Teachers’ Experiences Implementing Equity-Centered Pedagogies in Early Childhood Classrooms

pi_name

Amaesha Durazi

pi_email

adurazi@g.ucla.edu

pi_phone

+1 (917)-608-8610

pi_department

Education

pi_title

Doctoral Student Researcher

ucla_faculty_sponsor

Dr. Rashmita Mistry

other_key_personnel

Dr. Ananda Marin (course instructor)

abstract

Ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) – the transmission of messages about ethnicity, race, and culture – contributes to children’s understanding of self and society, including concepts such as identity, social stratification, bias, and discrimination. ERS has been deemed important for a host of development outcomes and improves self-esteem, ethnic-racial identity, academic achievement, psychosocial well-being, and also buffers against the negative effects of racial discrimination (Hughes, Rodriguez, Smith, Johnson, Stevenson, & Spicer, 2006; Umaña-Taylor & Hill, 2020).
The ERS literature currently leans towards examining parental ERS in home environments, but there has been a recent push by ecological frameworks to consider contexts outside the home, especially school (Hughes, Watford, & Del Toro, 2016; Saleem & Byrd, 2021). Although parents are often the earliest transmitters of ERS, teachers and peers are also crucial socializing agents (Hazelbaker & Mistry, 2021; Burkholder, Glidden, Yee, Cooley, & Killen, 2021). School may be the first time that some children are exposed to a myriad of different people, making it an important learning environment for intergroup attitudes and behaviors, as well as social skills. This has resulted in a complementary construct: school ERS.
School ERS has mostly been studied with teenagers because the school context is believed to increase in salience as children enter adolescence. However, there is growing evidence that ethnic-racial processes begin early and influence child outcomes (Aboud, Tredoux, Tropp, Spears Brown, Niens, Noor, & Una Global Evaluation Group, 2012; Iruka, Curenton, Sims, Harris, & Ibekwe-Okafor, 2021). Additionally, the Black Lives Matter protests and anti-Asian hate during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the urgency to engage in ERS with young children and resulting research showed that children’s reception and understanding of such concepts was more sophisticated than originally conceptualized.
In addition to the need for school ERS to be explored in younger populations, there is also a need for more research that examines the “intent and/or expression of [ERS] messages” (Saleem & Byrd, 2021, p. 1117) i.e. the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of school ERS. Saleem & Byrd (2021) also call for research on “barriers to having conversations about race” (p. 1117); this includes the lack of training / professional development that allows teachers to feel well-equipped with these topics (Gay & Howard, 2010) as well as the increasing diversity in an education system with a majority of White teachers. There is a vast literature on equity-centered pedagogies that can help to fill in some of these gaps, however, although this literature has been around for a long time, it exists adjacently to but separately from the literature on school ERS, which is a fairly new construct.
To conclude, while there seems to be a steady increase in research examining the most effective ways to broach these difficult and sensitive topics with children, there is limited research on how early childhood teachers navigate this responsibility in their classrooms. My project aims to fill these gaps in the literature by focusing on the early childhood period and teachers’ experiences. Specifically, my project will investigate if and how teachers decide to adopt equity-centered pedagogies, how they put these into practice, the motivations and challenges they face in doing so, and whether these fall under the domain of school ERS. I will also explore the various factors that teachers weigh as they implement equity-centered pedagogies and act as transmitters of school ERS, including but not limited to teacher attitudes, parent attitudes, teacher self-efficacy, school leadership, school climate, socio-political climate, government policies, and student demographics.

project_summary

The researcher would like to recruit 3 early childhood head teachers employed by the UCLA Lab School. Participation will take a total of 2-3 hours over 2 meetings. These meetings will occur between January 2022 and April 2022. Follow-up questions may be asked within this time frame.

• Interview: This interview will last approximately 1 hour and can be conducted in-person or remotely via Zoom. With the teacher's permission, the researcher will videotape or audiotape the conversation. During the interview, the teacher will be asked questions about their thoughts and experiences pertaining to implementing the themes of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in their classroom as an early childhood teacher.

• Classroom Observation: With the teacher's permission, the researcher may conduct an in-person observation of classroom activities on a typical day and may take notes and some pictures of relevant materials. The observations will last approximately 1 hour.

