1. Embedded narrative values:
CHILD READINESS: A PATH TO SUSTAINABLY MEANINGFUL CHANGE Horace F. Whittaker, Jr., Ed.D.
Child readiness includes societies’ resources undergirding children’s initial academic success. White supremacy defines and validates inferior characterizations of blacks. Consequently, most black mothers demonstrate leadership in retaining their historical-cultural identity and racially socializing children to live meaningfully despite persistent oppression.
The study led me to design a theory of double consciousness (below) to better grasp the ecological context and contestation of worldviews in which child readiness occurs.
Teachers and schools reproduce deficit ideas of black and brown students and families.
Qualitative
Project
Counter
Narratives
Critical
Race
Theory
Gender
Class
The capacity of
CRT as theory
and method
make it an
immensely
powerful
tool
Tenets of CRT
racism is normal
Interest Convergence
Social construct
Intersectionality
Counter stories
Embedded narrative values:
GROUP
COLLABORATION
PERSONHOOD
Oral Traditions Oppressed
Culture
Homes
Schools
Institutions
Media
Societal Mediators
INDIVIDUALISM
COMPETITION
PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT
Literate Social Oppressors
“When servants are educated at all they are educated to serve, but never to share power. This is the basic dilemma in black education. Black people were not brought to this country to be given education, citizenship or democracy-they were brought here to serve, labor and obey”. John Henrik Clarke,
Research Findings
Participant’s: Readied their child
Believed whites teach racism
Internalized deficit ideologies
Transmitted their indigenous and historical African traditions
Future Study Ideas
Examine the relationship of deficit ideologies, the design of curricula materials and child readiness.
Study the role of professional development in influencing center-based care providers attitudes about families of color and children's identity formation.
Disrupt supremist narratives that reproduce deficit ideologies and undermine child readiness:
Inculcate counter narratives within homes, schools and communities
Use culturally relevant pedagogies to address racialization
Live counter narratively