Pro-Blackness in Early Childhood Education

Use this inspirational resource to engage in Pro-Black teaching with young children as an antidote to endemic anti-Black racism in schools and society. Drawing from a critical case study of K–3 teachers who use Pro-Black teaching in their daily instruction, this important book puts forth positive perspectives regarding Blackness and Black people that are not evident in most educational settings. An easy-to-understand text provides evidence-based curriculum examples, pedagogies, and resources; demonstrates how teachers can achieve Pro-Black teaching while also addressing curricular standards and other demands on their time; and explains the benefit of Pro-Black teaching for all children. The authors draw from decades of practice and research by Black scholars (e.g., Asa Hilliard, Janice Hale, Amos Wilson) to position racial identities as a key part of Black children’s development. They center African Diaspora literacy as a Pro-Black pedagogy to ensure that Black children are competent in their own culture as well as in global cultures. Pro-Blackness in Early Childhood Education celebrates the agency, resistance, everyday lives, and joy of Black people.

Book Features:

• Demonstrates how Pro-Blackness can be used to interrupt ethnocide practices that threaten Black children’s culture and spirits.
• Provides guidance for implementing and sustaining Pro-Black instruction, with accessible examples of curriculum and instruction.
• Focuses on Pro-Blackness rather than anti-Blackness.
• Includes examples of K–3 lessons from Drs. Diaspora curriculum that have been used in majority Black, majority White, and racially mixed classrooms.

Gloria Swindler Boutte is associate dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion and Carolina Distinguished Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of South Carolina. Jarvais J. Jackson is an assistant professor of elementary and special education at Georgia Southern University. Saudah N. Collins is an African Studies teacher at Jackson Creek Elementary and adjunct instructor at the University of South Carolina. Janice R. Baines is a clinical instructor of early childhood education at the University of South Carolina. George Lee Johnson Jr. is acting department chair of education and professor of special education at South Carolina State University. Anthony Broughton is associate dean of the College of Education and associate professor at Alabama State University.