Diversity, Racial Equity, and Inclusion (DREI) in Early Childhood Policy

Diversity, racial equity, and inclusion (DREI) resources are a collection of materials that seek to disrupt traditional early childhood policy assumptions by highlighting diverse voices. Rather than categorize by the type of document being produced, the resources in DREI include an array of policy briefs, research reports, and academic papers germane to the topic of DREI in early childhood policy (ECP). If you are interested in learning about diverse perspectives and innovative approaches to racial equity in ECP, we invite you to explore these resources.

Recommended Readings From Our Policy Connect Colleagues:

Butler, A., Teasley, C., & Sánchez-Blanco, C. (2019). A decolonial, intersectional approach to disrupting whiteness, neoliberalism, and patriarchy in Western early childhood education and care. Handbook of theory and research in cultural studies and education, 1-18.

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Butler, Teasley, & Sánchez-Blanco contest the common narrative that early childhood education and care (ECEC) is a socio-politically neutral space, and use frameworks of intersectionality, decolonization, feminism, counter-hegemony, and culturally sustaining pedagogy to explore the ways children are socialized with and to reproduce global socio-political hierarchies. This paper hopes to impart ways to resist such systems of privilege and disprivilege in ECEC spaces.

Capper, C. A. (2015).The 20th-year anniversary of critical race theory in education: Implications for leading to eliminate racism. Educational Administration Quarterly, 51(5), 791-833.

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This paper presents a brief history of the six core tenets of CRT and their applications to education policy and practice. This paper’s purpose is to introduce CRT as a framework to guide educational leaders in the leading of equitable, socially just schools and to help leaders choose among the plethora of conflicting race initiatives and federal and state policies. While not focused on policy, some website users might be program leaders and, in light of the current spotlight on CRT, this might be a helpful resource for immediate reference.

Diem, S., Young, M. D., & Sampson, C. (2019). Where critical policy meets the politics of education: An introduction. Educational Policy, 33(1), 3-15.

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Diem, Young, & Sampson (2019) outline basic elements of critical policy analysis (CPA) as compared to traditional policy analysis (TPA). While TPA is linear and objectively regards traditional research as the rational and deliberate evaluation of policies, CPA differentiates between policy rhetoric and policy realities, regards policies within the contexts of their development and implementation, and emphasizes a social justice orientation. This article is an updated take on the route policy development, analysis, and evaluation should aim to take in the future.

Escayg, K. A. (2020). Anti‐racism in US early childhood education: Foundational principles. Sociology Compass, 14(4).

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This article outlines a potential foundational framework for anti-racism in early childhood education (ECE). Using these proposed ECE anti-racism principles, Escayg explores how the field can begin to transform its current understanding of ECE in the United States, disrupt normalized Euro-centric paradigms of knowledge, and promote more equitable learning opportunities for racially minoritized children.

MacNevin, M., & Berman, R. (2017). The Black baby doll doesn’t fit the disconnect between early childhood diversity policy, early childhood educator practice, and children’s play. Early Child Development and Care, 187(5-6), 827-839.

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Using analyses of policy documents, interviews with early childhood professionals, and observations of children’s play, MacNevin & Berman explore how early childhood policy approaches to multiculturalism have historically focused on physical materials in the classroom; yet, children’s play often still reproduces stereotypes, systems of power, and systems of oppression, regardless of the physical materials they are provided. The paper ends with recommendations for early childhood practitioners and policy makers to reconceptualize how we address race and inclusion.

Souto-Manning, M., & Rabadi-Raol, A. (2018). (Re) Centering quality in early childhood education: Toward intersectional justice for minoritized children. Review of Research in Education, 42(1), 203-225.

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Souto-Manning & Rabadi-Raol suggest that “traditional notions of quality in early childhood education are exclusionary, rooted in White monolingual and monocultural values and experiences, and apply deficit paradigms” to minoritized children who do not fit the Western developmentally appropriate stages (204). To resist this single-story quality paradigm, the authors utilize “counter stories” – i.e., frameworks of intersectionality, critical race theory, culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies, and translanguaging – to reject the “one-size-fits-all” approach and embrace minoritized children’s voices, narratives, and cultures as sources of knowledge.

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