{"id":76096,"date":"2023-11-28T14:04:39","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T19:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=76096"},"modified":"2026-05-07T10:59:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T14:59:01","slug":"teaching-racial-justice-in-early-childhood-settings","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/news\/articles\/2023\/teaching-racial-justice-in-early-childhood-settings\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Racial Justice in Early Childhood Settings"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin news-block-editorial-leadin is-style-side-by-side has-media has-wider has-box has-media-focus-center-middle has-tertiary-theme\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1080\" height=\"700\" src=\"\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/11\/Photos.png\" class=\"\" alt=\"Three preschool ages children sitting in classroom smiling at camera\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/11\/Photos.png 1080w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/11\/Photos-900x583.png 900w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/11\/Photos-768x498.png 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/11\/Photos-500x324.png 500w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/11\/Photos-992x643.png 992w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/11\/Photos-1000x648.png 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"wp-prepress-tag\">Early Childhood<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTeaching Racial Justice in Early Childhood Settings\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar news-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">November 28, 2023<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-comments\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#comments\" class=\"wp-prepress-component-comment-counter label\">1<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/news\/authors\/finn-gardiner\/\">Finn Gardiner<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-rounded\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/s-curenton-retouched.png\" alt=\"Photo of Stephanie Curenton\" class=\"wp-image-64978\" width=\"236\" height=\"236\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/s-curenton-retouched.png 1200w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/s-curenton-retouched-600x600.png 600w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/s-curenton-retouched-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/s-curenton-retouched-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/s-curenton-retouched-826x826.png 826w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/s-curenton-retouched-344x344.png 344w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/s-curenton-retouched-529x529.png 529w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/s-curenton-retouched-682x682.png 682w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/s-curenton-retouched-1032x1032.png 1032w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/s-curenton-retouched-688x688.png 688w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/s-curenton-retouched-1058x1058.png 1058w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/s-curenton-retouched-1000x1000.png 1000w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/s-curenton-retouched-500x500.png 500w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/s-curenton-retouched-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/s-curenton-retouched-550x550.png 550w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/files\/2023\/02\/s-curenton-retouched-710x710.png 710w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 236px) 100vw, 236px\" \/><figcaption>Stephanie Curenton<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/profile\/stephanie-curenton\/\">Stephanie Curenton<\/a>, a professor in the Teaching &amp; Learning Department at BU Wheelock, has spent her career tackling tough questions of race, bias, and discrimination in early childhood education\u2014and the ways that teachers, researchers, and other professionals can combat it. A developmental psychologist by training, Curenton leads research on the social and cognitive development of racially marginalized children as the director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu-ceed.org\/\">Center on the Ecology of Early Development<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Curenton is a coauthor of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcpress.com\/we-are-the-change-we-seek-9780807768020\"><em>We Are the Change We Seek: Advancing Racial Justice in Early Care and Education<\/em><\/a><em> <\/em>(Teachers College Press, 2023), which combines theoretical and practical guidance about how early childhood education systems can become racially inclusive. We asked her to talk about her experience incorporating principles of antibias, antiracism, and social inclusion in early childhood education.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<section class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a news-block-editorial-q-and-a\"><div class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-title\"><h2 class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-title-heading\">Q<span>&amp;<\/span>A<\/h2><h4 class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-title-subheading\">With Stephanie Curenton<\/h4><\/div>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-question\"><span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-name\">BU Wheelock:<\/span> <span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-content\"><strong>How does race influence early childhood education? What should be done about that?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-answer\"><span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-name\">Stephanie Curenton:<\/span> <span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-content\">In the United States, racism as a societal force and operating structure affects everything we do, including early childhood education. Schools may teach that slavery was bad, but that it was \u201cworth it,\u201d or that the killing of Indigenous people was \u201cpar for the course.\u201d<br>\u00a0<br>We need an early childhood system and programs that fight against the effects of racism within our society, both through the learning environment and the workforce. We need teachers trained to understand structural racism and the ways it affects kids, including the true history of the US, the attempted destruction of Indigenous people, and the use of slavery, sexual abuse, and labor exploitation as an economic engine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-question\"><span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-name\">BU Wheelock:<\/span> <span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-content\"><strong>And do preschoolers have a concept of race at a young age?