Sunday, January 25, 2015


Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

Being able to include and welcome all families is an important in the early childhood classroom.  When a child’s family includes same-sex parents, we has early childhood educators should not make either these families rather they are Gay or lesbian families, feel invisible are excluded.

When families who different from the traditional family norm feel included and welcomed into the early childhood classroom, children are introduced to the richness of diversity (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).  Anti-bias curriculum guides encourage educators to discuss and introduce children as early as possible to diversity, including family diversity, as one means of stemming prejudice, yet many educators have reported feeling discomfort in welcoming families headed by gays or lesbians (Souto-Manning & Hermann-Wilmarth, 2008).

 

2 comments:

  1. I think in today's world the "traditional" is taking on a new meaning. Which really has no static definition in many areas of life. I do wonder what this will do to our national context. It should be interesting to see.

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  2. Sandra:
    I was just thinking about when I growing up and learning about other cultures was unheard of. If I didn't learn on my own about my African-American culture through my parents and close relatives I would have grew up thinking and believing nothing good can come from the African-American culture. I'm so glad some have come to the realization the benefits of having an Anti-bias curriculum that teaches diversity even though there are those who still feel a little discomfort in doing so. Implementing diversity early in our classrooms can save a whole lot of hurt and heartache later.

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