Strategies that promote an accurate and unbiased environment include the following:
- Using pictures of actual children and families rather than drawings.
- Making sure that photographs, displays, and materials depict at a minimum the ethnic groups represented in your class; also be sure that people of all ages are represented.
- Examining and removing any literature that includes stereotyping of any kind.
- Using only materials that are culturally inclusive and gender-neutral (e.g., showing both men and women in different occupations).
- Encouraging children to bring materials from home for the dramatic play area.
- Making sure that dolls in the dramatic play area accurately reflect ethnic features rather than dolls that are identical except for skin pigment.
- If you notice “gendrification” in play areas, where, for example, only girls are playing in the kitchen area, designate “girl only” or “boy only” days in those centers to encourage cross-gender participation.
- Making sure classroom job assignments are gender-neutral.
Activities that can be used in the classroom to contribute to development of social identity include the following:
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As children acquire a concept of their social self, it is important to support gender-neutral play that doesn’t steer children into stereotyped roles.
- Cut out and paint a life-size tracing of each child’s body and display these in small groupings, or as a “class portrait.”
- Mix paint to match the skin color of each child when making portraits, or to do handprints or footprints.
- Have children cut out pictures from magazines to make a book or collage of boys and girls doing similar things.
- Make personal time lines with photographs children bring from home that depict important events in their lives.
- Make class books of things children like or don’t like to eat or do, or things they fear or that make them happy or angry.
- Pair or group children to ensure cross-cultural and balanced gender interactions.