Anti-racist Education

What is it?

Racially inclusive education in the early years means creating a learning environment where all children feel seen, valued, and respected, regardless of their racial or cultural background. It involves choosing books, resources, and activities that reflect a wide range of races and cultures, challenging stereotypes, and celebrating diversity as part of everyday learning—not just on special occasions. Practitioners model inclusive attitudes, promote fairness, and support every child’s sense of identity and belonging, helping to lay the foundation for a positive view of themselves and others in a diverse world.

The majority of the information on this page came from antiracisted.scot

“When diversity is lacking in the curriculum, perspectives are missing and learners might prefer to mask their diversity to “fit” in, internalising stereotypes about themselves that limit their potential and absorbing biases and prejudiced ideas about others. This can contribute to bullying behaviour and discrimination.” Education Scotland

Key Messages:

The Anti-Racist Curriculum Principles were created to support the Scottish Government’s Anti-Racism in Education Programme. Two sets of Principles were created: one for children and young people and one for educators and leaders.

The nine Principles are not intended to be explored in order. Whilst Principle 1 is a useful starting place for exploring anti-racist education within your setting, it may be that the Principle most relevant to your context is identified and explored first in your setting.

Explore the nine principles with your team of practitioners. Here you will find information and resources for each of the principles, to help you reflect on your current practice.

Mirrors and Windows

“Mirrors and Windows” describes the importance of children seeing themselves reflected in the curriculum. “Mirrors” ensure that children can see themselves reflected in their learning, for example in posters, books, stories, toys, media, role models, historical figures and the diversity of staff in the setting. “Windows” to give children a glimpse into the lives and experiences of others, to build empathy and understanding.

Be aware that some Mirrors and Windows in the curriculum can contain outdated representations and negative stereotypes. This could have a negative impact on learners’ perceptions of themselves or others, these can be described as ‘distorted Mirrors and Windows.’ To avoid this, it is best to include more, and a wider variety of, mirrors and windows. This can reduce the risk of tokenism, othering and stereotyping.

Ways we can do this:

Talking about race and racism is not easy. As well as supporting children to learn about and stand up to racism, developing our practice in this area is also very personal. The 5 principles shown here show how we can look after ourselves, whilst learning, reflecting and moving forward with our anti-racist practice.

Acknowledge Emotions

Conversations about race can be emotional, and how people feel will vary from person to person. What’s mildly uncomfortable for one person could feel very distressing for another. For Black people and People of Colour, this distress is known as racial trauma.

It’s important that we pay attention to our own and others’ emotions. When we connect with our emotions and approach anti-racism with our heart, not just our brains, we will be better equipped and motivated for anti-racist action.

Embrace Productive Discomfort

The conversations we have will inevitably feel uncomfortable at times. Don’t feel put off by this, particularly if you’re from a white majority ethnic background. Learning is more effective when we step outside our comfort zone. Reflecting on why you’re feeling uncomfortable helps with self-awareness and shows your racial literacy is starting to grow.

Commit to Self-Care

When we begin to experience unhealthy amounts of discomfort, it’s important to step back. Discomfort is no longer productive when it becomes distress.

However, if at any point the content of the day becomes too overwhelming.

Build Relationships

Leading and developing anti-racist education can feel quite isolating and challenging on our own. In this work, we are all learners; learning from, with and on behalf of each other.

Racism took centuries to build and it won’t be dismantled overnight. We will be much more effective in our anti-racist efforts if we support each other and share as much as possible. We can all support each other by being kind, patient and understanding.

Capacity for Growth

We collectively need to adopt a growth mindset, understanding that racial dialogue and anti-racism are complex skills that can be learned over time. As in every learning process, we need to be brave enough to practise and make mistakes before we can see progress. This can require a good deal of vulnerability, humility and kindness towards ourselves as we commit to improving over time.

Language

It is important to remember that some language can be acceptable to some but not everyone. Terminology changes frequently, and it’s important to ask learners themselves, and their families, what feels acceptable. We need to acknowledge that for some, certain language may be triggering even though it might feel acceptable to others. We also need to acknowledge that we may unintentionally get language wrong, and that it is important that we apologise and move on with a commitment to use the preferred language we have now learned from others.