6 ways to involve parents in your anti-bias teaching

In a political climate that is often hostile to inclusive educational practices, educators who use anti-bias teaching strategies often worry about how parents will react. It might be tempting to avoid talking about how you address these topics in your classroom in order to avoid controversy.

For anti-bias education to have its greatest impact, there needs to be a partnership between the classroom and the home. That’s especially true for the early childhood and elementary years.

Keeping families informed and finding ways to involve them in anti-bias teaching can prevent misunderstandings that lead to parent pushback. That’s why I devote an entire module in my Nurturing Antiracist White Kids course to this topic, plus ideas for antiracist classroom activities.

In this post, I share six ideas you can use to build trust with families as you engage in anti-bias teaching.

I want to offer the disclaimer that I’m not talking about situations where organized groups of parents have already contacted administrators or the school board about banning books or particular curriculum. That’s a much more serious situation that can’t be addressed by one educator alone. (I do offer some resources at the end of the post that may be helpful if you are facing this.)

1. Set expectations with families by sharing your DEI principles

At the beginning of the school year, or before you’re about to dive into a particular anti-bias unit, let families know what principles ground your anti-bias teaching. If your childcare center or school has a mission statement that includes equity principles, or it has a Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) staement, certainly include that.

Even if your center or school doesn’t have a DEI statement, you can share what ideas guide you. Not sure where to start? Take a look at the 4 goals of anti-bias education established by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

The idea that anti-bias education is about all children feeling confident in their own identities, as well as experiencing comfort and joy in human diversity can be reassuring to families. White parents in particular may worry that anti-bias education will try to make white children feel guilty for being white, which is not the case.

2. Use all the opportunities you have to learn about your students’ families

In her must-read book for elementary and middle school educators, anti-bias educator Liz Kleinrock shares an example of the family survey that she sends out at the start of each school year. Some of the questions are ones you might expect, such as asking what a child’s interests are.

Kleinrock says that “the purpose is to gain insight into my students’ lives outside of school, but the most useful question to me is ‘What are your memories of learning as a child?’” Some adults share positive experiences about their favorite teachers, while others share traumatic moments they endured. This information has been invaluable to Kleinrock in understanding how parents may view her as a teacher as the year starts.

If you work with younger children, you may be more likely to have daily contact with families at pick up time. In their excellent anti-bias teaching guide for early childhood educators, Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards point out how valuable this time is for building relationships. Chatting informally about what a child is learning and their strengths goes a long way toward creating trust that can make anti-bias education more comfortable for families.

3. Offer a variety of opportunities for family involvement

Let families know that you’d welcome having parents, grandparents, and other family members come to be mystery readers, speakers, and/or to lead an activity related to their culture. This allows families to not only get a feel for what takes place in your classroom; it also offers the opportunity to enrich your students’ anti-bias learning.

Some of the best anti-bias teaching activities to start with involve students reflecting on their own identities. This offers opportunities for family involvement even from adults who can’t make it to the classroom during the workday. Families can be asked to help their child identify photographs or momentos for a family shelf that holds a special place in your classroom.

4. Give families a heads up about anti-bias teaching topics you’ll be covering

As Liz Kleinrock points out, keeping families informed is not the same as asking them permission to address a topic. As you let them know about an upcoming topic, you can share things such as:

how this topic fits with state curriculum standards you’re expected to cover
ways you’re going to address common misconceptions your learners may have
how you will keep the learning age-appropriate
the questions your learners will be exploring.

Parents sometimes incorrectly assume that anti-bias teaching is about educators telling their children what to think or believe. Letting families know the questions you’ll be encouraging students to ask and explore, while they remain free to reach their own conclusions, may ease their worries about this.

5. Offer a weekly wrap-up for families

Caregivers round the world know the frustration of asking a child “how was school today?” or “what did you do?” In my experience, “I don’t know” or “I don’t wanna talk about school,” are the most common answers.

A weekly wrap up email can fill in some of these gaps, as well as give families a chance to experience some of your anti-bias teaching in action.

Your weekly wrap-up can include anonymous examples of student responses to an activity or pictures of their work.

6. Listen to parent concerns about anti-bias teaching and try to learn their root causes

In can be so frustrating when family members express their disapproval of anti-bias education activities. Some educators will be prone to a “this is how it is in my classroom” strategy, while others may feel its best to simply pull the activity that’s being objected to.

A better approach is to ask for a face-to-face meeting to genuinely hear a caregiver’s concerns. Inviting them to share more may reveal negative childhood experiences they’re wanting to shield a child from. For example, Derman-Sparks and Olsen-Edwards offer the example of a father who didn’t want his son playing with dolls. It turned out that this was because his own father was harsh with him when he was bullied at school. He worried his child would face bullying if he was seen as “too soft.”

Of couse, not all discussions are going to lead to a solution that will make both a caregiver and educator happy. Avoiding these discussions, however, will surely lead to more issues down the road.

What about organized parent pushback to anti-bias teaching such as book bans?

This is a very hard time to be an antiracist, inclusive educator, with more states passing laws that restrict curriculum. Books are being challenged at local school boards and pulled from school libraries.

There are no easy solutions to this. An organized response by anti-bias educators, families, and community supporters is needed to meet this organized attack.

The ACLU is beginning to file legal challenges to some of these so called bans on teaching critical race theory. It will take time for these to start making their ways through the courts.

For educators who belong to a teachers’ union, working with your union is one of the best ways to protect yourself as you engage in anti-bias teaching.

For educators (and families!) who want to speak out about the attacks on anti-bias teaching, consider joining or organizing an event for the June 10th Teach Truth Day of Action.

Caregivers and educators who want to challenge book bans in their local communities will find helpful resources from Red Wine and Blue’s Book Ban Busters project.

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