Racialized Childhoods: Young Children’s Intersectional Struggles and Resistance in Early Childhood Classrooms

Early childhood is a unique realm where the overwhelming discourses of care, love, and protection often dominate and can be mobilized to silence social injustice issues. This presentation draws from Dr. Alisha Nguyen’s five-year research program on racialized childhoods to examine racial, gender, and language injustices in early childhood classrooms. Specifically, Dr. Nguyen will share four case studies of young children from diverse racial backgrounds, whose intersectional struggles are often unrecognized and whose resistance is often misunderstood and unsupported. These case studies highlight how the oppressive matrix of -isms pervades early childhood classrooms. The presentation will also offer practical implications for early childhood educators to collectively work towards the anti-bias goals of (i) fostering young children’s positive identity development, (ii) embracing diversity, (iii) advancing education equity, and (iv) supporting child activism