When working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds, my hope is that I can support each child’s optimal development by making anti-bias themes part of everyday lessons. My hope is to continue working on becoming a more equipped anti-bias educator so that I can support the growth of each and every child that are in my class. I also hope to continue to build strong relationships with the families whom I work with and that this will allow families to become more part of our anti-bias program at school. As the more families become part of a program of anti-bias education, the more their children are likely to develop anti-bias identity, knowledge, empathy, and skills (Derman-Sparks and Edwards, 2010, p. 39).
One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field related to diversity, equity, and social justice is to provide teachers in the field of early childhood education with more professional development opportunities that include these topics. As not all educators working in this field have had the opportunity to take an anti-bias education class. Therefore, not all educators are equipped with implementing an anti-bias curriculum. There are a lot of educators that are not able to appropriately and properly implement an anti-bias curriculum as they do not have the tools to do so. I believe that we who have learned how to implement an anti-bias curriculum can make changes, however, I do feel that more change can happen when all educators are informed and equipped in teaching about diversity, equity, and social justice.
Thank you to all for supporting my growth and journey of becoming an anti-bias educator. Through your blogs, comments and discussion posts I was able to learn and grow as an early childhood educator. Wishing you all the best of luck with your next course!
“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize accepts and celebrate those differences.” – Audre Lorde
References
Derman-Sparks and Edwards (2010). Anti-Bias Education for young children and ourselves. Washinton DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Laying a Solid Foundation for the Early Years 
More professional development opportunities for teachers on diversity is very important for this topic. In our line of work, learning is never over, and as we will encounter new forms of diversity and people, cultures and families we are unfamiliar with. I think employers should provide continuing education to their staff, and teachers should actively seek more knowledge on their own as well.
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I think that professional development on diversity is so necessary. In my current place of employment, they offer mandatory equity training. I think that this is so awesome and beneficial to each participants career and life outside of work.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and perspectives. I have truly enjoyed them each week.
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Lindie, I totaly agree with you, we need to support and create more learning opportunities for teachers that do not have knowledge in diversity, bias and ism’s. I have started to introduce teachers into thinking about diversity, bias and ism’s in our work and how that effects, how we see children and the relationships we build with families and children.
Thank you Lindie, for all your feedback, I really appreciate it.
Anna
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Lindie Denny how are you, it was so nice to have taken this course with you. I hope to see you on our next course. Certainly, I also hope to make the anti-bias lesson plan a part of my classroom, and I will hope for it to become a part all childcare curriculum. Children don’t just need to learn their abcs and 123s, they also need to learn to relate to and love one another.
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Hi Lindie,
We know that we as educators are very influential on children at an early age. Being intentional around our planning and assuring that students are able to access diverse material and positive images of them selves and others will allow positive identity of self to develop. I love that you want to ensure that students are receiving exposure to diversity in a positive way!
As always, I loved your post and reading your insights. I wish you nothing but the best!
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Hello Lindie, it is a great pleasure to see that we are still in this together:))
Anna
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