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Talking about Race and Racism
See comprehensive resources on Racial Justice and Equity from Education Development Center (EDC). The Center for Early Learning Professionals is operated by EDC, a global nonprofit that advances lasting solutions to improve education, promote health, and expand economic opportunity. EDC has extensive experience supporting the work of early childhood professionals.
Resources to Support Families, Staff, and Children
- Don’t Look Away: Embracing Anti-Bias Classrooms, by Iheoma Iruka Ph. D, Stephanie Curenton Ph. D, Tonia Durden Ph.D, Kerry-Ann Escayg Ph.D. This brand-new book is for early childhood educators who wish to create an equitable and inclusive learning environment. Available from NAEYC and other booksellers.
- Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves, Second Edition, by Louise Derman-Sparks, Julie Olsen Edwards, Catherine M. Goins. The second edition of this early childhood staple provides educators with guidance on implementing anti-bias curriculum in their program, building collaborative relationships with families, and navigating conversations with children on topics such as race, culture, fairness, gender diversity, economic class, and different abilities. Available from booksellers.
- Learning for Justice: This website provides a variety of resources for educators including lesson plans and articles on such topics as race and ethnicity and rights and activism.
- Becoming Upended: Teaching and Learning about Race and Racism with Young Children and Their Families, by Kirsten Cole, Diandra Verwayne (Young Children, May 2018)
- Children are not Colorblind, by Erin Winkler (Pace, 2009) (PDF)
- Anti-Bias Resources from National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) (NAEYC website)
- Sesame Street in Communities: Racial Justice (Sesame Street Website)
- Racism and Violence: Using Your Power as a Parent to Support Children Aged Two to Five: This comprehensive resource from Zero to Three will help parents discuss racism and violence in the news (Zero to Three website)
- Beyond the Golden Rule: A Parents’ Guide to Preventing and Responding to Prejudice: This helpful article from Teaching Tolerance is targeted for families but provides guidance for anyone working with young children. (PDF)
- How to Help Kids Handle the News (Child Mind Institute website)
- Raceconscious.org: The website Raising Race Conscious Children offers many useful resources for families and educators including a list of children’s books that can be used to discuss race in the classroom. Many book suggestions are linked to blog postings that demonstrate race conscious book reading practices
- PBS Parents Book Finder: The Book Finder tool on the PBS Parents website provides a list of children’s books about race and diversity
- Choosing and Using Books to Discuss Race and Ethnicity: This resource comes from the initiative Resilience Uplifting Youth Through Healthy Communication About Race
- Sesame Street in Communities: Racial Justice (Sesame Street Website)
