A few years ago, I looked at the widely known and used Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) and developed an anti-bias tool that would use the same format as the ECERS does with the “Notes for Clarification” but with a focus on diversity issues.
See antibias.htm
Please feel free to use and comment on the tool. I’d be interested in learning how this tool is or is not useful/applicable today as well as any other comments.
How wonderful that this tool was developed in 1993! I do hope that it will be updated to encorporate more of an anti-descrimination approach. There are several fabulous and currect documents (such as Building Bridges (Janmohamed); Achieving Cultural Competence (OEYC Toronto)) that can support the development of a tool that will review more active strategies for non-descrimination, anti-prejudice in child care programs. In our community, we are also using the materials of Te Whariki to inform our own process of tool development, materials and practices – the great value being that we are asking “why do we do things in the way that we are?” “How are our practices good for children and their families?” This is just one way to get at the core of the barriers that we have constructed (or not actively removed) interfering with children’s access to great care and learning.
Thanks Laura for your comments.
When I was in graduate school, a professor suggested one of us take on the task of both updating – and Canadianizing the well-known “Anti-bias curriculum: Tools for empowering young children” by Louise Derman Sparks, National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1989.
There are several well-known and good Canadian resources, such as “The Affective curriculum” by Valerie Rhomberg and Nadia Hall (1992), “Include me too: Human diversity in early childhood” edited by Kenise Murphy Kilbride (1998), and the more recent (2006) “Effaçons Les Préjugés Pour de Bon” by the English Teachers Federation of Ontario, and many others.
Parentbooks in Toronto maintains a pretty good list.
My anti-bias tool was developed as a way to help look at the experiences of children, parents, families and staff in early childhood settings, with a particular view of diversity issues. Again, lots of other good Canadian resources in this area too, including the “Checklist for Quality Inclusive Education: A Self-assessment Tool and Manual for Early Childhood Settings“, a project of the Early Childhood Resource Teacher Network of Ontario and the rating scale developed by SpeciaLink: The National Centre for Child Care Inclusion. I do wish the OEYCs would share their cultural competence piece online. Why not submit it here?
What other tools/resources are people aware of that support and promote anti-bias, anti-racist early childhood education?
There are additional ECERS subscales by Sylva, K. Siraj-Blatchford, I. Taggart, B. –one of these is for Diversity…I have a 2003 edition, but there is a more recent publication. The publishers are Trentham Books.
Hello rachel. Thanks for your comment. I googled the info you have presented and found a link to Assessing Quality In The Early Years. Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS-E). New Revised Edition. 2006. Authors are cited as Kathy Sylva , Iram Siraj-Blatchford, and Brenda Taggart.
2nd author, Siraj-Blachford (1994) has also written Early Years: Laying the Foundation for Racial Equality.
Most interesting. Thanks for sharing, rachel!