George Floyd’s death was a tragedy and a wake up call — expanding a global conversation about race and racism. And young children have been watching it all. So how do we help them make sense of this? Early Risers is podcast from Little Moments Count and MPR with frank facts, engaging stories and real how-tos for anyone who cares about raising children with a clear-eyed understanding of cultural differences, race and implicit bias. Hosted by Dianne Haulcy of Think Small.
What if, before you learned to read, you learned to ask questions? Faith Rogow calls it a “habit of inquiry,” and tells Dianne it’s more important now than ever. That’s because the explosion of media can be confusing, overwhelming and reinforce racial stereotypes. Little learners CAN become critical thinkers. Dr. Rogow says never take media - from books to apps - at face value. Instead, ask open-ended questions to start conversations - about race and everything else.
Episode Resources:
Media Literacy for Young Children: Teaching Beyond the Screen Time Debates (NAEYC, 2022)
Faith Rogow’s MEDIA LITERACY EDUCATION blogsite
Content Creator’s Guide to Media Literacy blogpost by Faith Rogow
Webinars featuring Faith Rogow from Early Childhood Investigations Webinars
Video: Critical Media Literacy Conference of the Americas
Discussion Guide: Early Risers Season 6 Episode 7 Discussion Guide
If you thought experiments about race were a thing of the past, Sylvia Perry has news for you. In her social psychology lab at Northwestern University, she’s trying to figure out where racial bias comes from. She is finding that talking about race with children decreases prejudice. She tells Dianne how her career was shaped by her own upbringing as a Black girl in the rural South, and she offers guidance for caregivers on how to lead these conversations, including sharing examples of how she’s helped her own Black son take pride in his heritage.
Episode Resources:
Talking to your kids about race can reduce bias, a Northwestern professor found, a radio story from WBEZ Chicago
Sylvia Perry: Understanding and Encouraging White American Parent-child Conversations about Race, a video from the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding
Disrupting Racism and Bias at Home, at School, and at Work, an article from Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research
Discussion Guide: Early Risers Season 6 Episode 6 Discussion Guide
What was it like to work at Sesame Workshop back in the day? How about Nickelodeon? As a proud Chinese American, Courtney Wong Chin was thrilled to help the companies find ways to talk about race and culture. In this episode, Chin pulls back the curtain on content creation at Noggin and Sesame Workshop. She talks about the challenge of finding language and images that are culturally specific but not confusing, and the importance of noticing and celebrating diverse identities to help build children's' self-esteem. Chin says she learned that kids’ stories work best when they’re specific enough to be authentic but not so complicated they’re overwhelming.
Episode Resources:
Coming Together: Family Reflections on Racism at Sesame Workshop
Discussing Race with Young Children guide from Sparkler Learning, OK Play, and Noggin.
Building Characters, Blending Cultures from EmbraceRace's 2023 Reflections on Racial Learning
Panel discussion on content creation for children at the Children’s Media Career Symposium 2022, hosted by the Center for Media and Information Literacy
Nicol Russell is vice president for implementation research for Teaching Strategies, a professional development company for early childhood educators. She has taught young children, managed a childcare center, and worked in state government, consistently striving to promote self-esteem and a positive cultural identity in both children and educators.
Nicol Russell started hearing about race when she was a little girl. Her parents were from two different backgrounds and made sure she was proud of them both. They gave her language and tools to understand her identity. Now Dr. Russell shows teachers of young children how to communicate to build kids’ cultural identities and self-esteem. Russell says adults should run toward–not away from– topics that may make them nervous.
Episode Resources:
NAEYC profile of Dr. Russell
Video: Talking About Race and Power with Young Kids from Embrace Race
Video: Tiny Talk - The Joy that Binds Us from Embrace Race
Wouldn’t it be great to play games for a living? That’s a big part of John Sessler’s job for PBS Kids. He tells Early Risers host Dianne Haulcy the work is fun, but not simple. PBS Kids content is required to meet learning goals while also expanding what children know about race and culture. PBS Kids starts with diverse teams of content creators and ends with children as active and curious consumers of media.
Guest: John Sessler is Director of Professional Learning for Ready To Learn at PBS Kids. Sessler has spent 20 years designing experiences that develop young learners’ empathy, curiosity, reflection, and critical thinking skills.
Download the Early Risers Season 6 Episode 3 Discussion Guide
Episode Resources:
PBS Kids video on playful learning
PBS Kids: How to Talk to Children About Race
Sesame Workshop: Explaining Race
Media companies like Cartoon Network consult Dr. Kira Banks to help ensure they portray diverse families accurately and respectfully. When Michael Brown was killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, Dr. Banks and her family had just moved to nearby St. Louis. The psychology professor was teaching her two young sons to be proud of their African American heritage. After the crisis, she doubled down on her commitment to change the narrative kids hear about race. She says the work starts with the stories we tell babies and continues with the stories we tell children.
