Equality and Diversity: Part 1 - Introduction

The field of equality and diversity is very broad and very complex, making it impossible to cover every nuance of such a tricky, and continually evolving, subject in this series. Instead, the aim of this and subsequent articles is to offer some ideas for reflection, discussion and action that will make a difference to the experiences of the children and families we work with.

Reflective Practice

Issues of equality and diversity can sometimes make people feel very uncomfortable. We need, then, to be clear from the start that good practice in this area is not about blaming people for beliefs they have held, or past events.

Good practice in helping people to make sense of 'equality and diversity' is not about hectoring people to change their opinions, or forcing staff to work in certain ways. As always, best practice comes about through reflection and a willingness to be open to the viewpoints of others.

In Equality in Early Childhood, author Jennie Lindon reinforces the point that 'good practice over equality does not mean blaming people for the past. A positive approach looks to the future. You are not responsible for what happened before you were even born. However, you are responsible for your own attitudes now and your willingness, or resistance, to learn more and reflect on your views.'

Jane Lane, in her recent book Young Children and Racial Justice, makes the point that 'young children are like sponges. They absorb the attitudes and values of the world that surrounds them and usually reveal this in the way they behave'.

We are all the products of our own experiences and, as adults, we are often unaware of our biases - the beliefs and attitudes that we hold and have acquired from our families, our education, and the communities we grew up in.

Without realising it, we can unintentionally perpetuate these beliefs and attitudes in the learning environments that we create for children.

Anti-bias

The Save the Children publication Anti-Bias Approaches in the Early Years draws much of its inspiration from the work of the Anti-Bias Curriculum Group in the United States. This group produced an influential document called Anti-Bias Curriculum: Tools for empowering young children as long ago as 1989.

Bias is any belief, feeling or attitude that results in or is used to justify unfair treatment of an individual because of their identity.

Anti-bias is an active approach to challenging bias and any stereotyping or prejudice that might be related to it. It challenges all the usual 'isms' in society like sexism and racism, not by denying differences but by embracing and celebrating them in a way that allows us to see how prejudice and bias affect us all and their impact on the children and families that we work with.

Anti-bias work has identified several areas where bias can happen. Some can be usefully linked, and in this series we will explore them in the following sections:

- Gender
- Age
- Sexual orientation
- Race and ethnicity
- Language and culture
- Faith and belief
- Ability

Affecting us all?

For all sorts of reasons, equal opportunities and anti-discrimination work has often left people with the impression that it is all about 'others', and that there is a 'norm' from which some of us deviate. But just take a minute to consider the list of headings.

Every one of us has a stake in each of them, as they are all significant aspects of the human experience. Anti-bias practice, then, is not just about the challenges and difficulties faced by other people. It is not about 'others'. It is about all of us.

But there is another fundamental reason why bias affects us all. Bias happens all the time, but we do not all experience - or perceive - bias in the same way. Take, for example, the growing feeling among some white British communities that they too face bias, and that their culture is being disregarded and diminished.

Depending on who you are, and the circumstances you are in, bias can sometimes support your identity or it can attack it. For example, in a situation where you can identify yourself with the majority in a group, your identity is supported in a positive way. This is good, and it can apply to anyone in any situation. But there is a downside to that 'good' feeling, because with it can come a sense of 'internalised superiority'. A child is likely to absorb this feeling of sup- eriority if most messages about the group to which they belong are positive, while those they hear about other groups are negative.

When the messages about 'your' group are consistently negative, it doesn't take long before your identity is affected by a true sense of 'internalised oppression'. It is easy to see how this can have a negative effect on a person's identity and self-esteem.

But a sense of 'internalised superiority' is equally harmful if it means that your identity and self-esteem is based on the 'oppression' and negative bias shown towards people in other groups. What we want for all children are conditions in which they are able to like who they are, without needing to feel superior to anyone else.

Anti-bias goals

This overarching aim is reflected in the 'Four Goals for an Anti-Bias Approach' as outlined by Ellen Wolpert in Start Seeing Diversity. Put simply, the goals are for each child to have:

1. A confident identity as an individual and as a member of multiple cultural groups (for example, gender, race, ethnicity and class).

2. Comfortable empathic interaction with people from diverse backgrounds.

3. The ability to recognise bias and injustice.

4. The ability to stand up, individually and with others, against bias or injustice.

Relevant to us all?

As early years practitioners we are constantly encouraging children to recognise differences, so the assumption that children don't notice differences in people - the way they look, speak, behave - is clearly wrong.

What's important to remember is that it's not a problem that children notice differences. The problem is that in our society, some differences are valued as positive and others as negative, and children absorb and act on these values.

Another assumption often made is that equality and diversity issues are irrelevant in monocultural areas or in settings that aren't inclusive of children with special needs. Jennie Lindon suggests a very useful exercise for challenging this assumption: Take a local map and draw a circle 20 miles around your setting. Imagine you have to remove anything that children could neither see nor hear within your circle.

- Is the sea within the circle? If not, then no more books, puzzles, pictures about the seaside, or boats or lighthouses.

- Is there a zoo or a farm within the circle? No? Then no more elephants, giraffes, cows or pigs.

- Is there a castle in your circle? No? Then out go castles, forts, palaces, princesses, kings and queens.

