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Diversity Beyond Tokenism

Miriam Giugni

Diversity has been a significant focus in early childhood education for a number of years. Pioneers such as Louise Derman-Sparks (1989) in the US, and Barb Creaser and Elizabeth Dau in Australia (Creaser and Dau, 1996; Dau, 2001) have worked relentlessly to raise awareness of the importance of considering diversity in early childhood education. Their work argues that issues of diversity, difference, inclusion and equity should not be limited to an ‘add on’ approach in curriculum and pedagogy. Instead they argue that issues of diversity, difference, inclusion and equity can be woven into everyday relationships with children, staff and families.

While it is easy to agree with these arguments, there are still questions about the extent to which we ‘know’ how to engage with issues of diversity, difference, inclusion and equity in our everyday work in ways that stretch beyond tokenism. One of the clues we have to indicate this dilemma is that we need to ‘name’ parts of our curriculum as ‘diversity’ or ‘difference’, ‘inclusion’ or ‘equity’. One example can be found in the national Early Years Learning Framework (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009). On pages 12 and 13 a set of five Principles are outlined. Two of these Principles are:

• High expectations and equity
• Respect for diversity

Arguably, naming these principles gives them a place of importance. Yet, having to name them indicates that as a community there is, perhaps, more work to be done around how to practise equitably and respect diversity in our everyday work in early childhood. For example, who is diverse? Does this include white, middle class, heterosexual, monolingual, urban and carnivore cultures? If, for argument’s sake, these kinds of principles were not named, how might we consider equity and diversity? This is our ongoing dilemma.

…as a community there is, perhaps,
more work to be done around how to practise equitably
and respect diversity in our everyday work in early childhood…

How has diversity been talked about in early childhood education?
If we look at the resources available to guide us in thinking about and practising diversity, difference, inclusion and equity, we have some choices (albeit a limited range).

In some schools of thought about diversity, difference, inclusion and equity in early childhood, visibility of people, artefacts, music, foods, stories, languages is a palatable approach to representation of difference.

Alternatively, there are schools of thought that consider diversity, difference, inclusion and equity as practices of engaging with the tensions that can arise when people, cultural groups, and a range of views of the world are silenced, marginalised and experience discrimination (for example: Brown, 1998; Creaser and Dau, 1996; Dau, 2001; Dau and Jones, 2004; Derman-Sparks, 1989; Derman-Sparks and Olsen Edwards, 2009; Derman-Sparks and Ramsey, 2006; Fleet, 2006; Giugni, 2007; Giugni and Mundine, in press; Gonzalez-Mena, 2008; Mundine and Giugni, 2006; van Keulen, 2004). Diversity, difference, inclusion and equity from this point of view are issues that arise from human rights to practise culture, to be accepted, and to have your view heard and respected. The practices that accompany this kind of thinking are focused on looking at how systems and institutions (such as early childhood education) can be used to promote equity, accept diversity and be inclusive in terms of how people experience curriculum and pedagogy.

In another school of thought, diversity, difference, inclusion and equity can be thought of in terms of what Martin (2005; 2008) calls ‘multiple realities’. By this she refers to all the things you are and do. For example, I identify as an Italo-Celtic heterosexual bilingual urban Australian with a working class background. I am a non-Aboriginal Australian living on Aboriginal land. I am an activist, a vegan, an early childhood educator, an artist, a dancer, a singer, I am an ‘only child’ who grew up in a ‘single parent family’ following my parents’ divorce (which was a positive choice for them and me!), I am a granddaughter, a cousin, a friend; I live with my partner Dominic, seven fish and two cats (their names are The Waf and The Goose!) and so forth. These are some of my ‘multiple realities’ and they shape how I see and experience the world. I am diverse in my own identities. Each of my diversities simultaneously connects and contrasts with other diversities in the world through my ‘relatedness’ (Martin, 2005; 2008) with people, places and things including animals and artefacts. Considering diversity, difference, inclusion and equity from this view prompts me to consider the knowledges that have gone before me that I don’t know or have not experienced but am curious about. Consider how ‘relatedness’ between yours and others ‘multiple realities’ could help you think differently about diversity, difference, inclusion and equity. Think about the ‘effects’ of how we live together in amongst our ‘multiple realities’ especially if/when tensions arise around whose knowledge is valued, silenced, privileged, a source for curriculum and pedagogy and so on.

