Deconstructing Implicit Bias: Developing Anti-Racist Early Childhood Practices
Presenters
- Fela Barclift, M.S.Ed., Little Sun People
- Grace Nam, M.S.Ed, Brooklyn College
Session / Time
- Breakout Session III
- 1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
- Bedford Room
Description
In this session, participants will develop shared language of race and racism and explore our implicit bias, the internalized ways racism shows up in all of us—folks who have come to be known as “white” and people of color. Participants will explore how implicit bias lives in our hearts and minds and informs our professional and personal interactions and relationships.
Goals / Content / Intentionality
By the conclusion of this session, participants will:
- develop shared definitions of race, racism, and implicit bias, and.
- exercise courage to have honest conversations about race and racism and how it shows up in our interactions, relationships, classrooms, and institutions..
Participants will leave with tools to develop ways to deconstruct implicit bias and develop anti-racist practices. Participants will name one relationship and one intention toward deconstructing implicit bias and developing anti-racist practices.
Take-Home Messages
- Early childhood educators need to develop shared understanding of race, racism, and implicit bias in order to disrupt internalized conditioning and build authentic relationships.
- Only in authentic relationships do early childhood educators welcome, honor, and respect the humanity of the entire learning community..
Presenter Bios
Fela Barclift, M.S.Ed., Little Sun People
Fela Barclift, M.S.Ed., Little Sun People
Fela Barclift is a passionate and lifelong advocate for early childhood education with a focused concentration on children of color and their families. Fela’s vision and desire to make a difference in the world led to her founding of Little Sun People, Inc., an early childhood institution in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, in 1981. Fela named her child care center Little Sun People to let the world know that this institution was designed with an intentional focus and emphasis on the history, culture, and ways of the children and families whose skin is so beautifully kissed and browned by the sun. Additionally, Fela is a mother of four, a grandmother of four, and a graduate of Brooklyn College and a post graduate of Bank Street College with a master of science degree in education.
Grace Nam, M.S.Ed., Brooklyn College
Grace Nam, M.S.Ed, Brooklyn College
Grace Sanghyun Nam grew up in a Korean immigrant family in suburban Detroit, where she learned to navigate public schools as one of the few children of color. The University of Michigan and then Bank Street College followed as Grace found her calling as a teacher, inspired to create the kind of culturally inclusive classrooms she wished she’d had as a child, where the humanity of all children is embodied. She has taught and coached in community-based centers, progressive independent schools, Waldorf playgroups, Head Start, and public schools. Grace is a parent of two children who attend the Brooklyn Waldorf School, where she serves as an Undoing Racism organizer with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. Grace teaches and advises Brooklyn College early childhood students during their student-teaching semester.
