The anti-bias curriculum is an
activist
Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...
approach to educational
curricula
In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...
which attempts to challenge
prejudice
Prejudice can be an affective feeling towards a person based on their perceived group membership. The word is often used to refer to a preconceived (usually unfavourable) evaluation or classification of another person based on that person's per ...
s such as
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
,
sexism
Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers primari ...
,
ableism
Ableism (; also known as ablism, disablism (British English), anapirophobia, anapirism, and disability discrimination) is discrimination and social prejudice against people with Disability, disabilities or who are perceived to be disabled. Ableis ...
,
ageism
Ageism, also spelled agism, is discrimination against individuals or groups on the basis of their age. The term was coined in 1969 by Robert Neil Butler to describe discrimination against seniors, and patterned on sexism and racism. Butler defi ...
,
weightism
Social stigma of obesity is broadly defined as bias or discriminatory behaviors targeted at overweight and obese individuals because of their weight. Such social stigmas can span one's entire life, as long as excess weight is present, starting ...
,
homophobia
Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitude (psychology), attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, h ...
,
classism
Class discrimination, also known as classism, is prejudice or discrimination on the basis of social class. It includes individual attitudes, behaviors, systems of policies and practices that are set up to benefit the upper class at the expense of ...
,
colorism
Discrimination based on skin color, also known as colorism, or shadeism, is a form of prejudice and/or discrimination in which people who share similar ethnicity traits or perceived race are treated differently based on the social implications th ...
,
heightism
Height discrimination (also known as heightism) is prejudice or discrimination against individuals based on height. In principle, it refers to the discriminatory treatment against individuals whose height is not within the normal acceptable range ...
,
handism,
religious discrimination
Religious discrimination is treating a person or group differently because of the particular beliefs which they hold about a religion. This includes instances when adherents of different religions, denominations or non-religions are treated u ...
and other forms of
kyriarchy
In feminist theory, kyriarchy () is a social system or set of connecting social systems built around domination, oppression, and submission. The word was coined by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza in 1992 to describe her theory of interconnected, in ...
. The approach is favoured by
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
organisations such as the
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, is an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States specializing in civil rights law. It was founded in late Septe ...
.
The
anti-racist
Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate ...
curriculum is part of a wider
social constructivist
Social constructivism is a sociological theory of knowledge according to which human development is socially situated and knowledge is constructed through interaction with others.
Like social constructionism, social constructivism states th ...
movement in the various societies of the
Western World
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and state (polity), states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania. , where many scientific worldviews are seen as manifestations of Western cultures who enjoy a privileged position over societies from the "
Global South", along with claiming that there is a
sociocultural
Sociocultural evolution, sociocultural evolutionism or social evolution are theories of sociobiology and cultural evolution that describe how societies and culture change over time. Whereas sociocultural development traces processes that tend t ...
aspect to education, i.e. that the studies of these subjects in Western societies have usually exhibited
racial
A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...
and
cultural bias
Cultural bias is the phenomenon of interpreting and judging phenomena by standards inherent to one's own culture. The phenomenon is sometimes considered a problem central to social and human sciences, such as economics, psychology, anthropology, ...
, and that they focus too much on "
dead white men
The Western canon is the body of high culture literature, music, philosophy, and works of art that are highly valued in the West; works that have achieved the status of classics. However, not all these works originate in the Western world, and ...
", especially in mathematics.
[See '']ethnomathematics In mathematics education, ethnomathematics is the study of the relationship between mathematics and culture. Often associated with "cultures without written expression", it may also be defined as "the mathematics which is practised among identifiabl ...
''.
Purpose
The anti-bias curriculum is seen by its proponents as a catalyst in the critical analysis of various social conditions. It is implemented with the intent of reducing social oppression with the ultimate goal of "
social justice
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...
" in mind.
[What is Anti-Bias Education?]
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, is an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States specializing in civil rights law. It was founded in late Septe ...
Quotation: "Anti-bias education takes an active, problem solving approach that is integrated into all aspects of an existing curriculum and a school's environment."
Examples
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...
, in a speech made during the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
Conference of 1987, referred to "
hard left
In the United Kingdom, the hard left are the left-wing political movements and ideas outside the mainstream centre-left.*
*
Term
The term was first used in the context of debates within both the Labour Party and the broader left in the 1980 ...
education authorities and extremist teachers" teaching "anti-racist mathematics—whatever that may be." and later on in 2005, ''
Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
'' carried a story detailing "The 'anti-racist education' program in place at
Newton Public Schools
Newton Public Schools is a school district in Newton, Massachusetts, United States. The district features four middle schools that lead into two high schools.
Schools
The Newton Public Schools are organized into an elementary school (K–5), m ...
."
The article ''The Politics of Anti-Racist Mathematics'' by
George Gheverghese Joseph
George Gheverghese Joseph, also known as G. G. Joseph is an Indian-born African mathematician who is a specialist in the history of mathematics. His works are mainly focused on the achievements of Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics and th ...
goes through many different assumptions made by teachers of mathematics that can have a negative effect on students of
ethnic minorities
The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...
.
[Joseph, George Gheverghese]
"The politics of anti-racist mathematics."
''European Education
''European Education: A Journal of Issues and Studies'' is a quarterly academic journal covering European education that was established in 1969 and is published by Taylor and Francis. The journal covers education policy, theory, and practice with ...
'' 26.1 (1994): 67-74. An anti-racist approach to
mathematics education
In contemporary education, mathematics education, known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics – is the practice of teaching, learning and carrying out scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical knowledge.
