9. Moving from an ad hoc to a national strategic approach to addressing racism in the early years in Britain
by Jane Lane
I believe that all children have a right to fairness and justice. By this I mean that they should be entitled, as of right, as their due, to have equality of access, opportunity and treatment in everything that will enable them to maximise their potential and minimise their exclusion in their early childhood and later. Most people will agree with this. It is more than a legal right - many people believe that it is also a moral right. But people in different countries may have differing concepts of the term 'right' and of 'moral' and even of the definition of a 'child'.
The whole concept of 'rights' is philosophically, socially and politically contentious. In Britain the concept is under-developed. Instead the discussion has mainly been around the concept of equality. In practice this concept has suited our purpose as it is measurable - we can, generally, measure equality of access, opportunity and treatment. Whereas the concept of rights is abstract, that of equality is concrete. In other words the issue is policy-orientated aimed, in terms of work with young children, at provision and attitudes.
Of course, not all children are born with equal potential, but this does not impair their right to equality of access, opportunity and treatment - their right to fairness and justice.
To compound this individual inequality many societies, both historically and in the present, are unequal. The histories of slavery (largely worldwide though manifested in differing forms), antisemitism, anti-Traveller/Roma/Gypsy persecution, western European colonialism and imperialism have resulted in many societies being structured on racism.
Similarly, though for different reasons, sexism and homophobia are embedded and endemic in most societies. And disabled people are often marginalised, ignored and sometimes ridiculed.
People are often judged by what work they do, how much money they have, where they live, what they wear, what they look like, the way they speak and on many other grounds. Social class divisions in many societies are alive and well.
To summarise, in most societies some individual children and some groups of children start off their lives disadvantaged and frequently discriminated against. Inequality is endemic and usually institutionalised. This does not mean that everyone is personally prejudiced or discriminates against others, although many are prejudiced and do discriminate. But the institutions themselves, and their practices and procedures, have the effect of disadvantaging and discriminating against groups of people, including children. Such a society is Britain.
My specific concern is with racial equality, the right of young children to be free of racism and what those of us working in the early years field with young children can do to address it. This chapter aims to describe the work done in Britain, focussing on England in particular. I recognise the different backgrounds and experiences from which we all come. This is just one example from one country at one moment in time. I hope it will be seen in this context.
Some real life examples
To put racism in the context of reality I will cite just two examples:
- a white grandmother, whose daughter is married to a Sikh man, very recently collected her 3 year-old granddaughter from her nursery and took her home. When her daddy came to collect her from her grandmother's he put his arms out and said 'Come and give me a hug'. The little girl recoiled and said 'You're not my daddy, you're black'. This demonstrates the power of racist attitudes even over a little girl who loves her Asian daddy.
- a four year old white girl living in the north of Scotland, where very few black people live, was visited by her aunt and a black Nigerian man friend. When she saw the black man she said 'Are you a boxer?' When he said he wasn't she said 'Well, you must have been in prison then'. This demonstrates that she had learnt these attitudes from somewhere but that it was only the reality of the presence of the black man that revealed what she was thinking. If he had not visited, her family might never have known what she had learnt.
Research and police records show that children as young as five may be perpetrators of racist abuse and harassment.1 This was also found in the report of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry (where Stephen Lawrence, a 18 year old black young man was stabbed to death just because he was black, by a group of white young men).2
Racism is profoundly dysfunctional in society.
Establishing a common basis of understanding
In order to establish a common understanding of the work being done in Britain I need to put the issues around racial equality in the early years into a context - to describe the background of this work. To clarify the issues under discussion I need to define what I am talking about and identify and explain the assumptions I make in this context.