Ridiculous? Yes, of course. We do not restrict children's learning to play and ideas that can only be experienced personally and locally. We extend their understanding with experiences beyond their daily life. Social and cultural diversity is an essential part of this.

Political Correctness

While notions about relevance can stifle meaningful debate on equality and diversity, so too can language use. 'It's political correctness gone mad' is a phrase we still hear a lot. Yet, it's easy to forget that not so long ago, for example, any book on child development would have referred only to 'he' and 'him' - as though girls didn't exist! And do you remember the days when our towns, buildings and transport systems were designed only for able-bodied people, and those without prams? We're also quick to forget how rarely these assumptions were challenged before the 1980s and how much so-called 'political correctness' has since improved many aspects of all our lives.

Unfortunately, though, the term is now used mostly as a way to discredit initiatives that challenge inequality, or it comes up on issues relating to language use.

Words do matter, because that is how we transmit our collective culture. Words that are derogatory and loaded with prejudice degrade both the people they are meant to describe, and those who use them.

Choosing our words carefully and using phrases accurately is more than just 'political correctness'. It is more about basic courtesy and tact, more a statement about the kind of society that we want to live in and how we expect to be treated ourselves.

'It's political correctness gone mad' has become a lazy way the media misrepresent issues about bias and inequality. As responsible practitioners, we owe it to ourselves, as well as the children and families we work with, not to use it as an excuse to avoid discussion and reflection about any area of bias.

Our own prejudice and bias

It is important to remember that the aim of this series and any work on anti-bias is not to generate discomfort, conflict, negativity or anxiety, though it is inevitable that we will all feel those things along the way. Feeling such emotions is part of the process and is something shared by all involved in this work.

At the Beit Hashoah Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, visitors are invited to pass through one of two exits, the first marked 'Prejudiced', the second 'Unprejudiced'. The second exit is locked as a reminder that each of us is capable of thinking or acting in a prejudiced way and that most of us will, at some point or another. What matters is that we are be able to recognise prejudice, to appreciate the impact of our words, actions and attitudes, and to be open to changing them.

We can't expect to find easy or 'right' answers to most of our questions about bias and must be aware that this is one of those areas where a little knowledge, if applied too generally, can be as dangerous as none at all. Even if, for example, we know a lot about specific religions, or medical conditions, we can't just assume that all children with spina bifida have the same needs, nor that all Muslim families have identical cultural traditions.

The EYFS guidance challenges us to keep 'A Unique Child' at the centre of our work. Anti-bias is an essential part of this process, because it is not about treating everyone the same. We have to recognise that society is not a 'level playing field' and that children as citizens are faced with many inequalities. So, treating all children 'the same' does little to help us treat them equally. 'It's only fair when we've all got what we need' is a simple phrase that packs a powerful punch and is worth remembering when anti-bias approaches are being challenged (see box).

We need to be open to diversity, to welcome and work with it, if we are to help children grow up with a strong self-identity, the knowledge to recognise bias, the resilience to withstand it and the confidence to speak out against it. It starts with us.

- Anne O'Connor, Independent early years consultant currently developing equality and diversity training materials with Lancashire Sure Start Early Years and Childcare Service.

MORE INFORMATION

- Derman-Sparks, Louise, and the ABC Task Force (1989) Anti-Bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children. National Association for the Education of Young Children, No242

- Lane, Jane (2008) Young Children and Racial Justice: Taking action for racial equality in the early years - understanding the past, thinking about the present, planning for the future. National Children's Bureau

- Lindon, Jennie (2006) Equality in Early Childhood: Linking theory and practice. Hodder Arnold

- Hyder, Tina, Jarrett, Michael and Sutton, Faye (2000) Anti-Bias Approaches in the Early Years. Save the Children

- Wolpert, Ellen (2005) Start Seeing Diversity: The basic guide to an anti-bias classroom. Redleaf Press

- Early Years Equality (EYE) www.earlyyearsequality.org

Part 2 on Gender is published on 22 October

EQUALITY BILL

The Government's proposed Equality Bill plans to streamline current legislation, in a bid to bring disability, sex, race and other grounds of discrimination within one piece of legislation.

This legislation is considered necessary because the discrimination laws that have developed over more than 40 years have become complex and hard to understand and work with.

There are currently nine major pieces of discrimination legislation, around 100 statutory instruments setting out rules and regulations, and more than 2,500 pages of guidance and statutory codes of practice.

The Bill, if passed, will replace these with a single Act, which is expected to form the basis of straightforward practical guidance for employers, service providers and public bodies.

See www.equalities.gov.uk/pdf/NEWGEO_FairerFuture_may09_acc.pdf

ANTI-BIAS PRACTICE

To move towards successful anti-bias practice, early years workers need to:

- look at our personal prejudices and how they operate;

- commit to a process of 'unlearning' those prejudices;

- develop the confidence, skills, knowledge and awareness to challenge bias and discrimination;

- involve everyone in an active process of change, through having regular discussions and debates;

- evaluate, monitor and make adjustments constantly to our practice and procedures;

- build a range of strategies to ensure our settings are welcoming, non-threatening, stimulating and inclusive places to be, where all our children and their families know they are valued, not in spite of our differences, but because of them.