Wellbeing Objectives:
- children feel safe, secure, and supported.
- children become strong in their social and emotional wellbeing.
- children develop knowledgeable and confident self-identities.
Strategies:
- educators build on culturally valued child rearing practices and approaches to learning.
- educators acknowledge each child’s uniqueness in positive ways.
- educators promote children’s sense of belonging, connectedness, and wellbeing.
- educators welcome children and families into the program space, sharing aspects of children’s cultural and spiritual lives.
- educators mediate and assist children in negotiating their rights in relation to the rights of others.
- educators acknowledge and understand that children construct meaning in different ways.
- educators demonstrate a deep understanding of each child, their family, and community contexts in planning for children’s learning.
- educators provide children with rich and diverse resources that reflect children’s social worlds.
- educators talk with children in respectful ways about similarities and differences in people.
- educators listen to and learn about children’s understandings of themselves.
Personal & Social Responsibility Objectives:
- children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy, and respect.
- children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities, and how they can actively participate in them.
- Children respond to diversity with respect.
- Children become aware of fairness.
Strategies:
- educators acknowledge children’s complex relationships and sensitively intervene in ways that promote consideration of alternative perspectives and social inclusion.
- educators provide opportunities for children to investigate ideas, complex concepts and ethical issues that are relevant to their lives and their local communities.
- educators model language that children can use to express ideas, negotiate roles, and collaborate to achieve goals.
- educators ensure that children have the skills to participate in and contribute to group play and projects reflect on their own responses to diversity.
- educators design and plan for environments that reflect diversity in culture, gender identity, and family structure, such as books and materials.
- educators plan experiences and provide resources that broaden children’s perspectives and encourage appreciation of diversity.
- educators encourage children to listen to others and to respect diverse perspectives.
- educators demonstrate positive responses to diversity in their own behaviour and in conversations with children.
- educators engage in interactions with children that promote respect for diversity and value distinctiveness.
- educators explore the culture, heritage, backgrounds, and traditions of each child within the context of their community.
- educators explore with children their ideas about diversity and provide opportunities for them to ask questions or share doubts about inconsistent messages they hear notice and listen carefully to children’s concerns and discuss diverse perspectives on issues of inclusion and exclusion, and fair and unfair behaviour.
- educators analyze and discuss with children ways in which texts construct a limited range of identities and reinforce stereotypes.
- educators point out and draw children’s attention to issues of fairness relevant to them in the early childhood program and broader community.
Learning Outcomes Seminar 1:
By the end of this seminar participants will be able to:
- Describe the four pillars of anti-bias education.
- Outline a working definition of the first pillar, identity.
- Discuss ways to identify and affirm children’s identities through the materials and social climate of the classroom.
- To propose action steps for integrating the first pillar into practice.
Learning Outcomes Seminar 2:
By the end of this seminar participants will be able to:
- Identify three ways that educators can create a classroom environment that supports positive identity development.
- Recognize characteristics of picture books that provide children with windows and mirrors for exploring identity and intersectionality.
- Consider how classroom materials can support ongoing inquiry into identities, relationships. diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Recognize that diverse materials are not enough and recognize the critical role classroom discussion and inquiry play in anti-bias education.
Learning Outcomes Seminar 3:
By the end of this seminar participants will be able to:
- Propose ways to support children in forming peer relationships that value inclusion.
- Identify principles and lenses that can be incorporated to further anti-bias practice.
- Consider ideas for supporting peer relationships in play.
- Value the use of connecting rituals and routines in supporting children throughout the day.
