“And If Something, Antiracism Is a Pedagogical Matter” - Finnish Early Childhood Education Teachers’ Understanding and Experiences of Antiracism and White Normativity
(2021) SIMV15 20211Graduate School
- Abstract
- Early childhood education (ECE) builds the base for a child’s learning and socialization. Studies prove that racism and unequal treatment are present already in early childhood education, affecting negatively on an individual’s wellbeing. Antiracism is seen as a way to act against racism and lessen inequality. Via interviews of six ECE teachers working in Finland, this study analyzes if they recognize the need for an antiracist approach in their work. Further, their understanding and experiences of racism, antiracism, and white normativity in early childhood education and in their work are analyzed from the interviews with content analysis. This study presents descriptions how racism appearances in different forms in ECE, such as direct... (More)
- Early childhood education (ECE) builds the base for a child’s learning and socialization. Studies prove that racism and unequal treatment are present already in early childhood education, affecting negatively on an individual’s wellbeing. Antiracism is seen as a way to act against racism and lessen inequality. Via interviews of six ECE teachers working in Finland, this study analyzes if they recognize the need for an antiracist approach in their work. Further, their understanding and experiences of racism, antiracism, and white normativity in early childhood education and in their work are analyzed from the interviews with content analysis. This study presents descriptions how racism appearances in different forms in ECE, such as direct racist acts or speech, denial of racism, ignorance and indifference and colorblind approaches. Racism is clear in structures and as an overarching white normativity. Many respondents have adopted an active role as developing antiracists and mention courage, an active stance against racism and self-reflection crucial. They name different ways of adapting an antiracist approach in their education such as choosing material that challenges white normativity in its themes, pedagogical choices and treating each family as unique. The lack of support from the work community is seen as a preventing factor for adopting an antiracist approach, and the respondents emphasize the importance of the whole work community and the director committing to the antiracist principles. Thus, more studies focusing especially on the collaborative work among education teams and educators’ ability to recognize racism, especially in the peer relation of children, are needed.
Keywords: early childhood education, critical pedagogy, antiracism, racism, white normativity (Less) - Popular Abstract
- In this study, teachers working in early childhood education (ECE) institutions in Finland observe racism appearing in many forms in daycares. It is apparent not only as direct racist acts or speech, but also as denying, ignorant or indifferent attitudes towards racism. Racism can also appear as colorblind attitudes (such as: “I don’t see color, just people”) or in structures, i.e., families of the children attending to the daycare falling between the services like daycare and child health centers. When education renews inequality and racism in society, an antiracist approach is needed. It can be described as an active stance against racism, aiming to lessen inequality. An antiracist approach is linked to dismantling white normativity.... (More)
- In this study, teachers working in early childhood education (ECE) institutions in Finland observe racism appearing in many forms in daycares. It is apparent not only as direct racist acts or speech, but also as denying, ignorant or indifferent attitudes towards racism. Racism can also appear as colorblind attitudes (such as: “I don’t see color, just people”) or in structures, i.e., families of the children attending to the daycare falling between the services like daycare and child health centers. When education renews inequality and racism in society, an antiracist approach is needed. It can be described as an active stance against racism, aiming to lessen inequality. An antiracist approach is linked to dismantling white normativity. White normativity can be described as how some people are categorized as white and some as non-white (or, i.e., black or brown) and whiteness serves as a norm that everything else is compared against to.
In this study I analyze if ECE teachers observe the need for antiracism, how they define it and what are their experiences of applying antiracist education approaches in their work. The analysis is done from the interviews of six Finnish early childhood education (ECE) teachers, who participated in a 2-hour training ordered by the municipality of Helsinki and executed by the Peace Education Institute during Autumn 2020.
All the interviewees see the need for antiracism in ECE. They think that equality and equity are important in their work and see antiracism as a way to promote them. Many of the interviewees see themselves as developing antiracists and aim to adopt a braver and a more active and reflexive stance against racism. Many of them do concrete actions forwarding antiracism in their work. These actions can be pedagogical choices, selecting material and treating all families as unique. However, the whole work community seems not to be always committed to antiracism. The participation of the whole work community and the support from the supervisor are needed to adopt an antiracist approach successfully. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9059659
- author
- Loukola, Saara LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SIMV15 20211
- year
- 2021
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- early childhood education, critical pedagogy, antiracism, racism, white normativity
- language
- English
- id
- 9059659
- date added to LUP
- 2021-06-30 10:48:13
- date last changed
- 2021-06-30 10:48:13
@misc{9059659,
abstract = {{Early childhood education (ECE) builds the base for a child’s learning and socialization. Studies prove that racism and unequal treatment are present already in early childhood education, affecting negatively on an individual’s wellbeing. Antiracism is seen as a way to act against racism and lessen inequality. Via interviews of six ECE teachers working in Finland, this study analyzes if they recognize the need for an antiracist approach in their work. Further, their understanding and experiences of racism, antiracism, and white normativity in early childhood education and in their work are analyzed from the interviews with content analysis. This study presents descriptions how racism appearances in different forms in ECE, such as direct racist acts or speech, denial of racism, ignorance and indifference and colorblind approaches. Racism is clear in structures and as an overarching white normativity. Many respondents have adopted an active role as developing antiracists and mention courage, an active stance against racism and self-reflection crucial. They name different ways of adapting an antiracist approach in their education such as choosing material that challenges white normativity in its themes, pedagogical choices and treating each family as unique. The lack of support from the work community is seen as a preventing factor for adopting an antiracist approach, and the respondents emphasize the importance of the whole work community and the director committing to the antiracist principles. Thus, more studies focusing especially on the collaborative work among education teams and educators’ ability to recognize racism, especially in the peer relation of children, are needed.
Keywords: early childhood education, critical pedagogy, antiracism, racism, white normativity}},
author = {{Loukola, Saara}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{“And If Something, Antiracism Is a Pedagogical Matter” - Finnish Early Childhood Education Teachers’ Understanding and Experiences of Antiracism and White Normativity}},
year = {{2021}},
}