As early childhood professional, does your early childhood education and care handle with diverse groups? What approaches do you have to ensure all children needs are met? Diversity+ project aims to provide the tools for creating/designing...
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GOVERNANCE, BENCHMARKING AND TRAINING TOOLS FOR DIVERSITY POSITIVE ECEC PROVISION
This recent article of the World Economic Forum questions the real impact of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs and suggests a new approach, based on humanity’s most precious and universal values:
– Belonging – one’s physical, emotional and psychological safety; the indescribable feeling of being welcome.
– Dignity – the sacred nature of each individual’s personhood.
– Justice – the repairing and restoring of individuals.
The DiversityPlus partnership has recently conducted field research among professionals in early childhood education and care, who also emphasize the importance of these 3 core values. Based on the findings, in the next months, we will develop a #Diversity #Charter which will outline the main principles to transform kindergartens into an environment, where children develop these attitudes from an early age.
"The difficult work of changing beliefs and behaviours in an organization cannot be achieved with a series of trainings or hiring more “diverse” candidates.
If we take a closer look at Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as concepts, we see that the framing implicitly suggests there is a default standard or status quo that “others” can be incorporated: white heteronormative dominant culture. In other words, to be diverse is to be different than the white dominant culture. Pursuing equity is about having access to and being equal to this culture. Finally, to seek inclusion is to desire entrance to a workplace that uses white heteronormative values as the standard. This focus on the status quo, while purporting inclusion, is not only an illusion but an insidious tool for assimilation.
Needless to say, this current DEI approach is woefully insufficient in addressing the individual and institutional challenges in workplaces. To structurally address racism, ableism, sexism, dehumanization and anti-Blackness, we must equip people with the proper tools to dismantle, disrupt and demand more within organizations. To get to this healthy work environment, we need a completely different approach."
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion have failed. How about Belonging, Dignity and Justice instead?
www.weforum.org
Companies are complacently falling back on DEI programmes that have minimal impact on reducing bias in the workplace. For real change, we must give marginal voices equal weight.Are you interested in how to make ECEC more #inclusive?
Join us on 3 March 2021 to hear Commissioner Gabriel present the Toolkit for inclusive ECEC and the Report on How to recruit, train and motivate well-qualified ECEC staff.
Follow the link to access: cutt.ly/QlbgDoR
✨Our amazing colleagues Mihaela and Zorica from ISSA – International Step by Step Association / www.issa.nl were part of the ECEC Working group involved in the development of those documents.
Erasmus+ 🇪🇺 www.diversity-plus.eu
#EEA #ECEC
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