Supporting Gender Diversity in Early Childhood Classrooms: A Practical Guide

by Julie Nicholson, Julia Hennock, Jonathan Julian, Cyndi Maurer, Nathanael Flynn

Overview

By offering practical steps for adults who work with young children to build inclusive and intentional spaces where all children receive positive messages about their unique gender selves, this book increases awareness about gender diversity in learning environments such as child care centres, family child care homes and preschools.

The book is based on some of the most progressive, modern understandings of gender and intersectionality, as well as research on child development, gender health, trauma informed practices and the science of adult learning. By including the voices and lived experiences of gender-expansive children, transgender adults, early childhood educators and parents and family members of trans and gender-expansive children, it contextualizes what it means to rethink early learning programs with a commitment to gender justice and gender equality for all children.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781785928192
Publisher:	Kingsley, Jessica Publishers
Publication date:	10/21/2019
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Julie Nicholson, Ph.D. serves as Deputy Program Director with WestEd's Center for Child & Family Studies and an adjunct professor in the School of Education at Mills College.

Katie Steele, MBA is a transgender educator who has worked with diverse groups of children and adults in adventure-based and experiential education.

Cyndi Maurer, Ph.D. is a research associate at the Center for Play Research at Mills College and an advocate for children's voices.

Julia Hennock, MA, AMFT is a non-binary artist and therapist. Julia has worked with young children in school- and community-based settings as well as with incarcerated trans women.

Jonathan Julian, MA, AMFT is an artist, activist and therapist who works with children and adolescents using the arts to help find expression and explore the self, as well as advocating for LGBTQ+ young people in school-based and community settings.

Tess Unger, MA has spent a decade as an educator, researcher, and advocate for young children.

Nathanael Flynn, MA, has been teaching young children since 2005. Throughout his teaching, he has supported gender expansive children and their families to thrive in early childhood programs.

Encian Pastel is a transgender teacher at a parent-teacher cooperative preschool in Berkeley, CA. He also helps organize the Bay Area Childcare Collective.

Table of Contents

1. Gender 101. 2. Attuned and Responsive Relationships. 3. Building Self-Awareness to Check Assumptions and Interrupt Biases about Gender. 4. Co-creating Dynamic Gender Justice Curricula and Early Childhood Environments. 5. Gender Justice in Children's Literature. 6. Working with Families and Colleagues to Support Children's Gender Health and Create Gender Justice in Our Programs.

Editorial Reviews

A book like this, in the hands of educators who are already committed to the authentic development of their students, will make a profoundly positive difference in the lives of trans and gender expansive children-but also, for the holistic social development of every student. As someone who had to blaze a trail in the absence of such practical and powerful concepts as gender justice, I hope this text becomes required reading for every teacher so that every child may have supportive guides as they become whole people in the classroom, and go out into the world.

Scott Turner Schofield

As Headstart once taught us the importance of early intervention, so do the authors of Supporting Gender Diversity in Early Childhood Classrooms brilliantly alert us to early childhood educators proactively leading the way toward gender acceptance, gender agency, and gender literacy among our very youngest citizens. With the added gift of words of both early childhood educators and the children themselves, this must-read book guides us through the exercises and partnerships between children, families, and educators guaranteed to build a better world for people of all genders.

Diane Ehrensaft

This book thoughtfully, and lovingly applies anti-bias education principles to the fundamental issue of children's gender identities, leading the reader, step by step, to a new understanding of children as fully human, unlocked from the limitations and expectations of rigid binary gender boxes. They offer practical ideas for how to listen carefully to children as they show us, and sometimes tell us, who they really are. And they give wise counsel to teachers regarding their personal journeys into this new knowledge.

Julie Olsen Edwards: Co-author Anti-bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves (NAEYC 2010)

This book is welcoming and meets you were you are with the ultimate goal to "provide you with support and direction for making your early childhood environment a space where all children feel safe, seen, and respected for who they are."

There is a joyfulness and a practicality to this book that makes it both a thought provoking and also a pleasure to read.

If the very thought of this book makes you uncomfortable read it anyway the authors made space for you in this book to learn and grow.

Ijumaa Jordan

I dream of a world in which each and every young child feels such a profound sense of rightness, of deservedness, of belonging that they cannot help but know this to be the truth. This book gets us so much closer to that vision. Simply put, this book will save lives.

The authors have lovingly crafted a text that introduces the reader to new and important ideas, while also supporting us through the personal transformation that must accompany new learning for it to truly shift our practice into better alignment with our ethical and professional commitments.

Megan Madison

This book thoughtfully, and lovingly applies anti-bias education principles to the fundamental issue of children's gender identities, leading the reader, step by step, to a new understanding of children as fully human, unlocked from the limitations and expectations of rigid binary gender boxes. They offer practical ideas for how to listen carefully to children as they show us, and sometimes tell us, who they really are. And they give wise counsel to teachers regarding their personal journeys into this new knowledge.

Julie Olsen Edwards: Co-author Anti-bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves (NAEYC 2010)