Although rese ...
could include any or all of the following:
* Discussion of the
mathematical knowledge of ancient civilizations outside of Europe, and non-European contributions to mathematical knowledge and discovery;
* The avoidance of racial stereotypes or cultural bias in classroom material,
textbook
A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textboo ...
s, coursework topics and examination questions. For example, a wide range of names from various ethnic backgrounds might be used in
word problem questions.
American mathematics instructor Shahid Muhammed has suggested that poor mathematics performance among
African Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
is linked to higher anxiety caused by negative
stereotyping
In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...
, as he states that many associate mathematics with
middle-class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Comm ...
white people
White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view.
Description of populations as ...
.
Criticism
There has been criticism of aspects of the anti-bias curriculum.
Eastern Washington University professor Deirdre Almeida has stated that most anti-bias curricula omit the contributions of non-
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
n ethnic groups, such as
Native Americans,
Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
and
Alaska Natives
Alaska Natives (also known as Alaskan Natives, Native Alaskans, Indigenous Alaskans, Aboriginal Alaskans or First Alaskans) are the indigenous peoples of Alaska and include Iñupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and a numbe ...
. Almeida has claimed that portrayals of Native Americans in anti-bias material conflate actual aboriginal practices with invented, obsolete or erroneous ideas about Native American culture.
Other critics, such as
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...
professor J. Amos Hatch, have claimed that some anti-bias curricula can be construed as actively or passively adopting an
anti-European/western racial bias, seeking to minimize contributions of ethnic Europeans in favor of other ethnic groups. Hatch has stated that this ideology has produced "anti-bias" curricula that are overtly biased against people of European descent or in favor of people of African descent.
[J. Amos Hatch]
Qualitative Research in Early Childhood Settings
See also
*
The 1619 Project
The 1619 Project is a long-form journalism endeavor developed by Nikole Hannah-Jones, writers from ''The New York Times'', and ''The New York Times Magazine'' which "aims to reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of slavery an ...
*
Approaches to prejudice reduction There is a great deal of research on the factors that lead to the formation of prejudiced attitudes and beliefs. There is also a lot of research on the consequences of holding prejudiced beliefs and being the target of such beliefs. It is true that ...
*
Diversity training
Diversity training is any program designed to facilitate positive intergroup interaction, reduce prejudice and discrimination, and generally teach individuals who are different from others how to work together effectively.
Diversity training is o ...
*
Propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
*
Bias in education
Bias in curricula refers to real or perceived bias in the educational textbooks.
Bias in school textbooks
The content of school textbooks is often the issue of debate, as their target audience is young people, and the term "whitewashing" is the ...
*
Teaching for social justice
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals f ...
*
Afrocentric education
Afrocentric education is a pedagogical system designed to empower peoples of the African diaspora with educational modes in contact and in line with the cultural assumptions common in their communities. A central premise behind it is that many Afr ...
Pioneers in activism and education:
*
Paulo Freire
Paulo Reglus Neves Freire (19 September 1921 – 2 May 1997) was a Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy. His influential work ''Pedagogy of the Oppressed'' is generally considered one of the foundat ...
*
Henry Giroux
Henry Armand Giroux (born 1943) is an American-Canadian scholar and cultural critic. One of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy in the United States, he is best known for his pioneering work in public pedagogy, cultural studies, youth s ...
*
bell hooks
Gloria Jean Watkins (September 25, 1952December 15, 2021), better known by her pen name bell hooks, was an American author and social activist who was Distinguished Professor in Residence at Berea College. She is best known for her writings on ...
(Gloria Jean Watkins)
*
Jonathan Kozol
Jonathan Kozol (born September 5, 1936) is an American writer, progressive activist, and educator, best known for his books on public education in the United States.
Education and experience
Born to Harry Kozol and Ruth (Massell) Kozol, Jon ...
Educating and teaching children:
*
Early Childhood Education
Early childhood education (ECE), also known as nursery education, is a branch of education theory that relates to the teaching of children (formally and informally) from birth up to the age of eight. Traditionally, this is up to the equivale ...
*
Pedagogy
Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...
*
Philosophy of education
The philosophy of education is the branch of applied philosophy that investigates the nature of education as well as its aims and problems. It includes the examination of educational theories, the presuppositions present in them, and the arguments ...
Notes and references
Notes
References
Bibliography
* Anti-Defamation League. (1999). What is Anti-Bias Education?. Retrieved on November 6, 2004
* Biles, B. (1994). Activities that Promote Racial and Cultural Awareness. . Retrieved November 6, 2004, from '' Family Child Care Connections, 4(3) ''
* Derman-Sparks, L. (1989). "Creating an Anti-Bias Environment" Chapter 2, in ''Anti-Bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children''. New York, NY: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
* Derman-Sparks, L. & Hohensee, J.B. (1992)
Implementing an Anti-Bias Curriculum in Early Childhood Classrooms. Retrieved November 6, 2004, from ''ERIC/EECE Digest''
* Riehl, P. (1993)
Five ways to analyze classrooms for an anti-bias approach. Retrieved November 6, 2004, from the ''National Network for Child Care (NNCC)''
Further reading
* Bartlett, Lesley and Marla Frederick, Thaddeus Gulbrandsen, Enrique Murillo. "The Marketization of Education: Public Schools for Private Ends." Anthropology & Education Quarterly 27.2 (1996): 186–203.
* Ferguson, Ann Arnett. "Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity." (2000): 592–600. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
* Osborne, A. Barry. "Practice into Theory into Practice: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy for Students We Have Marginalized and Normalized." Anthropology & Education Quarterly 27.3 (1996): 285–314.
* Van Ausdale, Debra and Joe Feagin. "What and How Children Learn About Racial and Ethnic Matters." The First R: How Children Learn Race and Racism. (2001): 175–196. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anti-Bias Curriculum
Pedagogy
Critical pedagogy