Talking about ethnic identity

In this guest post, Sharon Colilles, early years advisor, academic and researcher, explores ideas for developing a space in curriculum frameworks that support children's ethnic identity and invites dialog  on strengthening our approaches to inclusion in EY settings.

Recent discourse and media attention surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement may have left many of us in the early years sector wondering about how we can develop our awareness and knowledge in this complex context. Certainly, completion of my doctoral thesis made me think about how I could develop my own practice further if I was working with children and parents from diverse groupings today. Just thinking about existing terminology to start a dialogue about matters associated with race, culture and identity may trigger for many feelings of apprehension and a real uncomfortableness. I know that I certainly share these concerns and so I thought I would write this small piece to stimulate conversations.

Developing a space in curriculum frameworks to consider how pedagogic approaches support young children’s ethnic identity is not only challenging but can also be problematic to navigate in day to day practice. However, the use of play can act as a powerful mediating tool for connecting with young children’s ideas about how they choose to share and co-construct knowledge about ethnicity. Broadhead and Burt’s (2012) research informs how play can act as a powerful bridge between home and community and the knowledge shared in the setting. So how can we create a space in which we feel comfortable to start a dialogue about ethnicity with families and the children we work with?

In my research I choose to deliberately focus on children’s voice and rights to participate (Pascal and Bertram, 2009) because young children are thinking about and have a lot to say about ethnicity. Using Funds of Knowledge (FOK) theorisation as a lens for exploring ethnic identity formation enabled me to make explicit the influences that impact on children’s ability to express ideas about their ethnicity and the ethnicity of others. Beliefs from Funds of Knowledge theorisation consider understanding about culture extends beyond the material resources we use in our everyday practice. It can extend to the language, beliefs, values and prevailing perceptions from the social interactions we share in our work with young children (Chesworth, 2016, Karabon, 2017, Moll et al, 1992). More significantly the children we work with will be entering our settings rich in cultural knowledge (Lam and Pollard, 2006) from their home and community experiences.

As Educators we therefore have a pivotal role to play in enhancing play-based pedagogic approaches and provision to support what could be perceived as an underdeveloped part of our understanding of culture, ethnicity and race in early childhood. In my research with children from diverse groupings I found parents were motivated to engage in conversations about their BAME lived experience. I recognise that this may not be the case in your settings, so we need to think about how we have those conversations with parents. Similarly, we also need to then consider the language and the dialogic interactions we have with children. A good starting point is thinking about how your existing policies and practice will support engagement in those early conversations.

Here are just a few ideas that you may wish to think about for enhancing existing inclusion policy and practice surrounding culture and race awareness development.

When working with children and parents:

- Find out what support is needed first to develop awareness and knowledge about the diverse groups of children in your setting;

- When considering pedagogy; I encourage practitioners to start from a position where they trust that children are highly competent in sharing the knowledge about their ethnicity; usually garnered from their external lived experiences with family and community; and

- Co-construct initiatives and intentional learning experiences that aim to reduce inequalities in learning and development for BAME children.

It is important to note that whilst my research yielded findings that have the potential for transforming play-based approaches for facilitating children’s strong sense of an ethnic identity, I acknowledge that they cannot be universally applied to all settings. I do however believe opportunities exist for facilitating children’s unique individual ability to reproduce externally informed understanding about their own ethnic identity in their play, learning and development.

The globalised context in which we work ideally positions practitioners to rise to the challenge. Particularly when confronting underlying attitudes and perceptions about how to support young children’s developing ethnic identities and the funds of cultural knowledge they may bring into early childhood educational settings. The early years curriculum framework, particularly the revised Early Years Foundation Stage profile: 2020 handbook, (STA, 2010) is an ideal starting point for us all to reflect on practice. I hope the suggestions made in this post support the start of those conversations for strengthening your approaches to inclusion in your settings. Let’s begin the journey of transformation!

Sharon Colilles is an experienced early years advisor, academic and researcher. Living in a world rich in cultural diversity fuels Sharon's passion to support awareness and understanding about how play based pedagogy influences young children's formation of an individual ethnic identity.
 
Sharon has recently completed her PhD "Exploring how play based pedagogies support mixed ethnic identity formation."

You can contact Sharon on Twitter and LinkedIn.
 

References

Broadhead, P., and Burt, A. (2012) Understanding young children’s learning through play: building playful pedagogies, Oxon: Routledge.

Chesworth, E. (2016) A funds of knowledge approach to examining play interests: listening to children’s and parents’ perspectives. International Journal of Early Years Education, Vol 24 (3), pp.294-308

Karabon, A. (2017) They’re lovin’ it: how preschool children mediated their funds of knowledge into dramatic play. Early Child Development and Care. Vol 187 (5-6), pp.896-909.

Moll, L.C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., and Gonzalez, N. (1992) Funds of Knowledge for Teaching: Using a Qualitative Approach to Connect Homes and Classrooms. Theory into Practice, Vol 31 (2), pp.132-141.

Lam, M.S. and Pollard, A. (2006) A conceptual framework for understanding children as agents in the transition from home to kindergarten. Early Years. Vol 26, (2), pp.123-141.

Pascal, C., and Bertram, A. (2009) Listening to young citizens: The struggle to make real a participatory paradigm in research with young children. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, Vol 17 (2), pp. 249-62.

Standard & Testing Agency (2019) Early years foundation stage profile 2020 handbook. [Online] Available from: <https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2020-early-years-foundation-stage-assessment-and-reporting-arrangements-ara> [Accessed 24 April 2020].