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-answer\"><span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-name\">Stephanie Curenton:<\/span> <span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-content\">Not every white three- or four-year-old will identify their race, but most kids of color can name their identity. Also, even if white children do not talk about race, they are aware of social and power structures in general, and they are also aware of racial social structures. And typically for little kids, ideas of race are usually based on appearance: skin tone, hair texture, sometimes clothing.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-question\"><span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-name\">BU Wheelock:<\/span> <span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-content\"><strong>How would you talk about racial justice with young children? Aren\u2019t these abstract concepts for three- and four-year-olds?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-answer\"><span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-name\">Stephanie Curenton:<\/span> <span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-content\">We want to make sure everything is play-based, experiential, and open-ended. Some of that includes letting kids think about their own identities, who they are, and who their friends are. They also learn through pretend play\u2014we encourage them to act out different roles in society and let them work out issues of power and justice.<br>&nbsp;<br>There are many people who do this work. For example, there\u2019s someone well known here in Boston who talks about racial and gender justice. Their website is called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wokekindergarten.org\/\">Woke Kindergarten<\/a>. There\u2019s another group in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.weethepeopleboston.org\">Boston, Wee the People<\/a>, that uses puppets to teach kids.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-question\"><span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-name\">BU Wheelock:<\/span> <span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-content\"><strong>With that knowledge, how do you incorporate antiracist and antibias principles in early childhood education?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-answer\"><span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-name\">Stephanie Curenton:<\/span> <span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-content\">The first piece is the curriculum, what kids are actually being taught. We want to make sure that it\u2019s play-based and exploratory and allows kids to \u201cjust be\u201d and explore power dynamics.&nbsp;<br><br>But it\u2019s not just about the curriculum. We\u2019re talking about the way in which you instruct. We\u2019re talking about the design and approach of the program in general. An antiracist early childhood system involves making sure that educators are diverse, that they represent the kids\u2019 and families\u2019 backgrounds, and that they are well trained on racial identity and justice. And it also means that teachers are well-compensated and that there is no racial disparity in hiring or compensation.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-question\"><span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-name\">BU Wheelock:<\/span> <span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-content\"><strong>We hear a lot about critical race theory in education. What\u2019s your take on it?<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-answer\"><span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-name\">Stephanie Curenton:<\/span> <span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-content\">My work is situated in who I am as a developmental psychology scholar. We talk about critical race theory in our book. Critical race theory is one theory, and it\u2019s not the only theory that\u2019s ever talked about race and social justice. There are also theories by Cynthia Garcia-Cole and Margaret Beale Spencer. These have always interrogated the effect of racism on children\u2019s development, and they\u2019ve shaped a lot of my thought. Much of my work is grounded in an ecological systems model, and we have actually extended upon this model by talking about how race interacts at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.annualreviews.org\/doi\/full\/10.1146\/annurev-devpsych-121020-031339\">every level of a child&#8217;s development<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-question\"><span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-name\">BU Wheelock:<\/span> <span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-content\"><strong>How would you respond to criticism of antiracist and antibias education?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-answer\"><span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-name\">Stephanie Curenton:<\/span> <span class=\"wp-block-editorial-q-and-a-content\">I\u2019m doing this work because it\u2019s what I believe in, how I should prepare the next generation. I\u2019m going to do what I believe is right for our children and society so we can all get along and live together. I have to follow my moral conscience, and I can\u2019t be afraid to do that. If my ancestors had been afraid to fight for morality and humanity, then I would not be sitting here where I am today.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stephanie Curenton, a professor in the Teaching &amp; Learning Department at BU Wheelock, has spent her career tackling tough questions of race, bias, and discrimination in early childhood education\u2014and the ways that teachers, researchers, and other professionals can combat it. A developmental psychologist by training, Curenton leads research on the social and cognitive development of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18489,"featured_media":76155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"Early Childhood","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[4085],"bu-publication":[6614],"magazine-article-category":[],"magazine-topic":[],"news-article-category":[6753,6760],"news-topic":[6936,6934],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/76096"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76096"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/76096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88518,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/76096\/revisions\/88518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76096"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=76096"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-article-category?post=76096"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=76096"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=76096"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=76096"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=76096"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=76096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}