Reflecting on Anti-bias Education in Action: The Early Years is a short film (48 minutes) that features vignettes of anti-bias strategies in early childhood classrooms interspersed with teachers reflecting on their practice. The film offers a useful professional development tool for anti-bias education.
The film highlights the voices of teachers committed to equity on a daily basis, by taking viewers directly into their classrooms to demonstrate the importance of teacher reflection on identity, context, and practice. Click here to learn more about the film; or, click here to view a trailer.
Anti-bias education places diversity and equity goals at the heart of everything we do as we work with young children. This begins by affirming each child and family’s social identities and cultural ways of being. Building on the strengths and knowledge that children bring to the school community, anti-bias teachers seek active family engagement, observe carefully, think critically, reflect deeply, and commit themselves to social justice.
Very young children are observing, experiencing, and actively making sense of social identities and biases. They have a deep and empathetic sense of fairness. More than a set of curriculum activities and teaching strategies, this approach offers tools to actively resist bias and systemic oppression in our society; it is a commitment to social justice.
This film is organized around the 4 interrelated goals of anti-bias education:
Identity: Demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social identities.
Diversity: Express comfort and joy with human diversity; accurate language for human differences; and deep, caring human connections.
Justice: Recognize unfairness, have language to describe unfairness, and understand that unfairness hurts.
Action: Demonstrate empowerment and the skills to act, with others or alone, against prejudice and/or discrimination.
Although there is no “one way” to implement anti-bias education, the four anti-bias goals can serve as a guide to understanding and thinking critically about the issues within the context of your community.
The film can be streamed at no charge for professional development and educational purposes here. Closed captions in English, Spanish, and Chinese (simplified characters) are available and can be turned on by clicking on the CC button to the bottom right of the screen.
A Guidebook (available in Spanish and English) provides additional background and resources and poses provocations and questions for reflection about each vignette in the film.
