What parts did you agree with? Disagree with?
Read Chapter 3.For the Book Response assignment, I will be giving you a video clip to watch of a children’s book reading. There is nothing you need to do to prepare aside from keeping up with your reading.
Stages of Racial Awareness and Prejudice
Infants: Self-Awareness
Recognize familiar people and show fear of strangers
Recognize and actively expl ore faces to discern “what is me” and what is not me”
Developing a sense of trust in the world
Experience and show fear and anger
Toddlers: Identify self as an individual
Experience and show shame
Are sensitive and “catch” feelings from adults
Begin to mimic adult behav ior
Ask “What’s that?”
Twos: Identify people wit h the words, me, mine, and you
Need independence and a sense of control
Recognize physical characteristics
Classify people by gender
Learn names of colors
Can tell the difference between black and white
May begin to use social labels
Threes and Fours: Better at noticing differences among people
Can identify and match people according to their physical characteristics
Ask “why” questions
No gender or ethnic constancy ( don’t know that gender and skin color remain constant throughout life)
Susceptible to believing stereotypes
Make false associations and overgeneralize
Mask fear of differences with avoidance, silliness
Fives and Sixes: Understand cultural identity and enjo y exploring cultural heritage
Can identify stereotypes
Explore real and pretend, fair and unfair
Tend toward rigid thinking and behavior
Show aggression through insults and name -calling
Sevens to Nines: Gender and racia l constancy
Understand group membership, form groups to distinguish the mselves from others
Can consider multiple attributes
Aware of racism against own group
Ask “What are you?”
Want/need a wealth of accurate information
Developing personal strength
Nines to Twelves: Interest ed in, and aware of, world events
Interested in ancestry, history, and geography
Can put self in another’s shoes
Aware of cultural/political v alues
Understand racism
Can compare and contrast minority/majority perspective
Can use skills to take social action
Source: York, S. (2006). Roots & wings: Affirming culture in early childhood programs. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Important Note: At age ten, racial
attitudes tend to stay constant unless the
child experiences a life-changing event.
Four Explanations for Children’s Pre -Prejudiced Behavior
Children as Models Children imitate the prejudiced comments and behavior they see
from their parents, other adults, and older children in their lives.
Children as Mirrors Children’s prejudiced behavior and thinking is a reflection of
society’s values, attitudes, and prevailing stereotypes. They mimic
what is seen and heard on TV, read in books, and lived out through
situations.
Children as Victims Children, who themselves have been shamed and humiliated by
adults and older children, transfer their anger and negative feelings
onto others who they see as less powerful and less desirable. This
is especially true of children living in families with rigid rules and
dominating parents who don’t allow the child to express feelings of
anger, hurt, and sadness.
Children as Limited Thinkers Cognitive development follows a predictable sequence from
simplistic thinking to more complex reasoning. Preschoolers can
only understand the world and other people from their own
experience and are likely to confuse facts and focus on irrelevant
details. Young children reach false conclusions about the world
because they build their own beliefs by making incorrect
associations between events and ideas.
