Anti-Bias Education Action Project

HD 390
Summer 2017
Ivonne Cruz

I work as a teacher in Birney, State Preschool Program in El Rancho Unified School District in the city of

Pico Rivera. Our program serves low income families, they are mainly Hispanic community. There is two

sessions. The morning session starts from 9:00am-12:00p.m, and the afternoon session starts from

1:00pm-4:00pm. The ratio is one teacher and two assistants for 21 children. Our program is geared to

better prepare children for Kindergarten. Our curriculum consists of Language utilizing Alpha Friend

Program, in which the students will learn the letters and their sounds trough hand signals and animal

sounds. Once all the letters A-Z are covered we focus in sight words, compound words and rhyming

words, allowing the student to read a three letter word in a sentence. We also cover Math utilizing our

Number Plus Program, introducing the children to counting, number recognition, algebra,

measurement, shape recognition etc. We cover Science through hands-on activities and experiments in

which children are able to problem solve, predict and explore. Lastly we offer an art program called Art

in Action. This program studies different artists such as Van Gough and their different painting tools

and techniques. Children learn about vertical and horizontal lines, different paint strokes, pastel colors,

etc.

As an educator, I provide a nurturing safe learning environment, in which children can grow and develop

socially, physically, emotionally and cognitively, embracing their individuality and group identities. I

instill in them a sense of respect towards others acceptance about all kinds of differences among

people. I make sure to create and to offer the anti-bias environment that best fits the children and their

families, making them feel welcome, visible, respected and informed about our physical environment

which reflects a rich diversity. In my classroom I include visual images such as pictures and posters of

children around the world, multicultural music, clothing, play food, clothing, artifacts and learning
activities. During Orientation, which is an introduction of our classroom, its policies and procedures to

the parents on the first day I show then a power point presentation. During this presentation I

empower the parents to embrace their culture, costumes and rituals to share with our class when we

cover the topic of My Family. I explain respectfully in details that on that particular day they can send

in a zip lock bag an item or an artifact, such as books, music, photos, clothing or even food of their

country with a written note giving a brief explanation about it. By doing this our students and their

family will respond to diversity by building empathy, respect, understanding and connecting with our

staff and other families as well. They will also be given the opportunity to recognize traits of their

dominant cultural styles and their identities. During Orientation we also cover Holidays, gender roles,

the roles of children, relationships. In our classroom we support our efforts to identify biases. As a

teacher I have the moral responsibility to build a framework that will cover the four domains of identity,

diversity, justice and action. Our facility is equipped with a ramp for wheel chair accessibility.

For the purpose of this assignment I observed another preschool classroom to see how diversity and

culture was being represented and embraced. Through my findings I gave the teacher few ideas and

suggestions of actions that were needed to take place in order to prevent their anti-bias curriculum. I

advised the teacher to have more culture and diversity representation by having more multicultural

books in their library area, more posters and images of multicultural families, music, multicultural dolls,

multicultural play food in their Dramatic Play Area, etc. This teacher happens to be a good friend of

mine and she happily agreed and thank me for my observation. I informed her that I had been taking

this class of Anti-Bias Education for young children here at Pacific Oaks and that I recommended it to

her.