1) Definitions:
Terminology. Terminology is constantly changing. Many people are beginning to question the use of the term 'ethnic minority' or 'minority ethnic' because of its connotations of being 'less important'. But there are so many difficulties and conflicts with any suggestions that compromises are inevitable. In this chapter I will use the terms which appear most appropriate to Britain and young children - 'black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups' as referring to people of African Caribbean origin, Asian origin (including south Asian and all other Asian countries and regions) and minority ethnic groups (including Jewish, Greek, Turkish and Irish people, Travellers / Gypsies and refugees and asylum seekers). White people also comprise many groups but while most of them do not experience racism some do - for example, Irish and Jewish people, Travellers / Gypsies and sometimes refugees and asylum seekers (those from minority ethnic groups).
Racism. I am using this term as a 'package' comprising several elements - racial prejudice, racial discrimination, racial stereotyping, racial harassment, ethnocentrism, institutional racism and structural racism.3
Anyone can be racially prejudiced or discriminatory. But in Britain the full force of racism nearly always lies within the power of the majority of white people, usually white men.
2) Assumptions:
- all inequalities/equalities are equally important to the people affected - for each person or group to be discriminated against on any ground is unacceptable. I am focussing on racism here but all oppressions, all inequalities, need to be addressed integrally wherever possible.
- an understanding that racism is embedded/endemic in our society - in multiracial as well as in largely white areas - research reveals the extent of rural racism.4 This means taking account of it in all early years services and settings.5
- research shows that children learn their attitudes, including their racial attitudes, at a very young age.6 The evidence in Britain shows that white children are much more likely to be racially prejudiced than black and Asian children, although some white children may not be racially prejudiced and some black and Asian children may be racially prejudiced. And clearly there may be a whole range of attitudes from violent to mild. People often say that children don't notice colour - but this may be because adults don't talk about skin colour differences. It is a bit of a 'taboo area' like sex and death. And they can usually distinguish between a red and a yellow ball! We cannot assume that children who don't reveal their attitudes are not learning to be racially prejudiced under our very noses. Perhaps we may think young children are not learning to be prejudiced because we don't want this to be true.
- racism affects and damages all children, but in different ways. If we want to address the learning of racist attitudes and behaviour it is therefore important to work with all children in their early years on two accounts:
• to support black, Asian and other children who may experience prejudice and discrimination, to try to engender an ethos of equal value and respect, to take account of their individual and group needs and to ensure they have equal access to the full range of learning opportunities
• to help all children to do two specific things:
i) to promote (or learn) positive attitudes and behaviour to differences between people and
ii) to counter (or unlearn), if possible, any negative attitudes and behaviour that they may have already learnt - from wherever they have learnt them
Because any children (black, Asian, white or other children) may be racially prejudiced against someone, we need to work with all children, even though the reality is that white children are much more likely to be deeply prejudiced and act it out in their behaviour.
- evidence of widespread racial discrimination in British society.7 If we are to break the cycle of children learning racist attitudes and growing up to practise them, as individuals and as part of institutions, we need to take action.
What are the possible effects of racism on black, Asian, other minority ethnic, Irish, Jewish, Traveller/Gypsy and white children?
For most children subjected to racism it is hurtful and may interfere with their ability to learn. It may damage their concept of self identity. It can affect their behaviour, their motivation and their confidence. They need to learn that racism is not their fault and is not the result of anything they have done.
Racism also damages white children. It may lead them to believe that black, Asian and other people who experience racism are somehow less human than they are. It may blunt their sensitivity to others and reinforce false notions of their own superiority. It may reinforce their perceptions of reality by failing to provide them with the full range of information on which they can make their own judgements. It may prevent them from learning concepts of empathy to others - concepts that are fundamental to respecting and valuing one another.
Discussing racism
Racism is often an uncomfortable topic to discuss. If we are to counter it in individuals and in institutions we need to do it sensitively and in a non-threatening way. No-one changes their attitudes or behaviour under threat or being made to feel guilty. We need to adopt a no-blame culture where mutual trust is established and where recognition is given to people's own experiences and possible feelings of disadvantage and disempowerment in society.
