Affinity-Based Anti-Racism Interventions to Reduce Implicit Bias Among Early Childhood Educators

Background/Purpose: The opportunity gap between White and Black students persists in the frequency and severity of discipline. These gaps are prevalent within education, even with young students as early as pre-K. Specifically, Black students are punished with disproportionate rates of suspensions and expulsions compared to their White peers. The current paper examines the potential effectiveness of affinity-based interventions that seek to increase awareness of racial bias within early childhood educational (ECE) settings. The 25-hour intervention over a 10-week timespan targeted 22 early childhood educators and administrators utilizing a developmentally based curriculum to understand and self-reflect on race and racism within education. This study used a mixed-method approach to understand the results of this pilot study.

Methods: Bivariate analysis (t-tests on pre- and post-test survey results) examined change in the following measures: the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes (CoBRAS) and Psychosocial Costs of Racism Scales (PCR). In addition, differences in participants’ perceptions of students’ behavior will be analyzed using independent t-tests. The Pre-Post Classroom Hypothetical vignette uses the Preschool Expulsion Risk Measure to examine participants' level of awareness of racism, emotional responses to racism, racial identity status, and responses to a hypothetical student's behavior by race before and after the intervention. Additionally, thematic analysis from three focus groups conducted with participants over two weeks, three months after the final intervention group, will be presented.

Results: The measures used in the pilot study suggest that the intervention, which includes group processing, education, and psychoeducation, did help participants move from implicit bias thought (system 1; automatic) processing to deliberate (system 2) thinking. The COBRAS and PCR measures significantly increased racial awareness for the White group. The CoBRAS and vignette significantly increased racial awareness for the BIPOC group. However, to determine if these changes in thought process translate into the classroom, further discipline data and classroom observation is needed before and after the intervention. The goal of the intervention was to reduce racial bias and ultimately result in closing the discipline gap within education.

Conclusions/Implications: Various practices have been employed to reduce implicit racial bias among early childhood educators. However, these practices have yet to reduce racial discipline gaps effectively. There is a need for antiracist interventions within school settings that specifically address implicit racial bias and focus on adults rather than students. Prior research has primarily discussed racial inequities through a race-neutral lens that often centers student behavior as the problem rather than decentering whiteness. This study provides an example of one intervention targeted towards educators and administrators to address educational disparities and reduce implicit bias. Similar disparities are demonstrated across pre-K through 12 grades such that this intervention may be appropriate for educators/administrators at every grade level. The pilot study results are promising: After participating in the intervention, participants demonstrated increased awareness of systematic racism.