EDUC 6357: Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

 


As I reflect upon Gender, Gender identity, and Sexual Orientation, there are a few issues to consider:

  • Homophobia and heterosexism permeate young children's world and are reflected in books, the packaging of toys, commercials, and movies. I displayed photos, figurines, and picture books that show professional workers representing both genders in my learning environment, for instance, an image of a male nurse and a woman truck driver or a doctor. Also, in the dramatic play area, I display props that will encourage rules and roles. For instance, allowing boys to experimenting with a "maternal role" (Pelo, 2008, p.68) and feed or dress a doll. Also, I use my observation for teachable moments to scaffold the children's thinking (Derman-Sparks, 2010). 

  • There may be cases that parents will share with me their concern about having books depicting same-sex parents. My answer will be that Some of the significant goals of anti-bias education are to foster children's self-awareness and pride in their heritage and cultural background and cultivate respect and awareness of diversity (Derman Sparks, 2010). Also, children will nurture empathy and acknowledge fairness and equity (Derman Sparks, 2010). Lastly, children will delegate in standing for themselves and others against bias and prejudice (Derman Sparks, 2010). In our classroom, we model and teach respect for diversity, as all children and families will feel connected, welcome, and proud in their family structure. Providing children with books, and props that depict various family structures, including same-sex parents, are essential to foster awareness, pride, and respect in our Inclusive environment.

  • An idea to consider: As our respect for diversity should be reflected in our philosophy, it should be portrayed at the primary stage of registering a child to our program. In my inclusive early childhood program, I decided that an inclusive and anti-bias environment should not focus only on the goals and curriculum planning such as large group activities and scaffold teachable moments(Derman Sparks, 2010). To welcome children from various family structures, I decided to change all the registration and admission paperwork to convey my philosophy. For instance, instead of using the standard form that asks for the name of mother/ father, I changed the format to parent A, Parent B. Acknowledging that there are various family structures, I always ask during the intake visit the family structure and adjust accordingly. For instance, children that are raised by a foster family or by grandparents. This change will allow all families to feel welcome and respected in our preschool family.

    •  

 

References:

Derman- Sparks, L. & Edwards, J. o. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Pelo, A. (Ed). (2008). Rethinking early childhood education. Milwaukee, WI, Rethinking Schoo.

Comments

  1. InetteJanuary 31, 2021 at 10:38 AM

    Hello Ilana,
    I love that you put in thought to making positive first impressions with your families by altering the wording on your intake forms. It is little things like that that can contribute to big impacts. I recently had a discussion with a colleague on wording to use with children when talking about parents and guardians. Her class consisted of families with adopted children, single gender parents, single parents, and those with Grandparents or other family members acting as guardians. She understood that saying "parents" just didn't work. So she came up with a list of alternatives such as your adults and your big people.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ilana AlbertJanuary 31, 2021 at 12:39 PM

      Hi Inette
      Thank you for your reply.
      I agree with you that we have to make some adaptation to the forms that will accommodate the any family unit, for instance, caring adult.

      Ilana

      Delete
  2. AnonymousJanuary 31, 2021 at 6:49 PM

    Ilana,
    Your examples of how you implemented the anti-bias teaching was very thoughtful and something I will take to use in my EC classes. The Parent A & B also reminds me of the media segment in removing pronouns helps with creating more meaningful inclusion and acceptance. Rose

    ReplyDelete

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