"This book provides evidence-based curriculum examples, pedagogies, and resources; demonstrates how teachers can achieve Pro-Black teaching while also addressing curricular standards; and explains the benefit of Pro-Black teaching for all children"--

Designed to spark an interchange of ideas, this book presents early childhood education as a nuanced, shifting, and complex field. Readers will bear witness to several decades of the lived experiences of influential leaders engaged in conversation about seven major topics: systems of early care and education, diversity and children’s rights, developmentally appropriate practice, perspectives on play, curriculum and pedagogy, the care of infants and toddlers, and families and family engagement. Each chapter is accompanied by a “Reflections on the Dialogue” essay from one of the volume editors who include important source material and theoretical and research perspectives. Readers are invited to reflect thoughtfully on each topic to construct their own understanding of where the field has been and why it matters. Contributors reveal how they have been shaped by societal values and events, as well as how they have helped to shape the field as we know it. These reflective dialogues help readers develop greater understanding of the past and its influence on the present, while preparing readers to make decisions throughout their careers about what matters and why it is important to young children and their families. Contributors: W. Steven Barnett, Gloria Swindler Boutte, Sue Bredekamp, Dina C. Castro, Katherine K. Delaney, J. Amos Hatch, Marilou Hyson, Jacqueline Jones, Marjorie Kostelnik, Mary Benson McMullen, Douglas R. Powell, Susan L. Recchia, Mari Riojas-Cortez, Jaipaul L. Roopnarine, Jeffrey Trawick-Smith

Use this inspirational resource to engage in Pro-Black teaching with young children as an antidote to endemic anti-Black racism in schools and society. Drawing from a critical case study of K–3 teachers who use Pro-Black teaching in their daily instruction, this important book puts forth positive perspectives regarding Blackness and Black people that are not evident in most educational settings. An easy-to-understand text provides evidence-based curriculum examples, pedagogies, and resources; demonstrates how teachers can achieve Pro-Black teaching while also addressing curricular standards and other demands on their time; and explains the benefit of Pro-Black teaching for all children. The authors draw from decades of practice and research by Black scholars (e.g., Asa Hilliard, Janice Hale, Amos Wilson) to position racial identities as a key part of Black children’s development. They center African Diaspora literacy as a Pro-Black pedagogy to ensure that Black children are competent in their own culture as well as in global cultures. Pro-Blackness in Early Childhood Education celebrates the agency, resistance, everyday lives, and joy of Black people. Book Features: Demonstrates how Pro-Blackness can be used to interrupt ethnocide practices that threaten Black children’s culture and spirits. Provides guidance for implementing and sustaining Pro-Black instruction, with accessible examples of curriculum and instruction. Focuses on Pro-Blackness rather than anti-Blackness. Includes examples of K–3 lessons from Drs. Diaspora curriculum that have been used in majority Black, majority White, and racially mixed classrooms.

This publication offers a socio-educational perspective on the problems of the black children in South Africa and is designed for student teachers, teachers, parents and social workers.