The history of addressing racism in the early years in Britain
In the sixties the issue of learning English as an additional language was seen as a priority. Later on there was a perceived need for black and Asian children's cultures to be included and valued. This was called multiculturalism. It was largely seen as being applicable only in multiracial areas. White children's cultures (however they could be described) were seldom included. The failure to recognise or accept that cultures in a racist society are ranked in a racial hierarchy led many black and Asian families to object to what they saw as marginalising their children and not giving them equal access to the full range of learning opportunities.
In the seventies and eighties there was a great improvement in the availability of appropriate resources for young children reflecting the multiracial, multicultural, multilingual and multifaith society. Services and settings often developed equal opportunity policies but mostly just about employment. However two pieces of legislation contributed positively to addressing practical issues - the 1976 Race Relations Act (making racial discrimination in employment and services unlawful) and the 1989 Children Act (requiring registration and inspection procedures for early years provision to address racial equality and talking about the rights of children to 'freedom from discrimination such as racism').
Several critically important organisations were set up in this time. They lobbied for appropriate resources (including books, dolls, posters, jigsaws) and challenged negative ones - and set up groups reflecting the specific needs and interests of black and Asian communities. They set up training courses about racism for tutors and lecturers in childcare/education Their on-going contributions to raising the issue of racism nationally has been crucial.8
In the nineties training for childcare/education in the voluntary sector and in further education courses began to address racism as integral within a formalised programme and some good work was done. In higher education / teacher education courses, for various reasons (largely to do with their national organisational arrangements) there was much less work done. Indeed the curriculum for formal teacher education devised by the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) failed to acknowledge the inequalities embedded in our society at all. Student teachers were thus ill-prepared for teaching in multiracial Britain. The curriculum objectives (under the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority {QCA}) and inspection regulations (under the Office for Standards in Education {OFSTED}) made passing reference to issues of culture but little more.
But overall it was very difficult to address racial equality effectively because of the huge diversity in the organisation of the early years - in inspections, registration, the curriculum, qualifications, training, employment conditions and pay, the cost of a child's place, in the variety of settings themselves and who was responsible for them. This was often referred to as the 'Under Fives Muddle'. And, crucially, there was no national government (or its agencies) commitment either to recognise the endemic racism in society or to support those trying to implement racial equality in the early years. Indeed the 'muddle' itself was often seen as contributing to diversity and maximising choice. This ad hoc approach made it virtually impossible to address racism comprehensively and strategically. Furthermore, in the eighties in particular, there were frequent media 'witch-hunts' against anyone trying to address racism in education.
Recent changes in the organisation of the early years
The Labour government, elected in 1997, began to rationalise this muddled situation. It set up integrated early years services and early years development and childcare partnerships (EYDCPs) in every local authority, each required to produce a Plan of its proposed activities in line with specific Guidance. It established curriculum guidance for the Foundation stage of a child's education and is in the process of setting up model early years 'centres of excellence' throughout the country. It has not yet finalised its arrangements for unifying inspection and regulation of early years settings. So, for the first time, given this new structure and framework, it became possible to address racism comprehensively and strategically. Getting rid of racism is very unlikely to happen by chance or by goodwill alone - there needs to be a plan.
Recent action by government and others to promote racial equality and address racism in the early years
At its election the present government gave a strong commitment to equality of access and opportunity. In putting this into practice it has been gradually building up a programme that requires and encourages everyone in the early years field to address inequality generally. It has focussed on an inclusive society.
Department of Education and Employment (DfEE) Guidance to EYDCPs with regard to writing their Plans for the early years has, over the last three years, required increasingly more detailed action to address equal opportunities to be taken. It has listed specific criteria for this including:
- a policy statement
- an implementation programme covering what is to be done, by whom and within what timescale, the roles and responsibilities of everyone, an analysis of which children face access obstacles to services, how to ensure that everyone has equal access to provision aiming to reflect the profile of the local population
- a monitoring mechanism to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of the policy
- how the EYDCP has consulted with families of all groups
- details of training of staff on equal opportunity issues and implementation of the Plan
The specific groups of children mentioned cover: minority ethnic groups, different genders and ages, refugees, those with disabilities or learning difficulties/special educational needs, those who are 'homeless' or 'in care' and those learning English. In the next Guidance we hope to see Travellers/Gypsies, asylum seekers, those with a religion or belief and those from various social and family structures/ backgrounds also included.
