Anti-Bias Education for Young Children & Ourselves

by Louise Derman-Sparks, Julie Olsen Edwards

What if someone told you that you could contribute ina small but significant way to making the world a better place? That is what this book offers: A chance to make the world fairer and more humane for everybody from a place where you have already chosen to be-working with children and families.
--from the foreword by Carol Brunson Day

Genres: Education, Teaching, Parenting, Nonfiction, Professional Development, Social Justice, Textbooks

211 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Madisyn Leligdon]

Gotta get the credits for all the books I read, even if they’re for school 🥸

[Dar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read The Anti-Bias Curriculum (1989) early in my career and it was life-changing. It was the start of my anti-oppression training and it led me down the path of being an ally. I checked to see if the book was still available, and found this newer edition (2010). Anti-Bias Education is a workbook for early childhood educators to help them create an early childhood philosophy and classroom environment: anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-ableist, anti-classist and more. It gives concrete examples of how young children express their thoughts and feelings about differences and how ECE professionals can respond, as well as how they must be proactive. While doing so, they must work with and show respect for families' values. This was a tremendous influence not only on my library work but on my parenting.

Here are a couple of quotes from the book. How would you respond?

A group of 4-year-olds is making books "About Me." Their teacher asks them to describe their skin color. The African American and Latino children respond with "black," "brown" and "tan-ish." Several of the White children respond, "My skin is regular," "Ordinary" and "You know, it's skin color ."

"How come we got a new car and Arlae's mommy brings her on the bus?" asks Karen on the way to school. "Your daddy and I worked hard to buy this car," her mother replies a little defensively. "Oh, I didn't know," Karen says quietly. "I'll tell her mommy to work harder."

[Lizeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a beautiful book. There should be a college class based on this book that every teacher should take in college. I love how relevant this book is for prekinder. I wish my colleagues would read this. I’ve learned so much from this book and I have reread it this summer in hopes that I can refine my classroom practices. It makes me so proud to continue implementing some of these strategies in my classroom

[fawnlet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the textbook for my college class on anti bias education and it was a really lovely and informative read. It felt like all the bases were covered here and made me feel so much more equipped as a freshman Ed major! I can’t wait to start teaching😭🩷

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't actually finished this yet, but the library wants it back so I'll let someone else have a turn and finish it later. I left off at page 78 in the chapter "Fostering Children's Cultural Identities: Valuing All Cultures.

This isn't just about education for young children; it's about eduction for ourselves.

Sections I'll want to revisit:
pages 70-71 Acknowledge, Ask, Adapt: Facing Conflicts About Anti-Bias Issues - a method for engaging in discussion and generating solutions when disagreements arise. Problem solving requires self-reflection and open, nonjudgmental listening to other people's perspectives. Each person is heard and does some shifting and participates in creating a new solution. The strategy opens the door to a "third space" solution.
pages 72-74 Building Collaborative, Anti-Bias Relationships with Colleagues - meet regularly with colleagues, notice how the people in your program treat each other, treat disagreements and conflicts as opportunities for growth

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the most helpful book I've read so far for ages 3-7 or so (really 3-5 but I think it can apply up a bit).
- Clear ideas and themes
- Practical ideas for the classroom
- Lots of quick model conversations with children inserted into the text

Any recs for a similar book for late elementary?

[Kimber · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a textbook, it was a pretty interesting read, not dry like some textbooks.

[book.chats.with.jacki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was really impactful as an educator and a parent. I would recommend this to everyone it does a wonderful job explaining biases and how to become anti-bias!

[Barb Hegreberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know I will continue to use this book as questions arise in the classroom

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic professional development resource for educators everywhere.

[Mills College Library]

370.11709 D435 2010

[Ariel Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life-changing. Super informative about what to expect from young children & helpful in knowing how to respond, as well as how to be proactive. Worth revisiting this content often.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read and digested this slowly over many months and found it an invaluable resource. I appreciated the mix of important background knowledge, examples from classrooms, discussion points for educators and concrete action suggestions. I am the director of a school and I would definitely want my staff to read it and for us to discuss and digest it together.

In particular the authors explained some complex topics that teachers need to understand in very concise and informative ways, such as gender diversity and systemic racism.

My only complaint is the use of the words “birth family” with children to universally describe where their DNA comes from. For many children this is the case, but for some, such as children with donors, this is inaccurate and could be very confusing, and some adoptive families do not use this terminology. The word family has meaning to young children, and for children who do not get their DNA from people in their family, being told they do by a teacher would be very unhelpful.

Rather than telling children they get physical characteristics from a birth family, one could tell them they get it from DNA which is true for everyone. If one didn’t want to get into explaining conception a short simple, but always true, answer might be something like, “We get our skin color from our DNA. DNA are messages inside our body that tell it things like what color skin to make as we grow. DNA is in the cells that make us and those cells sometimes come from our parents and sometimes from other people. When they come from our parents, sometimes we look like them.” A teacher could start with the first sentence, and then pause and add subsequent sentences if children had questions or indicated they wanted to know more.

But that is my only complaint. With that one caveat I highly recommend this book.

[Christa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is rare that I actually enjoy reading a textbook, so take note. Although probably not super interesting to people who aren't trying to educate or raise children, this is a great text for those who are. It focuses on the importance of equality and understanding others, examining your own ideas of the world and how you came to them, and then reaches outward to explain how children perceive things adults often have (conscious or unconscious) biases about (race, people with disabilities, gender, class, etc.). It comes from a perspective of respect and has heartening and insightful quotes like, "When educators treat children as if they are strong, intelligent, and kind, children are far more likely to behave in strong, intelligent, and kind ways," (p. 1), and "It's not human differences that undermine children's development but rather unfair, hurtful treatment based upon these differences," (p. 3). It was a very valuable read and it helped me to think critically about what impact we can have on children even when we're avoiding discussing a subject with them.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems to me that each of us is raised with bias for our own culture and it takes a conscious effort to work with young children and build a program based on being anti-bias. This is not a judgmental statement but just an observation of being a human. I found Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves to be an excellent classroom resource to make me more aware to the differences in cultures of the children in my classrooms and how I could make them part of a new school community that accepts them and their home culture.

[Lin Lin]

I like this book for its clear goals, strategies, and examples with the voices of teachers and parents. Fairness along the lines of race, gender, class, culture, disability, family structure, age, etc. is never going to be achieved if we are not conscious of our own bias and the bias of other people. As I read the book, my heart sank because our current education program does not really seem to be using such an anti-bias education approach as a central focus.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to read this book for an Anti-Bias class that I am taking this fall, and though I would get a head start. Well, I think everyone in the world should study this book and topic no matter even if it not mandatory. I know that I learnt a lot and hope I can remember what I have leant to be a better citizen to society!

[Amber]

Sent to Connie Griego on 8/12/10

[Andréa]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

[Vaibhavi Jay]

it is really good book for the inclusive ideas to teach children. I really used this in my program