Nurturing Anti-Bias Education: Exploring Identity and Diversity

To ensure equitable outcomes for all children, anti-bias education must be at the foundation of all teaching practices, curriculum, early childhood spaces, and learning opportunities. The NAEYC publication [Anti-Bias Education for Young Children & Ourselves, Second Edition]¹ defines four core goals of anti-bias education: Identity, Diversity, Justice, and Activism. Each of these goals interlocks with the others and supports children in developing self-awareness, finding joy in differences and similarities, recognizing fairness and unfairness, and empowering them to speak up when harm is being done. Teaching Strategies has chosen these 4 goals as the focus of our equity series.

In this session, we will take a closer look at the first two goals: Identity and Diversity. We will discuss the educator’s role in understanding their own social identity in order to nurture each child’s appreciation for their own individuality and differences.