Anti-bias & Anti-racist Literacy Resources
Written by Regan Becker
Children internalize racial bias from an early age and learn from their first teachers and their parents how to deal with and react to difference. According to brain researchers:
As early as 6 months, a baby's brain can notice race-based differences.
By ages 2 to 4, children can internalize racial bias. Preschool children may begin to notice and point out differences in the people around them.
By age 12, many children become set in their beliefs.
Bias is defined as: prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.
Racism is defined as: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is marginalized by the dominant culture; the belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.
Children gain fluency in racial bias as members of any society. Adults can help children develop an anti-bias anti-racist lens at their developmental stage through literacy. According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the four main goals of anti-bias anti-racist (ABAR) education are:
Goal 1: Identity
Teachers will nurture each child’s construction of knowledgeable, confident, individual personal and social identities.
Children will demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social identities.
Goal 2: Diversity
Teachers will promote each child’s comfortable, empathetic interaction with people from diverse backgrounds.
Children will express comfort and joy with human diversity, use accurate language for human differences, and form deep, caring connections across all dimensions of human diversity.
Goal 3: Justice
Teachers will foster each child’s capacity to critically identify bias and will nurture each child’s empathy for the hurt that bias causes.
Children will increasingly recognize unfairness (injustice), have language to describe unfairness, and understand that unfairness hurts.
Goal 4: Activism
Teachers will cultivate each child’s ability and confidence to stand up for oneself and for others in the face of bias.
Children will demonstrate a sense of empowerment and the skills to act, with others or alone, against prejudice and/or discriminatory actions.
When selecting books for children, parents and educators with an anti-bias anti-racist lens consider:
Who wrote it? Is the author a member of the community about which they are writing?
Who is centered?
Who is not represented?
What is the message?
When was it written? (copyright date, not reprint date)
Parents and educators with an anti-bias anti-racist lens look for:
books that emphasize developing a child’s positive self-identity.
books that normalize and familiarize the unfamiliar, such as: varieties of family structures, work places, ways of life, races/ethnic groups, and bodily abilities. (Use compare and contrast questions, as well as inviting curiosity questions from your child. Reading comprehension with critical thinking adds depth to a child’s understanding and wonderment.)
books about cultures (and biographies) to read year-round – not just during certain months, when that culture or those people are highlighted. For example: Black History is rich enough to read about throughout the year, not only during February. Pay attention to stereotypes, tokenism, and loaded language. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was not the “single story” of the Civic Rights Movement. Read about a variety of activists throughout the year – not only in mid-January. Read about people who are not well-known, rather than focusing solely on exceptionalism.
books about cultural celebrations and holidays as they arise during the year. When the culture is different from your family, ask your child compare and contrast questions – How is the holiday similar to the holiday our family celebrates? How is the holiday different from the holiday our family celebrates?
books that provoke curiosity and promote discussion. Adults often feel they should give children answers to their questions. However, when adults allow children to share their own ideas, they show respect for the child’s imagination and/or reasoning.
books that inspire action and activism. Talk with children about how your family or school might serve the larger community in small, practical ways. Find ways to be in right relationship with local communities through actions such as mutual aid.
books featuring actual humans to depict topics. Many books use animals to represent human social dynamics (anthropomorphism). This is an abstraction or an inaccurate depiction of real events and experiences. Root into the real with children ages 3-6.
On Fairy Tales:
Like fantasy books, fairy tales are often considered developmentally inappropriate until the age of seven. In addition, fairy tales frequently contain sexist, classist, ageist, and racist messages. When we as adults preference equity over nostalgia, we challenge the –isms in the “classics” from our childhood by presenting respectful identities in contemporary titles.
On Folk Tales:
Although folk tales have historically been used as a way of instilling values through morals or lessons, adults should avoid reading folk tales to “teach (another) culture” in a contemporary sense. Many folk tales originate from centuries prior, were written for adults, and do not accurately convey current cultural identities and beliefs.
Other great ABAR resources:
Montessori-trained educator Britt Hawthorne’s website contains great resources for parents and educators.
Louise Derman-Sparks is a preschool educator who has written about anti-bias education for over 50 years. Her article “Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children’s Books” appears on socialjusticebooks.org – which also provides reviews of books using a variety of criteria: reading level, theme, title, author, publisher, etc.
Dr. Debbie Reese is a Nambe Pueblo educator and scholar whose blog highlights and explains why certain children’s books about Native American communities honor the people they represent, and why others do not. This interview with her on Embrace Race is highly recommended.
The Children’s Community School of Philadelphia has a great infographic (also posted below) that demonstrates the importance of addressing racial bias at developmental milestones in a child’s life.