The DfEE in its 1998 Guidance for EYDCPs highlighted the Early Years Trainers Anti Racist Network (EYTARN) publication 'Planning for Excellence', containing a 'Framework for Equality' and sent a copy to every local authority in England.9 It also requires all bids for approval to be early excellence centres to have equality policies in line with this framework.
The TTA, responsible for teacher recruitment and the curriculum in institutions providing teacher education, has recently published guidance/resource materials for institutions on raising the attainment of minority ethnic pupils.10 Unfortunately its suggestions for issues to be addressed are not mandatory.
The new curriculum guidance for the Foundation stage of children's learning is a huge improvement on previous documents and refers to ethnicity, culture, religion, home language, mutual respect, celebrating and acknowledging differences and positive resources.11
The DfEE draft consultative documents on national standards for the regulation of day care by OFSTED have stronger statements on equality of opportunity than previously and provide a potentially useful framework for addressing the issues for those who are committed to address them.12
In February 1999 the report of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry was published with massive attendant publicity. In many senses this was a watershed. Apart from the fact that it demonstrated the existence and force of institutional racism to all, it brought sharply to the fore the facts of the pain of racism for its recipients. The text stressed the importance of ensuring that 'the minds of present and future generations are not allowed to become violent and maliciously prejudiced' and 'the need for education and example at the youngest age'. This report has been of critical importance in raising the issue of racism more than ever before with everyone working in the early years, including policy makers and those training / educating people to work with children.
The Early Years Trainers Anti Racist Network's 'Framework for Equality'
The 'Framework for Equality' cited above has been seminal in suggesting a strategic way of working for EYDCPs and in influencing government. It consists of six non-hierarchical components each with a list of action points covering the roles and responsibilities of partnerships, early years services and settings, anti-discriminatory legislation and policy making. All these reflect the principles identified above -
• to support black, Asian and other children who may experience prejudice and discrimination, to try to engender an ethos of equal value and respect, to take account of their individual and group needs and to ensure they have equal access to the full range of learning opportunities
• to help all children to do two specific things:
i) to promote (or learn) positive attitudes and behaviour to differences between people and
ii) to counter (or unlearn), if possible, any negative attitudes and behaviour that they may have already learnt - from wherever they have learnt them
This framework approach involves everyone in working towards the same objective of equality for all and offers important benefits - establishing links between people, sharing information and identifying responsibilities and roles. But, crucially, it ensures that all aspects of the service are addressed, every decision and activity is assessed for its implications for equality. A key issue is who is appointed to work in the early years. The most important is having a commitment to implement equality in practice - we believe this is measurable in the selection process - from which the skills, understanding and knowledge of how to put the commitment into practice can be developed. Some of the important issues raised in the six components are listed below:
1) Partnerships - have responsibility for ensuring equality is implemented throughout the service and settings by devising a policy statement, implementation programme and monitoring mechanism, consulting with black, Asian and minority ethnic group families, identifying training and support needs and establishing a data base and evaluation process on all aspects of the service and settings.
2) Early years service - responsible for ensuring that the Partnership policy is implemented and evaluated. Collecting and analysing ethnic data and other relevant information demonstrates whether all children, of whatever ethnicity, are getting equality of access, opportunity and treatment in their early years settings. Data should also be used to examine equality in employment, an important aspect for children to see a range of people as being valuable in their lives.
3) Policy for equality in early year settings, including a policy on name-calling/harassment - staff, children, families/carers, community members and governors/managers/committee members are all stakeholders in the setting.13 The process of developing a policy involving them all is critically important in facilitating their 'ownership' of it. Families/carers are very important as they play a particular role in the attitude development of their children.
