“Who we are choosing to be… we are choosing to be ‘warrior women’” (Johns, 2016, p. 257).

Today we celebrated the launch of the third edition of The Anti-Bias Approach in Early Childhood. We gathered together as educators committed to making our world a better place for children and adults in which to live and learn. We do this mindfully as we are indebted to the legacy of educators who championed these ideas, now over thirty years ago – Louise Derman-Sparks, Elizabeth Dau, Chris Woodrow, and many, many others.

Today we re-ignited a movement to bring the goals of the Anti-Bias curriculum to the forefront of our thinking. To challenge each of us to consider the dimensions of our curriculum decisions as a catalyst for equity and justice, as opportunities to discriminate in favour of children’s rights and their contribution!

Today we found our people. The colleagues who will help us to become the anti-bias champions of the present, who will help us face the difficult moment that challenging bias will inevitably bring. We have met people who have embraced these ideas and embedded them in their practice with amazing results and others who are just about to leap into the complexity of exploring anti-bias in their pedagogy.

And today we found our voice. We will not let the silences of discrimination, prejudice and bias disenfranchise us and render us unable to change our worlds. Our collective voice will shine a light on these dangerous habits and identify another way of being!

References:

Johns, V. (2016). Empowering adults: a personal experience. In R. R. Scarlet (Ed.), The anti-bias approach in early childhood (3rd ed., pp. 257-262). Erskineville: MultiVerse Publishing.