How Onslow County Child Care Centers Put Racial Equity Into Action

At One Place, we believe that all early childhood educators have a professional obligation to advance justice and equity in their classrooms. Even young children can adopt, enact, and interrupt racism and institutionalized discrimination—and so cultivating racial awareness and competency early in a child’s life is a crucial responsibility that early childhood educators have to our county’s youngest children.

Why It Matters

Racial inequity begins in preschool. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Education started collecting data on preschool children and disciplinary action and found concerning results. The latest round of preschool discipline data released in 2020 discovered that while Black boys represented 18 percent of preschool enrollment, they accounted for 41 percent of male preschool suspensions. Black girls made up 19 percent of female preschool enrollment and accounted for a staggering 53 percent of female suspensions.

How can we combat these statistics and tackle inequity in the preschool classroom? It starts with teacher trainings, conversations, and moving from equity-based language to equity-based action—and it begins before educators step foot in the classroom. Teachers, administrators, and assistants in early childhood education must have appropriate training and coaching on systemic racism in order to identify racial bias and prevent it from hurting any children you work with.

Diverse Representation in the Classroom

Because the first 2,000 days of a child’s life are absolutely vital for their long-term trajectory, providing a diverse, culturally-aware, and global perspective helps young children form ideas and understandings of the world. From books and images to teachings of cultural events and holidays, diverse representations of people across continents and globes are essential.

To encourage inclusion and conversation, early childhood centers provide high-quality, diverse literature that allows children to see their own lives and histories among the lives of others. They also provide imagery of numerous races and cultures, information on holidays and cultural events, and much more.

Beyond racial diversity, we believe it is important for literature that is inclusive of the diverse abilities and formations of families, including LGBTQ+, social, economic, religious, and more.

Facilitating Important Discussions

At One Place, we believe in incorporating racial equity into the classroom every day—from celebrating holidays from a variety of cultures to discussing racial differences. We spoke with a few of our local centers on how they’ve moved from good faith efforts around racial equity to tangible changes:

Discussions around race and culture. Teachers mediate discussions around race and culture in the classroom, encouraging students to share what they do with their families during the holidays.
Build family trees. Teachers encourage students to bring in photos of their immediate and extended family to learn about ancestry and heritage.
Involving families every step of the way. Many local child care facilities ask families to become involved in sharing their culture and their stories with the students.
Introducing books, images, and age-appropriate discussions. Teachers at many child care facilities ensure that the materials in the classroom are representative of a large variety of cultures and languages.

Our Impact + Resources

In Onslow County, many educators are upholding this commitment and working every day to eliminate the inequities that limit learning opportunities and harm children in our community and beyond.

If you are seeking support in setting up a culturally aware, diverse classroom that celebrates students of all stories, our Technical Assistance program is here to help. This step-by-step process integrates a number of powerful, collaborative strategies to help improve your program—all at no cost to you. To sign up, click here.

To learn more about resources for early educators, click here: https://www.oneplaceonslow.org/for-parents-and-early-educators/early-educator-resources/

Sources Consulted