4) Antidiscriminatory legislation - people need to be familiar with the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act, 1976 Race Relations Act and 1995 Disability Discrimination Act particularly in employment and admissions to settings.14 Other forms of discrimination not covered by legislation need to be identified and addressed, for example, child to child name-calling/harassment.
The last two components cover the settings themselves.
5) Treating everyone with equal concern - ensuring equal value and respect for all children free of stereotypes and assumptions, ensuring equal access and entitlement to the curriculum (both overt and covert - all aspects of the development of learning skills), examining resources, valuing all languages/dialects, skin colours, physical features and implementing both multicultural and antiracist practices and procedures. This is because in a racist society cultures are ranked in a racist hierarchy.
6) Developing specific strategies with children to promote the learning of positive attitudes and behaviour to differences between people and to counter the learning of negative attitudes and behaviour that they may have already learnt - this requires sensitivity, knowledge, skills and understanding, working with families/carers to provide regular discussion about issues of concern, to encourage children to be critically aware of the world around them and to be able to develop concepts of empathy with others so that they can make up their own minds about what is fair and just. Circle time and Persona dolls (dolls and their stories used for exploring attitudes and feelings with children) are examples of this strategic approach.
People have found this framework for equality approach helpful and within their grasp - it is practical, non-threatening and specific. It guides those working with young children as to what they can do in practice. It can be adapted to suit relevant circumstances. It provides a way of measuring whether equality is being put into practice. There is also a publication on inspections based on the same framework approach.15
But, of course, there may be barriers making it difficult to implement the framework as quickly as one might have hoped, including time and resource limitations, family or staff hostility, people only paying lip-service and lack of training and funding. Changing attitudes and behaviour takes time - it is not possible to stop the influences of our history overnight! And many people do not know what they do not know.
Conclusions
The positive improvements at government level have not just happened because of the change of government. I do not believe the same government progress would have been made without the crucial input made by individuals and organisations over more than thirty years. They have played a critical role in raising the issue of racism and its effects on young children generally and in changing the climate about the importance of working with very young children often against hostility and apathy and in an unreceptive environment.
Their on-going activities have raised the level of awareness generally and removed many of the obstacles that were formerly in place (for example, negative resources) and developed some positive procedures and practices (for example, antidiscriminatory job recruitment and some ethnic monitoring, some effective training courses and critical analyses and evaluations of organisational practice). This has impacted on the majority of early years organisations to produce a sea change in commitment - they now largely recognise and accept the importance and significance of considering equality issues in positive ways.
But despite these valued developments there is no substitute for effective national government commitment in practice. By 1997 the scene was set for action and the ground prepared for these national changes and requirements to be put into practice. And opportunities to work with government departments and its agencies began to be possible.
It needs to be said, however, that the task of building up an understanding of the issues, of keeping up the pressure on government, of the frequently changing government officers, of being constantly vigilant, of raising issues at every available opportunity (being everywhere all the time) has not been without its stresses and setbacks. Commenting on a vast range of the never decreasing government consultation documents, drawing attention to the large number of omissions and writing critical analytical documents and reports on topical issues in whatever medium possible takes its toll. It needs dogged determination never to give up. EYTARN (my organisation), for example, has just two part-time members of staff. Working against racism, as anyone in the field will know, demands a strong commitment and a skin like an elephant to survive. It is to the credit of all those in the past and present that any successes have been achieved.
At last EYTARN is being asked for advice and information from government and its agencies. Serious heed is paid to what it says and writes. It is overwhelmed with requests for training, support and for commenting on documents produced by other organisations. The rewards of this long struggle are beginning to be felt.
Finally, the monumental task of ensuring the rights of children and ensuring their equality of access, opportunity and treatment needs to be undertaken by us all, as individuals and as members of institutions.
For all those in other countries trying to get equality issues on the national agenda I wish you well and hope that you, like us, will never give up. The issue of the future of all our children and their right to be free of racism is too important to be left to chance.
