Western society is made up of individuals of many races, religions, abilities, and cultural backgrounds. It is important to avoid promoting stereotypes in the classroom, particularly the early childhood classroom. Here are some tips for removing bias from your preschool classroom.
Instructions
Changing the Classroom Environment to Reflect Diversity
1. Look at your classroom with a critical eye. Identify materials that reflect negative or biased stereotypes. If necessary, enlist a colleague to assist in this process.
2. Add multicultural and gender diverse toys. Many toy companies have dolls and other toys that are representative of various races, ethnicities, and disabilities.
3. Incorporate pictures and representations that are diverse. If all the pictures in your class are of girls, add some pictures of boys. Include pictures of children with disabilities, families that are racially or culturally diverse, and children from various backgrounds.
4. Make sure the books in your classroom do not overtly depict stereotypes. We all have favorite books from our childhoods, but those are not always appropriate and bias-free in today's classrooms. If all the books show women as mothers and men as authority figures, replace some of those books with more contemporary books that reflect gender equality.
5. Make sure that your environment is as accessible to individuals with disabilities as much as possible, and make reasonable accommodations as needed.
Adjusting the Curriculum to Remove Bias
6. Utilize guest speakers. Meeting women in nontraditional roles, such as doctors, lawyers, or police officers, can help children break the concept of gender stereotyping. Also, including male visitors in nontraditional roles, such as teachers, social workers, or nurses.
7. Avoid using holiday-based activities. Many holidays have inherent cultural or religious biases, and focusing on some holidays while ignoring others suggests that some cultures are not as important as others. Reinforcing the importance of a particular culture over another is a subtle form of bias.
8. Use cooperative learning activities. When students work with others who are different from themselves, they begin to understand the other child's perspective to a greater extent.
9. Emphasize students' strengths when planning and implementing activities. If you know a student cannot run, let him/her be the time keeper in a running game. If a student cannot speak or is very shy, let him/her use a bell or other signal to begin an activity.
10. Include students' families in as many activities as possible. That will help students begin to see first-hand the diversity in family structures. It also provides each child with a connection between home and classroom that is a valuable aid to learning.
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