Early Risers

What was it like to work at Sesame Workshop back in the day? How about Nickelodeon? As a proud Chinese American, Courtney Wong Chin was thrilled to help the companies find ways to talk about race and culture. In this episode, Chin pulls back the curtain on content creation at Noggin and Sesame Workshop. She talks about the challenge of finding language and images that are culturally specific but not confusing, and the importance of noticing and celebrating diverse identities to help build children's' self-esteem. Chin says she learned that kids’ stories work best when they’re specific enough to be authentic but not so complicated they’re overwhelming.

Episode Resources:

Coming Together: Family Reflections on Racism at Sesame Workshop

Discussing Race with Young Children guide from Sparkler Learning, OK Play, and Noggin.

Building Characters, Blending Cultures from EmbraceRace's 2023 Reflections on Racial Learning

Panel discussion on content creation for children at the Children’s Media Career Symposium 2022, hosted by the Center for Media and Information Literacy

Early Risers Season 6 Episode 5 Discussion Guide

Nicol Russell is vice president for implementation research for Teaching Strategies, a professional development company for early childhood educators. She has taught young children, managed a childcare center, and worked in state government, consistently striving to promote self-esteem and a positive cultural identity in both children and educators.

Nicol Russell started hearing about race when she was a little girl. Her parents were from two different backgrounds and made sure she was proud of them both. They gave her language and tools to understand her identity. Now Dr. Russell shows teachers of young children how to communicate to build kids’ cultural identities and self-esteem. Russell says adults should run toward–not away from– topics that may make them nervous. 

Episode Resources:

NAEYC profile of Dr. Russell

Video: Talking About Race and Power with Young Kids from Embrace Race

Video: Tiny Talk - The Joy that Binds Us from Embrace Race

Early Risers Season 6 Episode 4 Discussion Guide

Wouldn’t it be great to play games for a living? That’s a big part of John Sessler’s job for PBS Kids. He tells Early Risers host Dianne Haulcy the work is fun, but not simple. PBS Kids content is required to meet learning goals while also expanding what children know about race and culture. PBS Kids starts with diverse teams of content creators and ends with children as active and curious consumers of media.

Guest: John Sessler is Director of Professional Learning for Ready To Learn at PBS Kids. Sessler has spent 20 years designing experiences that develop young learners’ empathy, curiosity, reflection, and critical thinking skills.

Download the Early Risers Season 6 Episode 3 Discussion Guide

Episode Resources:

Lyla in the Loop

PBS Kids video on playful learning

PBS Kids: How to Talk to Children About Race

Sesame Workshop: Explaining Race

Media companies like Cartoon Network consult Dr. Kira Banks to help ensure they portray diverse families accurately and respectfully. When Michael Brown was killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, Dr. Banks and her family had just moved to nearby St. Louis. The psychology professor was teaching her two young sons to be proud of their African American heritage. After the crisis, she doubled down on her commitment to change the narrative kids hear about race. She says the work starts with the stories we tell babies and continues with the stories we tell children.

Episode Resources:

Dr. Banks' podcast, Raising Equity

TedX talk on systemic change

Faculty website

Dr. Bank’s website: https://kirabanks.com/

LinkedIn: Dr Kira Banks

Instagram: @‌DrKiraBanks

FaceBook: @‌DrKiraBanks

Twitter: @‌DrKiraBanks

TikTok: @‌DrKiraBanks

Download the discussion guide

What if you COULD tell a book by its cover? What if the pictures and design were as important as the words? That’s the idea behind Megan Dowd Lambert’s “Whole Book Approach” to reading. As a mother to five children of color and two white children, Dowd Lambert promotes reading “with a race-conscious lens.” As a professional storyteller, she explains why it’s important to read with children, and not just to them.

Episode Resources:

Megan Dowd Lambert’s website

Books inspired by Megan Dowd Lambert’s daughters: Every Day With April and Mae

Video demonstrating Whole Book Approach with preschoolers

Video presentation by Megan Dowd Lambert for Embrace Race

Merge for Equality video interview with Megan Dowd Lambert

Cooperative Children’s Book Center at University of Wisconsin

Diverse Book Finder

Download the Discussion Guide:

Early Risers S6 E1 Discussion Guide

“Racial identity” refers to a person’s understanding of different racial identities, one’s preferences for a particular racial identity and how identities are ranked in their family, their society and in their own mind. Toni Sturdivant has spent her career developing a library of books and a collection of teaching ideas for the early childhood classroom that will help young children establish a positive racial identity. In this episode, she talks about her work and her particular focus on boosting the confidence and resilience of young children of color.

