Interrogating the “gold standard”: Play-based early childhood education and perpetuating white supremacy

ABSTRACT

This article examines the role of play-based early childhood programs in perpetuating or interrupting messages of white supremacy which murder the spirits of Black children while reinforcing a sense of entitlement in white children. We ask educators to consider what children’s play might look like if pro-Black teaching and anti-racist teaching that develops children’s critical consciousness around race were explicit, foundational, and daily in ECE classrooms - in contrast to the norm that is Eurocentric and uncritical. We do this recognizing that early childhood settings can be spaces where learned anti-Blackness can be either interrupted or, in our silence, allowed to grow, influencing children’s play as well as the dispositions they take into adulthood. In contrast to free-play as a universalized “gold-standard”? in ECE, we propose playwork as a means for educators to engage with children during play--and within the context of an activist and critical curriculum--to support children’s growing abilities to understand and respond to justice and injustice in a racialized world.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional Resources

1. Boutte, G.S., King, J.E., Johnson, G.L, & King, L.J. (2021). We be lovin’ Black children. Myers Education Press.

This book is an easily accessible and pedagogically-rich volume focused on what pro-Blackness can look like as anchored in a relearning of African Diasporic histories and correcting omissions, distortions, and marginalization regarding Black agency and accomplishment. It provides an engaging and provocative stimulus for teachers and educational administrators to understand the need for activating pro-Blackness not only in schooling but in other education-based institutions throughout the wider society. Reading this text, educators can build much-needed knowledge about the historical and contemporary legacies of Black agency across the Diaspora and what that knowledge means for institutional transformation.

2. Bryan, N. (in press). Toward a BlackBoyCrit pedagogy: Black boys, male teachers, and literacy practices in early childhood classrooms. National Council of Teachers of English/Routledge.

With insights for every teacher, Toward a BlackBoyCrit Pedagogy offers an in-depth look at the pedagogical, schooling, and literacy practices of Black male teachers as seen through the eyes of Black boys in early childhood classrooms. It helps educators understand the foundations of and need for BlackPlayCrit theory and introduces BlackBoyCrit Pedagogy with a particular emphasis on literacies and play. Capturing the brilliance of Black boys and putting the ways they engage in literacy practices on full display, it encourages a new way forward for the teaching of critical literacies for all children.

3. Muhammad, G. (2020). Cultivating genius: An equity framework for culturally and historically responsive literacy. Scholastic.

This book provides a four-layered Historically Responsive Literacy Framework that includes identity development, skill development, intellectual development, and criticality. It will help educators create culturally sustaining pedagogies for students, and, most especially, help cultivate the genius of Black students and students of color who have been subjugated in mainstream schooling. Educators will gain insights from the rich history of African American literary societies to support critical and liberating education in schools today.