Every child deserves to feel safe, represented, included, and loved in their classroom environment so that they can learn, thrive, and reach their innate potential regardless of their race, gender, ethnicity, culture, religion, or abilities. Early childhood educators can give all children this experience through culturally relevant pedagogy that connects classroom learning to children's home experiences and native languages. Check out this list of resources that will help early childhood educators promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in their classrooms from exploring your own unconscious biases and connecting with families from varied cultural and language backgrounds to designing developmentally appropriate, consistent behavior-guidance policies and creating inclusive nature-based programs that connect every child to nature.
Building Equitable Early Learning Programs
A Social-Justice Approach
Building Equitable Early Learning Programs: A Social-Justice Approach gives educators the facts, examples, strategies, and approaches needed to create and sustain programs and practices that can best serve our communities.
Elevating Equity
Advice for Navigating Challenging Conversations in Early Childhood Programs
Elevating Equity: Advice for Navigating Challenging Conversations in Early Childhood Programs takes a positive approach by embracing differences and meeting readers where they are. Elevating Equity requires educators to be mindful of how to include children, families, and colleagues in all parts of early childhood programming.
Don’t Look Away
Embracing Anti-Bias Classrooms
Don’t Look Away: Embracing Anti-Bias Classrooms leads early childhood professionals to explore and address issues of bias, equity, low expectations, and family engagement to ensure culturally responsive experiences. This book will challenge you to consider your perceptions and thought processes as you identify your own unconscious biases (we all have them!), recognize and minimize bias in the classroom, school and community, and connect with children and their families.
The Welcoming Classroom
Building Strong Home-to-School Connections for Early Learning
In The Welcoming Classroom, Dr. Johnna Darragh Ernst offers practical ideas for creating a welcoming atmosphere for families that will encourage them to participate in their children's learning community. Learn practical ways to connect with families from varied cultural and language backgrounds and abilities, gain new strategies for creating a home-school link to support learning, and create a richer learning environment by integrating unique family cultural perspectives.
Strength in Diversity
A Positive Approach to Teaching Dual-Language Learners in Early Childhood
In the classroom, it is so important for young children to hear their home languages and see positive images of people that look like them and people from their community. This book offers teachers context, practical advice, and strategies to help young dual-language learners thrive. This includes the basics of second-language acquisition, effective teaching strategies and principles of instruction, and ways to engage the families of dual-language learners.
Effective Discipline Policies
How to Create a System that Supports Young Children’s Social-Emotional Competence
Troubling data on preschool suspension and expulsion rates, as well as data indicating that young boys of color and young children with disabilities are suspended and expelled for behavior challenges more often than other children, has received a great deal of national attention and has served as a wake up call for the early childhood community. Effective Discipline Policies will help you craft developmentally appropriate, consistent, effective behavior-guidance policies to support positive interactions between young children, their peers, and adults.
Wired to Move
Facts and Strategies for Nurturing Boys in an Early Childhood Setting
Based on the latest brain research, Wired to Move gives early childhood educators insight into the young boys’ brain and how they learn, as well as practical strategies to more effectively support and teach them. From an overview of what makes boys tick and the unique needs of African American and Hispanic boys to simple, effective options to involve boys in the early childhood classroom and encourage family engagement and parental participation, it offers practical strategies teachers can implement in even the stickiest situations.
Naturally Inclusive
Engaging Children of All Abilities Outdoors
Research tells us that we are happier, healthier, more socially engaged, and more creative when nature is part of our daily lives. These benefits apply to people of all ages and abilities. In this inspiring book, Dr. Ruth Wilson explores the great potential of connecting young children with special needs to the natural world as she weaves together advice, real-life examples, and testimonies from educators and families on the healing, nurturing power of nature in the lives of young children with diverse abilities.
Every Child Can Fly
An Early Childhood Educator’s Guide to Inclusion
Inclusion benefits all children! Inclusion—perhaps you believe it is complicated, time-consuming, and expensive. Not true! Jani Kozlowski, experienced trainer and technical-assistance provider on inclusion and disability services, dispels the myths and shows that implementing high-quality inclusive practices in your program is easier than you think!
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