The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

What do you see?  How do you feel?

 

What if this pathway led to the front doors of your early childhood site, would what you see and feel, change?

Each day my staff and I spend our time coaching and supporting classroom inclusion for professionals throughout the county starting with; always see the child and family, first. 

The joint position statement created by NAEYC and DEC regarding inclusion is quite clear:  “Early childhood inclusion embodies the values, policies, and practices that support the right of every infant and young child and his or her family, regardless of ability, to participate in a broad range of activities and contexts as full members of families, communities, and society” (NAEYC, n.d.). The defining features?  Access, participation, and support.

While the program I manage provides early childhood professionals with in-classroom support to enhance their capacity to support children of all abilities, until a teacher is able to see the child first, access and participation will not exist.  Biases, ableism, ageism, classism, and racism are common   “-isms” my staff and me encounter.  The following is one brief example:

A single parent in need of childcare for their toddler diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder found a site that was not only a Star-Rated center, it was conveniently located near the parent’s work.  A parent in need of high-quality care and a site “open” to enrolling the child, awesome!  I had the opportunity to support the initial meetings between the family and the staff that would be supporting the classroom and a strong plan was established with the understanding; always see the child first.  Unfortunately, after the first few weeks, the teacher’s “-isms” began to surface.

• The teacher could only see the disability, not the child; therefore, in the eyes of the teacher, every behavior the child exhibited was directly derivative of the diagnosis.
• Then came such statements as, "I don't have time to support the child's learning to clean up toys, I can't even get the other children to clean up."  Unfortunately, she could not see, the child's struggle to clean up was not related to the diagnosis, it's a typical behavior and the support needed was exactly the same as the child's classmates.
• Comments also began to surface regarding the family's race and the parent's low-income status as the reasons why the child was exhibiting the behaviors.
• The child was dis-enrolled after 6 weeks with the sentiment; "I tried," by the teacher.

Did she try?  I believe she truly thinks she did and I am confident, she did not recognize her microaggressive comments as inappropriate. What was most frustrating?  This child did not exhibit any behaviors beyond that of the child’s typically developing classmates.  Additionally, the child was embraced by the other children and as the specialist expressed; she saw more smiles, giggles, and happiness among the children than she ever witnessed from the teacher.  The children saw a friend, not a disability.

Although this support did not end in success, the child went on to thrive in a different program. What a difference a teacher makes in the life of a child.  Is my department still supporting the previous site, yes, because we as early childhood professionals must not walk away from “-isms,” we must educate our communities regarding them.  Accountability and responsibility are key components; therefore, the center’s staff did participate in 4 state-approved training regarding inclusion.

References:

NAEYC. (n.d.) Early childhood inclusion: A joint position statement. [PDF] Retrieved from

     https://www.naeyc.org/sites/.../position-statements/DEC_NAEYC_EC_updatedKS.pdf