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Considering Race within Early Childhood Education: A Misunderstood and Underexplored Element of Family-School Partnerships in Child Care

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Ethnocultural Diversity and the Home-to-School Link

Part of the book series: Research on Family-School Partnerships ((RFSP))

Abstract

This chapter explores the contribution of racial ethnic socialization to family-school partnerships during the early childhood period. Racial ethnic socialization entails verbal and nonverbal communications to children regarding the customs, values, attitudes, and perceptions of race and/or ethnicity, and it is the means through which children become familiar with the status and/or privilege of a particular racial ethnic group. As a former slave society, the United States is a racialized society. As a racialized social system, “whiteness” is not an inert concept but quite meaningful to the social interactions experienced within such a society. Children also experience racial dynamics at an early age and early education is a setting in which racial biases can be enacted by young children. Research indicates that early education teachers are not proactive in their role as racial ethnic socializers of these young children. The authors review some of the key elements of racial ethnic socialization research, articulate essential elements of racial ethnic socialization within child care programs, and suggest practical approaches toward initiating intentional racial ethnic socialization in child care that is cocreated with families.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For the sake of brevity and style, the authors use the term “child care” in a general sense to mean early educational settings prior to K-12 education, such as preschool, pre-K, child care centers. The authors use a specific type of child care (i.e., pre-K) when only that kind of early educational setting is meant.

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  1. Whittier College, Whittier, CA, USA

    Kay Sanders & Monica Molgaard

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA

    Christine M. McWayne

  2. Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Fabienne Doucet

  3. Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

    Susan M. Sheridan

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Sanders, K., Molgaard, M. (2019). Considering Race within Early Childhood Education: A Misunderstood and Underexplored Element of Family-School Partnerships in Child Care. In: McWayne, C., Doucet, F., Sheridan, S. (eds) Ethnocultural Diversity and the Home-to-School Link. Research on Family-School Partnerships. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14957-4_2

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