Bye-bye tolerance, hello equity and social justice a critical analysis of factors necessary in creating and equity and social justice early childhood education program

My capstone project involves looking at the need to say goodbye to teaching tolerance, and hello to equity and social justice through a critical analysis of factors necessary in creating an equity and social justice early childhood education program. I begin my paper with my own personal history of how I got involved with this work and then providing a definition for equity, social justice, anti-bias, and tolerance as a framework to be used throughout the paper. In my literature review I look at the definition and practices of teaching tolerance, a critique of teaching tolerance, and the definition and practices of anti-bias education. The next section includes my methodology and gives background information of Community Child Care Center, the school where my research was conducted. This section also describes the surveys given to the parents/caregivers and teaching staff, as well as information of the observations conducted in the classrooms. From there I provide the results collected from my surveys and classroom observations, while also providing my own discussion through a continuum of anti-bias education in early childhood education, which I have created. This continuum includes teaching tolerance, celebrating diversity, and equity and social justice education. Finally, I conclude with recommendations and further questions that developed throughout this process