Pro-Blackness in Early Childhood Education: Diversifying Curriculum and Pedagogy in K-3 Classrooms

Pro-Blackness in Early Childhood Education celebrates the agency, resistance, everyday lives, and joy of Black people.

Use this inspirational resource to engage in Pro-Black teaching with young children as an antidote to endemic anti-Black racism in schools and society. Drawing from a critical case study of K-3 teachers who used Pro-Black teaching in their daily instruction, this important book puts forth positive perspectives regarding Blackness and Black people that are not evident in most educational settings.

An easy-to-understand text provides evidence-based curriculum examples, pedagogies, and resources; demonstrates how teachers can achieve Pro-Black teaching while also addressing curricular standards and other demands on their time; and explains the benefit of Pro-Black teaching for all children. The authors draw from decades of practice and research by Black scholars (e.g., Asa Hilliard, Janice Hale, Amos Wilson) to position racial identities as a key part of Black children's development. They center African diaspora literacy as a Pro-Black pedagogy to ensure that Black children are competent in their own culture as well as in global cultures.

Book Features:

• Demonstrates how Pro-Blackness can be used to interrupt ethnocide practices that threaten Black children's culture and spirits.
• Provides guidance for implementing and sustaining Pro-Black instruction, with accessible examples of curriculum and instruction.
• Focuses on Pro-Blackness rather than anti-Blackness.
• Includes examples of K-3 lessons from Drs. Diaspora curriculum that have been used in majority Black, majority White, and racially mixed classrooms.

Author: Gloria Swindler Boutte, Jarvais J. Jackson, Saudah N. Collins
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Published: 03/22/2024
Pages: 208
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.97h x 6.13w x 0.42d
ISBN: 9780807769140

About the Author

Gloria Swindler Boutte is associate dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion and Carolina Distinguished Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of South Carolina. She received the 2025 AERA Social Justice in Education Award. Jarvais J. Jackson is an assistant professor of elementary and special education at Georgia Southern University. Saudah N. Collins is an African Studies teacher at Jackson Creek Elementary and adjunct instructor at the University of South Carolina. Janice R. Baines is a clinical instructor of early childhood education at the University of South Carolina. Anthony Broughton is associate dean of the College of Education and associate professor at Alabama State University. George Lee Johnson Jr. is acting department chair of education and professor of special education at South Carolina State University.