In yet another school of thought, diversity, difference, inclusion and equity are considered in terms of how power produces them. ‘Power’ in this context is not seen as an oppressive force that someone holds over another, but instead as something productive that can move in ways that are empowering, transformative and socially just (for example: Genishi and Goodwin, 2008; Giugni, 2006; 2010; Giugni, Cave and King, 2005; Grieshaber and Miller, 2008; MacNaughton, 2005; Otterstad, 2008; Rhedding-Jones, 2005; Robinson and Jones Díaz, 2000, 2006; Vandenbroek, 2004). Many of these authors have drawn upon French philosopher Michel Foucault (1994, p 341), who offered this way of thinking about power as an idea for rethinking how we produced and participated in systems and institutions such as educational ones. He described power in the following way:

[Power]…incites, it induces, it seduces, it makes more easier or more difficult; it releases or contrives, makes more probable or less; it constrains or forbids absolutely, but it is always a way of acting upon one or more acting subjects by virtue of their acting or being capable of action.

This indicates that power is not something we possess, but rather something we can access—hence its productivity. Power moves in and through relations between people, places, systems, practices and things (non-human others). If we think about how diversity, difference, inclusion and equity can be produced in and through relations of power, then we have the opportunity to ask new questions and reconsider our existing ‘knowledge’ about cultures. For example, beginning with the idea that power is productive; we can ask questions such as:

• What knowledge might I assume to have about cultures that are not my own? How am I producing understandings of culture with this knowledge?
• What expectations might I have of others that I might not have of myself? (eg, if you are in Australia you should speak English)
• If I am an English speaking monolingual how can I support culturally diverse ‘home languages’?
• What do we choose to ‘tolerate’? How can we challenge ourselves to move beyond tolerance?
• To what extent do we tolerate the intolerances of ourselves and others?

Questions such as these can prompt thinking in new ways. They can offer new inroads to ways of approaching curriculum and pedagogy that consider diversity, difference, inclusion and equity as complex, produced in and through relations of power and always in a process of ‘becoming’ anew (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987).

‘ Becoming’ anew for French philosophers Deleuze and Guattari (1987) indicates that in every moment we have the opportunity to ‘unknow’, ‘re-think’ and ‘re-experience’ our relationships with people, places, systems, practices and things (non-human others). We also have the opportunity to consider how power produces them which means we can search for more equitable and inclusive ways to think about diversity and difference. Becoming in this way of thinking is not the same as an experience of child development or growing up in a linear way. Instead it is about creating new openings for thought that produces our practices.

… in every moment we have the opportunity
to ‘unknow’, ‘re-think’ and ‘re-experience’ our relationships
with people, places, systems, practices and things…

Thinking about diversity, difference, inclusion and equity as ‘becoming anew’ can offer new ways of how we view our relationships with children, staff and families. For example, consider the potential assumptions that are embedded in enrolment forms: consider the kinds of information you are asking for in terms of diversity and difference—keeping in mind that everything is cultural. Another example is how children learn—what are the assumptions we have about how children learn and what knowledge informs us of these processes? Is it possible to ‘unknow’, ‘re-think’ and re-experience what learning is, why we have to be learners, the cultural value placed on particular ways of learning, and the knowledge that informs learning?

When we think about diversity, difference, inclusion and equity in these ways, it is possible to ‘unknow’, ‘re-think’ and ‘re-experience’ what we understand culture to be and the part that it plays in producing early childhood education.

There are many ways to think about how you think about and practise diversity, difference, inclusion and equity. I have dangerously sectioned these ‘schools of thought’ to make a point but, of course, they overlap, intertwine and inform each other. In addition, the range of views I have offered here is limited to my own experiences and knowledges. I encourage you to search for as many ways of thinking about diversity, difference, inclusion and equity, beginning with the people with whom you work and live, in order that new ways can be shared in the early childhood community and our practices can better reflect the diversity and difference of Australia (beginning with its est 60 000 year old history) and the world.

I encourage you to search for as many ways of thinking about diversity, difference, inclusion and equity,
beginning with the people with whom you work and live…

References and recommended reading
These references are just some examples; in the reference lists of these books and articles you can find pathways to more reading and a range of new ideas!

Brown B, 1998, Unlearning Discrimination in the Early Years, Trentham Books, London.

Commonwealth of Australia, 2009, Belonging, Being & Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia, retrieved from http://www.deewr.gov.au/EarlyChildhood/Policy_Agenda/Quality/Pages/EarlyYearsLearningFramework.aspx.

