What is Anti-Bias Education (ABE)?
"Anti-Bias Education places diversity and equity goals at the heart of everything we do in early childhood. We recognise that very young children are observing, experiencing, and actively making sense of social identities and biases. We begin by affirming each child and family’s social identities and cultural ways of being. Building on the strengths and knowledge children bring to the ECEC setting, Anti-Bias educators seek the active engagement of families and communities. Anti-Bias educators observe carefully, think critically, and reflect deeply. More than a set of curriculum activities and teaching strategies, this approach recognizes and offers children and adults the tools to actively resist bias and systemic oppression in our society; it is a commitment to social justice. An Anti-Bias Approach supports the goals of anti-racist teaching and culturally sustaining pedagogies."
LeeKeenan & Nimmo, 2021: Reflecting on Anti-Bias Education in Action: The Early Years. Facilitator and Viewer Guidebook, page 3.
Anti-Bias work is embedded in social justice principles, which include proactively engaging with equity and anti-discriminatory practices focusing on racism, sexism, ableism, LGBTQ-phobia, classism and other -isms.
Anti-Bias Education (ABE) provides a framework for hands-on, social justice-oriented pedagogy with young children, grounded in critical reflection and activism. ABE works to achieve four concrete goals that build on one another. The four goals address children as well as adults.
Anti-Bias Education Goals:
"Identity, Diversity, Justice and Action are the four interconnected goals of Anti-Bias Education, which build on each other and are relevant to all children and adults. Educators create the learning environment to foster these goals."
Derman-Sparks, Edwards, & Goins, 2020: Anti-Bias Education for Our Children and Ourselves. (pp.15-17):
Goal 1: Identity:
To demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social identities.
Goal 2: Diversity:
To express comfort and joy with human diversity; accurate language for human differences; and deep, caring human connections.
Goal 3: Justice:
To recognize unfairness, have language to describe unfairness, and understand that unfairness hurts.
Goal 4: Action:
Demonstrate empowerment and the skills to act, with others or alone, against prejudice and/or discrimination.
Anti-Bias Education Goals for Adults and Children
Derman-Sparks and ABC Taskforce 1989
Derman-Sparks and Edwards, 2020
Amended by Murray, 2024
For Adults
Identity
Educators will be aware of their own individual and social identity, culture, attitudes, and values and how they influence practice.
Diversity
Educators will explore their own comfort with difference and how they developed empathy and will reflect on how to engage effectively with families.
Justice
Educators will identify and critically think about diversity, bias, discrimination, and systemic (or structural) inequality in society.
Activism
Educators will engage in dialogue about issues of diversity, equality, individual and institutional forms of bias and discrimination. They will work to challenge individual and institutional prejudice and discrimination in ECEC and their society.
For Children
Identity
Educators will nurture each child’s individual and social identity and their sense of belonging.
Diversity
Educators will foster children’s empathy and support them to be comfortable with difference by offering windows for exploring differences and similarities.
Justice
Educators will encourage each child to critically think and become aware of diversity and bias and support them to recognise how bias hurts.
Activism
Educators will empower children to have the confidence to stand up for themselves and others in challenging situations.
Film "Reflecting on Anti-Bias Education in Action"
Of special interest is the Film Reflecting on Anti-Bias Education in Action: The Early Years (2021), produced by Debbie LeeKeenan and John Nimmo, which features vignettes of Anti-Bias strategies in early childhood classrooms interspersed with teachers reflecting on their practice. Debbie and John partnered with filmmaker Filiz Efe McKinney of Brave Sprout Productions to create a film that shifts the focus away from the talking heads of experts and on to the voices of teachers committed to equity on a daily basis. By taking viewers into diverse early childhood classrooms, the film seeks to demonstrate the importance of teacher reflection on identity, context, and practice in Anti-Bias Education and provides a much-needed resource for teacher education and professional development.
Louise Derman-Sparks is the film’s senior advisor. The film’s theoretical and research framework is based on her co-authored books, "Anti-Bias Education for Our Children and Ourselves" (with Julie Olsen-Edwards and Catherin Goins ) and "Leading Anti-Bias Early Childhood Programs: A Guide for Change" (with Debbie LeeKeenan and John Nimmo).
Reference: https://www.antibiasleadersece.com/the-film-reflecting-on-anti-bias-education-in-action/
You can watch the film here:
Reflecting on Anti-Bias Education in Action: The Early Years.
Film "Families Embracing Anti-Bias Values"
Families Embracing Anti-Bias Values (2024) is a companion to "Reflecting on Anti-Bias Education in Action: The Early Years" (2021). It is a 50-minute documentary about families who intentionally parent with an Anti-Bias lens, exploring their hopes, fears, strengths, challenges, and the pivotal question: What kind of world do we want to create with our children?
Produced by Debbie LeeKeenan and John Nimmo, and directed by Filiz Efe McKinney, the film is funded by a grant from the Tyler Rigg Foundation with support from Portland State University.
Reference:
https://www.antibiasleadersece.com/families-embracing-anti-bias-values/
You can watch the film here:
