions for Childcare Teachers — 203
Part Eight:
Resources — 209
10 Quick Ways to Analyze Books for Racism and Sexism — 211
Music for Social Justice — 215
Books and Multimedia Resources — 219
Recommendations from Contributors
Organizations and Websites — 223
Recommendations from Contributors
Index — 225