• Teaching Material Discussion: The researcher will ask the teacher to share and discuss a document or any teaching material that they feel is relevant to the topics discussed during the interview. This brief discussion will last approximately 10-15 minutes and can be conducted in-person before or after the classroom observation, or remotely via Zoom.

goals

The purpose of this research project is to help the researcher understand the experiences of early childhood teachers in implementing the themes of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in their classrooms. This research project will also allow the researcher to learn more about the application of equity-centered pedagogical approaches and school ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) processes in early childhood settings. The focus will be on the reasons, motivations, challenges, and concerns that early childhood teachers may face while engaging with topics related to ethnicity, race, and culture, with their students.

benefits_of_research

The teachers will not directly benefit by participating in this research project. They will have the opportunity to share their thoughts and experiences, which may be a reflective, productive, and/or illuminating experience for them. Participation in this research project may inspire the teachers to think deeply about their pedagogy and to have conversations with one another about incorporating the themes of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in their classrooms.

dissemination/publications

The information collected will be shared with the course instructor, course teaching assistant, and other students enrolled in the course. The information will not be used for academic research, publication, or presentation at professional meetings.

Any information that is obtained in connection with this project and that can identify the teachers or the school will remain confidential. It will be disclosed only with their permission or as required by law. Confidentiality will be maintained by saving data in a deidentified format, meaning that all data and documents will be saved under pseudonyms on the researcher’s UCLA Google Drive account. Only the researcher will know who has been given which pseudonym. The course instructor and the course teaching assistant will have access to the deidentified data. Parts of the data may be shared in class with other students, but the teachers and the school will not be identified.

numer_of_subjects

selection_criteria

Early childhood head teachers employed by the UCLA Lab School

methods

instruments

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instruments_other

Teaching document/material

instrument_explanations

• Interview: This interview will last approximately 1 hour and can be conducted in-person or remotely via Zoom. With the teacher's permission, the researcher will videotape or audiotape the conversation. During the interview, the teacher will be asked questions about their thoughts and experiences pertaining to implementing the themes of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in their classroom as an early childhood teacher.

• Classroom Observation: With the teacher's permission, the researcher may conduct an in-person observation of classroom activities on a typical day and may take notes and some pictures of relevant materials. The observations will last approximately 1 hour.

• Teaching Material Discussion: The researcher will ask the teacher to share and discuss a document or any teaching material that they feel is relevant to the topics discussed during the interview. This brief discussion will last approximately 10-15 minutes and can be conducted in-person before or after the classroom observation, or remotely via Zoom.

justification_of_methods

separate_informed_consent

The teachers will sign a consent form prior to participating, which outlines the project's purpose and other important details. They can choose whether or not they want to be in this research project, and they may withdraw their consent and discontinue participation at any time. Whatever decision they make, there will be no penalty to them, and no loss of benefits to which they were otherwise entitled. They may refuse to answer any questions that they do not want to answer and still participate in the research project.

risk_minimization

The teachers will be asked personal questions about experiences in their life, especially ones that relate to their job as an early childhood teacher. This may cause some discomfort. They may at any point say that they do not wish to answer a question or speak about a topic and this will not be held against them in any way. This will be stated at each point of data collection.

The information collected will be shared with the course instructor, course teaching assistant, and other students enrolled in the course. The information will not be used for academic research, publication, or presentation at professional meetings.

Any information that is obtained in connection with this project and that can identify the teachers or the school will remain confidential. It will be disclosed only with their permission or as required by law. Confidentiality will be maintained by saving data in a deidentified format, meaning that all data and documents will be saved under pseudonyms on the researcher’s UCLA Google Drive account. Only the researcher will know who has been given which pseudonym. The course instructor and the course teaching assistant will have access to the deidentified data. Parts of the data may be shared in class with other students, but the teachers and the school will not be identified.

deception_debriefing

The teachers will sign a consent form prior to participating, which outlines the project's purpose and other important details. Teachers will also be briefed at the beginning of the interview.

confidentiality_data_storage

other_notes

relationship_prior_contact

Hasmik has collaborated with my advisor (Dr. Rashmita Mistry) in the past. Rashmita introduced me to Hasmik via email, and she agreed to participate in the research project and ask a couple of other teachers if they would be interested.

teachers_staff_consent

ucla_lab_school_personnel_involved

Hasmik, Kelly, Jane

academic_topic

Equity-centered pedagogies and school ethnic-racial socialization: early childhood teachers' experiences implementing themes of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in their classrooms

information_from_ucla_lab_school_database

None

special_requirements_at_ucla_lab_school

None

estimated_start_date

20230201

estimated_end_date

20230331

irb

irb_approval

attachments

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