Jane Lane is the Coordinator of the Early Years Trainers Anti Racist Network (EYTARN). She was formerly an education officer at the Commission for Racial Equality, a British government sponsored organisation responsible for ensuring the implementation of the 1976 Race Relations Act. She has written and spoken widely on the importance of working with young children to encourage and support them in learning positive attitudes to differences between people and countering any negative attitudes and behaviour that they may have already learnt.
Her latest publication is 'Action for racial equality in the early years: understanding the past, thinking about the present, planning for the future' (1999), available from:
The National Early Years Network,
77 Holloway Road,
London N7 8JZ
Tel: (0207) 607 9573
or from:
EYTARN,
PO Box 28,
Wallasey CH45 9NP
Tel/fax: (0151) 639 6136
E-mail: eytarn(at)lineone.net
References
1. Sibbitt, R (1997) The perpetrators of racial harassment and racial violence Home Office
2. The Stationery Office (1999) The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry: report of an inquiry by Sir William Macpherson of Cluny
3. Most people will understand the terms racial prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping and harassment. Ethnocentrism is viewing something from a particular ethnic perspective irrespective of others. Institutional racism is not usually a result of deliberate, individual action. It occurs when long-established practices and procedures, which may be official or unofficial, combine with thoughtless, (often unconscious) prejudice, stereotyping and cultural assumptions to produce discrimination and less favourable/inferior treatment on grounds of skin colour, ethnicity, culture or nationality (and sometimes on language or religion/belief). While many members of the institution may believe they are not personally prejudiced or that they do not hold stereotyped attitudes, their failure to recognise or challenge forms of racism within the institution means that they are part of the institutional racism. Only those people who recognise and challenge racism can genuinely claim to be exceptions. Structural racism occurs when the society and the economy operate in such a way that certain ethnic groups are disproportionately disadvantaged.
4. For example - Jay, E (1992) Keep them in Birmingham Commission for Racial Equality
5. I use the term 'early years services' to cover all the organisational arrangements for young children and 'early years settings' to include all provision for young children, wherever they are cared for and educated.
6. Milner, D. (1983) Children and race: 10 years on Ward Lock, London.
Sibbitt, R (1997) The perpetrators of racial harassment and racial violence Home Office Research Study 176.
Lane, J. (1999) Action for racial equality in the early years: understanding the past, thinking about the present, planning for the future Notes 6, p.68. National Early Years Network, London.
7. Commission for Racial Equality Factsheets
8. The Black Childcare Network (c/o Hearsay, 17 Brownhill Road, London SE6 2EG. Tel: 0208 697 2152).
The Working Group Against Racism in Children's Resources (460 Wandsworth Road, London SW8 3LK. Tel: 0207 627 4594).
The Early Years Trainers Anti Racist Network (PO Box 28 Wallasey CH45 9NP. Tel/fax: 0151 639 6136).
The REU (formerly Race Equality Network, Unit 27/28 Angel Gate, City Road, London EC1V 2PT. Tel: 0207 278 2331).
The Anti Racist Teacher Education Network (c/o Alison Hatt, Flat 5, 19 Hillbury Road, London SW17 8JT).
The Centre for Young Children's Rights (356 Holloway Road, London N7 6PA. Tel: 0207 700 8127).
9. Early Years Trainers Anti Racist Network (1998) Planning for Excellence: implementing the DfEE Guidance requirement for the equal opportunity strategy in Early Years Development Plans
10. Teacher Training Agency (2000) Raising the Attainment of Minority Ethnic Pupils: guidance and resource materials for providers of initial teacher training
11. Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (2000) Curriculum guidance for the foundation stage
12. Department for Education and Employment (2000) National Standards for the Regulation of Day Care - consultation pack.
13. Early Years Trainers Anti Racist Network (2000) Equality in Action : developing a policy for equality in early years settings - to be published mid-November
14. Commission for Racial Equality (1996) From cradle to school: a practical guide to racial equality in early childhood education and care
15. Early Years Trainers Anti Racist Network (1999) Inspecting for Excellence: a Guidance on inspecting for equality in early years settings