We Are the Change We Seek : Advancing Racial Justice in Early Care and Education

“This book lays a clear foundation that you can grasp and start using in your everyday work with Black and Brown children and their families in any setting. It motivated and moved me to my core like no other book has.” ―Dawn A. Yazzie, faculty, Georgetown University

This timely book will help early care and education teachers, leaders, administrators, coaches, and staff deliver on the promise of high-quality education for all children.

The authors provide inspiration, practical tools, and resources through the culturally responsive, anti-bias, anti-racist (CRABAR) framework. This teacher-friendly text shows how to engage in self-inquiry and evaluate current classroom practices while embedding new ones that advance the learning and well-being of children, especially those from minoritized and poor communities. Readers will find tools and assessments to support the implementation of culturally grounded practices that will improve outcomes for diverse children in early childhood settings and systems.

We Are the Change We Seek connects history to current events, supports self-inquiry, encourages a shift in mindset and, most importantly, offers guidance for creating affirming and joyful spaces for young children to learn.

Book Features:

• Presents a problem and asks readers to discuss how they would resolve it.
• "Educators' Corner" encourages teachers to think about how they are a product of the beliefs, values, and social-political history of their cultural group.
• "Now What?" sections help teachers to problem-solve how they might react during difficult situations.

Iheoma U. Iruka is a research professor in public policy and the founding director of the Equity Research Action Coalition at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Tonia R. Durden is a clinical professor and birth through five program coordinator in the Department of Early Childhood and Elementary Education at Georgia State University. Kerry-Ann Escayg is an associate professor of teacher education at the University of Nebraska–Omaha. Stephanie M. Curenton is a professor and director of the Center on the Ecology of Early Development program at Boston University.