Overcoming Bias in ECSE by Incorporating Funds of Knowledge in Teacher Preparation

Abstract

Child developmental milestones are deeply rooted in Western developmental theory and, therefore, cannot be assumed to generalize to culturally and racially minoritized (CRM) children and families, including those who are from international backgrounds. When developmental milestones are exclusively used to assess children’s development and make decisions about child goals, Early Childhood Education (ECE) and Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) practitioners may perpetuate unconscious bias by favoring Western expectations of child development. This can have negative consequences for children and families who are CRM. For example, children can be misdiagnosed with delays and continuing disproportionality in ECSE. To address this problem, we propose strategies to prepare ECE/ECSE preservice teachers to counter biases towards children from CRM backgrounds. In this conceptual paper with an emphasis on practical strategies, we provide an overarching framework of Funds of Knowledge [FoK; Esteban-Guitart and Moll, Cult Psychol 20(1):31–48, 2014] that can be incorporated into a preservice teacher preparation program. Next, we propose the following practical strategies aligned with FoK, which can be included in preservice teacher education: (1) assigning mentor families from CRM backgrounds to support preservice teachers learning about developing meaningful partnerships with families and (2) embedding opportunities for social identity mapping (Jacobson and Mustafa, Int J Qual Methods 18:1–12, 2019), a practice that prompts preservice teachers to reflect on their assumptions and biases.