Are the Kids Alright? A Black Mother’s Microethnography and How It Can Inform Early Childhood Educational Practices

Year 2021, Volume: 4 Issue: 1, 45 - 58, 24.06.2021

Toni Denese Sturdivant

Abstract

This microethnography explores play, power, and discourse as it relates to Black racial
identity development in two preschoolers aged two and four who are the author’s
daughters. Knowing more about the racialized content embedded within children’s play
can help early childhood educators plan diversity related experiences that account for the
specific topics that children are thinking about. However, children may sensor themselves
in classroom settings in a way that they do not in the comfort of their homes. For this
reason, the researcher used her position as a mother to document authentic play
experiences. Using the privilege of an insider positionality, the author used qualitative
data collection methods which included observations, field notes, and audio
transcriptions. Data was collected over the course of eight weeks in the home of the
participants. With an aim to answer the research question: how does my daughters’ play
grapple with issues of race or issues related to race? The researcher used a racialized lens
in examining their play. Data was analyzed in two tiers with the first tier using a lens of
double consciousness, or an internal struggle between being oneself and being accepted
by an oppressive society, and the final using intertextual critical discourse analysis.
Findings revealed that the preschoolers in the study grappled with race in their play.
Specifically, they displayed three types of discourse intertextuality, 1) responding to
dominant discourse, 2) contradicting dominant discourse, and 3) confirming them.
Implications for early childhood practitioners are discussed.

Keywords

race, play, early childhood, early childhood

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