A white paper by Iheoma U. Iruka, Ph.D., Stephanie M. Curenton, Ph.D., Latoya Jackson, M.S., Sherrie Sutton, M.S.Ed., LPCC, Stacy Orbaker, M.A., & Lisa Welsh, M.Ed.
The Don’t Look Away: Embracing Anti-Bias Classrooms book study was a collaborative experience among the book’s authors (Iruka & Curenton) and educators from the A. Sophie Rogers School for Early Learning as well as the Ohio State Early Head Start Partnership Program. Conducted over seven weeks, the book study’s goals were to:
1. Introduce ASR and OSU-EHS educators to the concept that racism is a form of stress that leads to trauma in children and families;
2. Raise educators’ awareness via self-reflection and critical thinking about their implicit racial biases toward the children and families served;
3. Leverage the strengths that children of color and their families bring into the learning environment; and
4. Provide explicit anti-racist and anti-bias teaching strategies to change and improve classroom practices.
The collaboration also sought to provide a working model of how Don’t Look Away can be used with early education and care programming to advance systemic change around bias and to introduce concrete means for anti-bias programming in these settings.
INSIDE THE BOOK STUDY: To learn more about how the book study was structured, check out the weekly guide created and followed by the team.KEY FINDINGS
Analyses showed that participating educators, on average, were moderately racially conscious, meaning that they understood that Black children and other children of color experience racism.
Over 90% of participants reported that the book study provided new information and that they had a better understanding of how racism crosses all systems.
Demonstrated by the figure above, incorporation of anti-bias culturally responsive practices increased daily by almost 10% after participants completed the Don’t Look Away book study.
CONCLUSION
In addition to providing results from the study of this unique collaboration, the paper provides hyperlinks to the resources that were used in the book study, for early childhood professionals who may wish to utilize them as well in order to create anti-racism learning settings. To read more about these findings, as well as key recommendations, see the full paper here.
The Don’t Look Away book is available from the publisher or through your local Black-owned bookstore.
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.@CraneCenterOSU latest white paper is the result of a book study collaboration between the authors of “Don’t Look Away: Embracing Anti-Bias Classrooms” & educators from the A. Sophie Rogers School for Early Learning & Early Head Start Partnership Program: https://bit.ly/3k3hzj7
A new white paper from @CraneCenterOSU shows that on average, participating educators were moderately racially conscious, meaning they understand that Black children and children of color experience racism. https://bit.ly/3k3hzj7
Most educators participating in @CraneCenterOSU book study seemed to be aware of how racism affects children’s learning & well-being. Read the paper: https://bit.ly/3k3hzj7