This article is an excerpt of the second edition of Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves, by Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards.
On the most challenging days, begin your self-reflection with Derman-Sparks’ and Edwards’ wise words: “Anti-bias work is essentially optimistic work about the future for our children.”
In 2017, after a review of NAEYC’s current position statements, the Governing Board charged the Early Learning Systems Committee with revising both the DAP and Teacher Preparation position statements. This pointed to the need for Advancing Equity.
Watch this webinar for tips on how early childhood professionals can transform their thinking around children’s actions by using culturally appropriate positive guidance.
We are pleased to launch Equity in Action, a blog series exploring the many ways early childhood educators and administrators, higher education faculty members, policymakers, advocates, and other ECE allies can bring this statement to life in practice.
NAEYC appreciates the work of the Developmentally Appropriate Practice/Diversity and Equity Workgroup and the Early Learning Systems Committee, who participated in the development of this statement. See a full list here.
Early childhood educators, early learning settings, higher education and professional development systems, and public policy all have important roles in forging a new path for the future.
The recommendations are based on a set of principles that synthesize current early childhood education research through the lenses of equity and NAEYC’s core values.
NAEYC promotes high-quality early learning for all children, birth through age 8, by connecting practice, policy, and research. We advance a diverse early childhood profession and support all who care for, educate, and work on behalf of young children.
Work to change any policy that either directly or through unintended negative consequences undermines children’s physical and emotional well-being or weakens the bonds between children and their families.