Creaser B and Dau E, 1996, The Anti-Bias Approach in Early Childhood, Harper Education, Sydney.

Dau E (Ed), 2001, The Anti-Bias Approach in Early Childhood (2nd edn), Addison Wesley Longman, Sydney.

Dau E and Jones K, 2004, Revisiting Celebrations with Young Children, Vol 11, Research In Practice Series, Early Childhood Australia.

Deleuze G and Guattari F, 1987, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Athlone Press, London.

Derman-Sparks L, 1989, The Anti-Bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children, National Association for the Education of Young Children, Washington DC.

Derman-Sparks L and Olsen Edwards J, 2009, Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves, National Association for the Education of Young Children, Washington DC.

Derman-Sparks L and Ramsey P, 2006, What If All the Kids are White?: Anti-Bias Multicultural Education with Young Children and Families, Teachers College Press, New York.

Fleet A, 2006, 'Interrogating diversity', in A Fleet, C Patterson and J Robertson (Eds), Insights: Behind Early Childhood Pedagogical Documentation, pp 225–46), Pademelon Press, Castle Hill.

Foucault M, 1994, 'Power', in JD Faubion (Ed), Essential Works of Foucault 1954–1984 Vol 3, Penguin Books, London.

Genishi C and Goodwin AL, 2008, Diversities in Early Childhood Education: Rethinking and Doing, Routledge, New York.

Giugni M, 2006, 'Conceptualising goodies and baddies through narratives of Jesus and Superman', Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 7(2), pp 97–108.

Giugni M, 2007, Exploring Multiculturalism, Anti-bias and Social Justice in Children's Services, http://www.cscentral.org.au/, Children's Services Central.

Giugni M, 2010, Retheorising Equity in Everyday Routines in Early Childhood: A Poststructuralist Action Research Story, Unpublished PhD Dissertation, Centre for Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood, University of Melbourne.

Giugni M, Cave L and King SJ, 2005, 'Chromatics: A whiter shade of pink', International Journal of Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood, 3, pp 31–49.

Giugni M and Mundine K (Eds) (in press), Talkin' Up and Speakin' Out: Aboriginal and Multicultural Voices in Early Childhood, Pademelon Press, Castle Hill.

Gonzalez-Mena J, 2008, Diversity in Early Care and Education: Honoring Differences (5th edn), McGraw-Hill, Boston.

Grieshaber S and Miller M, 2008, 'Being white: What does it mean, and what has it got to do with working with young children?', Every Child, 14(1), pp 13–14.

MacNaughton G, 2005, Doing Foucault in Early Childhood Studies. Applying Poststructuralist Ideas, Routledge, London.

Martin K, 2005, 'Childhood, life and relatedness: Aboriginal ways of being, knowing and doing', in J Phillips and J Lampert (Eds), Introductory Indigenous Studies in Education: The Importance of Knowing, pp 27–40, Pearson Educaiton, Frenchs Forest.

Martin K, 2008, Please Knock Before You Enter: Aboriginal Regulation of Outsiders and the Implications for Researchers,:Post Pressed, Teneriffe, Qld.

Mundine K and Giugni M, 2006, Diversity and Difference: Lighting the Spirit of Identity, Vol 13 3, Early Childhood Australia, ACT.

Otterstad A (Ed), 2008, Profesjonsutøvelse Og Kulturelt Mangfold Fra Utsikt Til Innsikt, Universitetsforl, Oslo.

Rhedding-Jones J, 2005, 'Questioning diversity' in N Yelland (Ed), Critical Issues in Early Childhood Education, pp 113–45, Open University Press, Berkshire.

Robinson K and Jones Díaz C, 2000, Diversity and Difference in Early Childhood: An investigation into centre policies, staff attitudes and practices. A focus on long day care and preschool in the south west and inner west Sydney region, TURNA Ltd, Newcastle.

Robinson K and Jones Díaz C, 2006, Diversity and Difference in Early Childhood Education: Issues for Theory and Practice, Open University Press, Berkshire.

van Keulen A (Ed), 2004, Young Children Aren't Biased Are They? How to handle diversity in early childhood education and school, BV Uitgeverij SWP, Amsterdam.

Vandenbroek M, 2004, 'Diversity aspect of diversity: A European perspective', International Journal of Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood, 2(2), p 27.

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