Guest: Toni Sturdivant is director of Early Learning and Head Start for the Mid-America Regional Council in Kansas City, MO. She is also a parent, coach, professor and author who focuses on young children’s racial identity. 

Discussion Guide: Early Risers Season 5 Episode 6 Discussion Guide

Episode Resources:

More from Toni Sturdivant: her books and other interviews

Toni’s personal statement: https://www.naeyc.org/about-us/people/governing-board/elections/toni-sturdivant

Video: Unpacking parenting with Toni Sturdivant

2021 Scholarly research report from UNC: “Ethnic-Racial Identity Formation in the Early Years” 

More resources on positive racial identity in BIPOC children

One of the hardest parts of teaching is managing the classroom to promote learning, keep order and inspire students. Many approaches to classroom management are punitive and reproachful. Reddy describes a different approach that–at its core– celebrates students and gives them opportunities to practice their identities.

Guest: Shawn Prakash Reddy was an elementary school teacher in Chicago public schools for nearly ten years. He is now Associate Director of Teacher Development at National Louis University in Chicago and a field coach for teachers in training.

Discussion Guide: Early Risers Season 5 Episode 5 Discussion Guide

Episode Resources:

This study explores how teachers can be taught “racial noticing” to increase awareness in the classroom.

This webinar is from the “Cultural Competent Knowledge Cafe” series that Shawn Reddy is facilitating with the National Louis community.

More from National Louis University on their work to train teachers to be conscious of race, racism and bias.

Structural racism is different than interpersonal racism. It is the set of policies and practices that put BIPOC communities at a disadvantage from the earliest stages of life. So how can we work in our early childhood communities to identify structural racism and make change so that young people - BIPOC and white - are no longer harmed by structural racism? Jen Neitzel shares examples from her work in communities across the United States.

Guest: Jen Neitzel is the executive director of the Educational Equity Institute based in North Carolina. Neitzel works with educational communities across the United States to deconstruct whiteness, dismantle racist policies and identify opportunities to introduce equity into classrooms and other community spaces.

Discussion Guide: 

Early Risers Season 5 Episode 4 Discussion Guide

Episode Resources:

More information about the Educational Equity Institute

More from Jen Neitzel on the anti-racism work at the Educational Equity Institute

Theressa Lenear was practicing anti-bias education long before it was widely known as an approach to early learning. As a young Black teacher in Alaska, she tapped into her intuition to guide her practices with young children. She created a classroom-wide deep respect for her students’ cultures. She shares her perspectives on how to support BIPOC children in underserved communities.

Guest: Theressa Lenear is an early childhood education instructor at Goddard College. She has worked with young children and their teachers for nearly 40 years. She is profiled in the book “Stories of Resistance: Learning from Black Women in Early Care and Education.”

Discussion Guide: Early Risers Season 5 Episode 3 Discussion Guide

Episode Resources:

Theressa Lenear’s  profile in the  book “Stories of Resistance: Learning from Black Women in Early Care and Education”

Theressa Lenear’s personal statement about her insights from her career in early childhood education

Theressa Lenear’s article in Exchange magazine about the conflict between two young students,  which she discusses  in the episode. (Paywall)

Many programs that offer innovation in education ask teachers to adopt a new curriculum or implement a new procedure in their classroom. But when it comes to anti-bias work, Veronica Reynoso says there is no new curriculum. Instead, you need to be in community with children and disrupt the biases and stereotypes they pick up from the world. She explains how she does this and how the children respond.

Guest: Veronica Reynoso is an early childhood teacher and mentor teacher at Hilltop Children’s Center in Seattle, Washington. She grew up in Chicago in a Mexican American family. She has been featured in articles, podcasts and a film highlighting her anti-bias practices in the classroom. 

Discussion Guide: Early Risers Season 5 Episode 2 Discussion Guide

Episode Resources:

More from Veronica Reynoso on this Embrace Race webinar

More from Veronica Reynoso in this Exchange article (paywall)

Veronica Reynoso and other early childhood teachers are featured in this film “Reflecting on Anti-bias Education in Action: The Early Years”