Episode Resources:
Dr. Banks' podcast, Raising Equity
TedX talk on systemic change
Dr. Bank’s website: https://kirabanks.com/
LinkedIn: Dr Kira Banks
Instagram: @DrKiraBanks
FaceBook: @DrKiraBanks
Twitter: @DrKiraBanks
TikTok: @DrKiraBanks
What if you COULD tell a book by its cover? What if the pictures and design were as important as the words? That’s the idea behind Megan Dowd Lambert’s “Whole Book Approach” to reading. As a mother to five children of color and two white children, Dowd Lambert promotes reading “with a race-conscious lens.” As a professional storyteller, she explains why it’s important to read with children, and not just to them.
Episode Resources:
Books inspired by Megan Dowd Lambert’s daughters: Every Day With April and Mae
Video demonstrating Whole Book Approach with preschoolers
Video presentation by Megan Dowd Lambert for Embrace Race
Merge for Equality video interview with Megan Dowd Lambert
Cooperative Children’s Book Center at University of Wisconsin
Download the Discussion Guide:
“Racial identity” refers to a person’s understanding of different racial identities, one’s preferences for a particular racial identity and how identities are ranked in their family, their society and in their own mind. Toni Sturdivant has spent her career developing a library of books and a collection of teaching ideas for the early childhood classroom that will help young children establish a positive racial identity. In this episode, she talks about her work and her particular focus on boosting the confidence and resilience of young children of color.
Guest: Toni Sturdivant is director of Early Learning and Head Start for the Mid-America Regional Council in Kansas City, MO. She is also a parent, coach, professor and author who focuses on young children’s racial identity.
Discussion Guide: Early Risers Season 5 Episode 6 Discussion Guide
Episode Resources:
More from Toni Sturdivant: her books and other interviews
Toni’s personal statement: https://www.naeyc.org/about-us/people/governing-board/elections/toni-sturdivant
Video: Unpacking parenting with Toni Sturdivant
2021 Scholarly research report from UNC: “Ethnic-Racial Identity Formation in the Early Years”
More resources on positive racial identity in BIPOC children
One of the hardest parts of teaching is managing the classroom to promote learning, keep order and inspire students. Many approaches to classroom management are punitive and reproachful. Reddy describes a different approach that–at its core– celebrates students and gives them opportunities to practice their identities.
Guest: Shawn Prakash Reddy was an elementary school teacher in Chicago public schools for nearly ten years. He is now Associate Director of Teacher Development at National Louis University in Chicago and a field coach for teachers in training.
Discussion Guide: Early Risers Season 5 Episode 5 Discussion Guide
Episode Resources:
This study explores how teachers can be taught “racial noticing” to increase awareness in the classroom.
This webinar is from the “Cultural Competent Knowledge Cafe” series that Shawn Reddy is facilitating with the National Louis community.
More from National Louis University on their work to train teachers to be conscious of race, racism and bias.
Structural racism is different than interpersonal racism. It is the set of policies and practices that put BIPOC communities at a disadvantage from the earliest stages of life. So how can we work in our early childhood communities to identify structural racism and make change so that young people - BIPOC and white - are no longer harmed by structural racism? Jen Neitzel shares examples from her work in communities across the United States.
Guest: Jen Neitzel is the executive director of the Educational Equity Institute based in North Carolina. Neitzel works with educational communities across the United States to deconstruct whiteness, dismantle racist policies and identify opportunities to introduce equity into classrooms and other community spaces.
Discussion Guide:
Early Risers Season 5 Episode 4 Discussion Guide
Episode Resources:
More information about the Educational Equity Institute
More from Jen Neitzel on the anti-racism work at the Educational Equity Institute
Theressa Lenear was practicing anti-bias education long before it was widely known as an approach to early learning. As a young Black teacher in Alaska, she tapped into her intuition to guide her practices with young children. She created a classroom-wide deep respect for her students’ cultures. She shares her perspectives on how to support BIPOC children in underserved communities.
Guest: Theressa Lenear is an early childhood education instructor at Goddard College. She has worked with young children and their teachers for nearly 40 years. She is profiled in the book “Stories of Resistance: Learning from Black Women in Early Care and Education.”
Discussion Guide: Early Risers Season 5 Episode 3 Discussion Guide
Episode Resources:
Theressa Lenear’s profile in the book “Stories of Resistance: Learning from Black Women in Early Care and Education”
Theressa Lenear’s personal statement about her insights from her career in early childhood education
Theressa Lenear’s article in Exchange magazine about the conflict between two young students, which she discusses in the episode. (Paywall)
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