Social Justice and Equity in Early Childhood Education

Nxumalo, Fikile; Adair, Jennifer Keys

doi:10.1002/9781119148104.ch29

Cited by 11 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Furthermore, it would require a rethinking about the metrics used to measure the learning of the 'have nots' so that the neoliberal logic of schooling can be dismantled (Fogarty et al, 2017). Engaging in these actions that seek to dismantle this binary could reposition all children, families, and communities as knowledgeable and capable, thereby eliminating the notion that certain children, families, and communities are lacking/'have not' (Brown, 2008a;Nxumalo and Adair 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Beginning to Dismantle the Binaries that Frame the Neoliberal Kindergarten

Brown¹

2021

JETS

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The binary logic of policymakers’ neoliberal reforms has restructured kindergarten into a learning environment where teachers struggle to nurture children as learners. At the same time, the critiques that challenge these policies are also rooted in this binary logic. This allows policymakers’ neoliberal reforms to remain intact. In this article, I address this issue through analysing findings from a larger research study that examined how a range of education stakeholders (n=88) made sense of the changed kindergarten through binary logic. I then take apart these three binaries that emerged in my analysis process to provide insight into possible pathways for change that education stakeholders at all levels of governance can begin to engage in to dismantle policymakers’ neoliberal education reforms.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such deficit understandings of those students who 'have not' were also associated with children's academic skills (Brown, 2008a;Nxumalo & Adair, 2019). For instance, Dr. Kennedy, the Assistant Superintendent in TXSD2 noted,…”

Section: The Haves Vs Have Notsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beginning to Dismantle the Binaries that Frame the Neoliberal Kindergarten

Brown¹

2021

JETS

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“…Black pre-service ECEC programs can benefit from transgressing the confines of the overwhelming discourses of development, and understanding one's own positionality in relation to their practice. As Nxumalo and Adair (2019) highlight, ‘school-readiness’ discourses – the expectation that students should be ready for their education before entering school – reinforce single stories as normative through a system that produces a White, middle-class, ableist and heteronormative core, which further marginalizes students from lower socio-economic and racialized backgrounds. Nxumalo and Adair (2019: 671) articulate Black feminism as a critical source to confront inequity in ECEC and state: ‘thinking with black feminisms enables educators to make visible the workings of intersecting oppressions in children's families’ everyday lives’.…”

Section: Black Feminist Thought As a Site Of Resistance In Early Chil...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At this juncture, there is hope for social justice and equity in early childhood (Nxumalo and Adair, 2019). Critical anti-racist and social justice approaches can combat the disavowal of racism in education (Escayg et al, 2017).…”

Section: Review Of the Literature: Issues And Possibilities For Disru...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the role of Black feminist thought in pre-service early childhood education: On the possibilities of embedded transformative change

Brady

2022

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood

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As a Black feminist scholar who teaches in an early childhood studies program, the author has witnessed how dominant theories and methods used for pre-service early childhood education and care disconnect students from their lived experiences. The detachment of social location in theoretical text, and particularly in developmental discourse, is not isolated to the field; it is instead a result of the fragmentation of knowledge, which is central in the modern colonial project. The author explores what the possibilities are for Black feminist scholarship in pre-service early childhood education and care while unpacking the many racial and intersecting injustices in the field. The dominant research and pedagogy practices in early childhood education and care have limitations, with omissions of the nuances of the critical engagement of students, families and community more broadly through lived experience. When assumptions of detached and ‘objective’ knowledge are centred, then ideas that challenge norms and the status quo are omitted or peripheralized, when they are included. The article explores the possibilities of what the author calls ‘embedded transformative change’ – a change that is central to pedagogy and research in the field of early childhood education and care as opposed to being placed at the margins. Through embedded transformative change, members of pre-service early childhood education and care programs can think of themselves as active agents in change and liberation.

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“…For instance, in my field of early childhood education, pervasive anti-Blackness continues despite decades of research that has shown the ways in which education can be a site of hyper-surveillance, dehumanization, and criminalization of Black children. This pervasiveness persists in a multitude of ways from the everyday traumas enacted by the disciplining of young Black children in early childhood classrooms, to the ways in which narratives of achievement gaps circulate, endure, and re-attach to Black children and families in new ways disguised as seemingly benevolent educational practices and policies (Dumas & ross, 2016; Nxumalo & Adair, 2019).…”

Section: We Are Drowning In Anti-blacknessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disrupting Anti-Blackness in Early Childhood Qualitative Inquiry: Thinking With Black Refusal and Black Futurity

Nxumalo

2021

Qualitative Inquiry

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Working with Black feminist concepts of Black futurity and Black refusal, this article seeks to illustrate what is possible when early childhood research does not begin with the anti-Blackness that is pervasiveness in early childhood education. My focus is on the liberatory potential of attending to quotidian relational world-making practices in the places and spaces of Black childhood. Thinking with a photo essay on Black boys and with images of a young Black girl from a place-based research project, I gesture toward the otherwise worlds that are made possible by experimenting with wayward methods as a practice of listening for Black childhood futurity.

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Social Justice and Equity in Early Childhood Education

Cited by 11 publications

References 54 publications

Beginning to Dismantle the Binaries that Frame the Neoliberal Kindergarten

Beginning to Dismantle the Binaries that Frame the Neoliberal Kindergarten

Exploring the role of Black feminist thought in pre-service early childhood education: On the possibilities of embedded transformative change

Disrupting Anti-Blackness in Early Childhood Qualitative Inquiry: Thinking With Black Refusal and Black Futurity

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