Productive and inclusive? How documentation concealed racialising practices in a diversity project

Abstract

This article examines how documentation concealed racialising practices in a diversity project that was seen to be productive and inclusive. Documentation examples are taken from a doctoral study about embedding Indigenous perspectives in early childhood education curricula in two Australian urban childcare centres. In place of reporting examples of ‘good’ early childhood education practice, the study labelled racialising practices in educators’ work. The primary aim was to understand how racialising practices are mobilised in professional practices, including documentation, even when educators’ work is seen to be high quality. Extracts from two communal journals that captured an action research process around embedding practices are examined to show how racism and whiteness were concealed within the documentation. This enables understanding about how documentation can provide evidence to stakeholders that diversity work in mainstream childcare centres is productive and inclusive, despite disparity between what is recorded and what occurs in practice.

Keywords:

• documentation
• diversity
• racism
• whiteness
• action research
• early childhood

Notes

1. Pseudonyms are used in place of the participants’ real names.

2. Aboriginal people became Australian citizens in 1949 with the creation of an Australian citizenship, separate to the previous title of British Subjects. It is often reported that Indigenous Australians were governed and managed under the same portfolio as Australian wildlife (Flora and Fauna). This statement is not strictly correct, although it does reflect aspects of the way Indigenous Australians have been governed since European Invasion.