**4.3 Supporting gender identity and development**

With respect to gender diversity in early childhood, children have the right to:

• agency to declare their gender

*Teacher Education in the 21st Century - Emerging Skills for a Changing World*

who have experienced similar journeys.

candidates to enact:

self-awareness and confidence?

families demonstrate family pride?

differences among children and their families?

caring and to maintain caring relationships?

**4.2 Incorporating social justice into EC curriculum**

have a lasting impact on their self-image and worldview.

may participate in informal support networks for parents who do not know others

The most frequently cited resource on incorporating the aims of social justice in EC education programs is *Anti-Bias Education* [14]. A basic tenet of this approach is that bias is learned. From their earliest days of life, children receive messages about their own identity and the identities of others. These messages are often subtle and learned unconsciously—from family, friends, school and the media—but they can

The *Anti-Bias Curriculum* is organized around a set of four core goals focusing on positive identities, human differences and connections, addressing unfairness, and action against discrimination. The four core goals are presented as child outcomes which begin with the phrase "*each child will…"* [14]. Below, those goals have been reorganized and reformatted as six questions that shift the focus from children to teachers, linking goals to teaching practices. These questions provide a starting point for teachers to investigate, reflect upon, and eventually identify/share specific practices aligned with LGBT+ social justice. Further, teacher educators are challenged to consider the specific practices their programs actually prepare preservice

1.How do you ensure that children who will later identify as LGBT+ build

2.What practices do you utilize in order to ensure that children in LGBT-led

4.How do you support young boys and girls in learning how to demonstrate

6.How do you empower children to act against prejudice toward or discrimination against others? What forms of discrimination do you actively combat?

One of the ways in which EC educators have sought to translate anti-bias principles into action in preschool is through the enhancement of curriculum to emphasize social justice [15]. Essentially, this involves using an anti-bias lens to evaluate and adapt existing practice to reflect a particular conceptualization of social justice. Social justice curriculum has largely been applied to preschool (rather than birth to three) settings, within which curriculum is reconceptualized to adopt an inclusive view of human diversity, address injustice or unfairness in the classroom through problem-solving approaches to conflict, introduce conversations about similarities/ differences, exclusion, and support children in developing an understanding of empathy. These models address social responsibility, engagement with the surrounding community and problem-solving through integrated exploratory projects or units focusing on such topics as health issues or food scarcity [15]. They support the aim of inclusivity through incorporating inclusive language, open discussions

5.How do you support young children in understanding and describing unfairness and its consequences? How inclusive are these practices?

3.How do you help children to notice, discuss, and celebrate the similarities and

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During infancy and toddlerhood, children already respond to cues and norms in their families and schools regarding gender and categorize people accordingly. Children often learn the gender roles of their caregiving context during these years; most of the time this consists of stereotypical roles for boys and girls in alignment with the societal patterns, cultural signals, and attitudes of others. By the time they reach kindergarten, these stereotypes are firmly entrenched and children begin to reject non-stereotypical play and materials, as well as those who choose to engage in them. Many children explore gender through their play and even take on opposite gender roles or personas, but do not grow up to identify as nonbinary or trans. For these children, the exploration has no effect on the constancy of the correlation between their assigned sex and their understanding of their own gender.

During preschool, children who identify as trans at some later point in life may display visible signs and choices that indicate their identification with a gender other than that presumed by adults. Research suggests that children who change their gender do so as a result of an awareness and understanding of their identity [16]. This contradicts the common misconception that children simply decide to change gender without fully understanding themselves, or have been influenced by others or the media. From preschool on, children who do not fit those stereotypes begin to pay a price for it – social, academic, and mental health issues that children later frequently experience are, for the most part, the result of their identity being suppressed or oppressed [7]. These children are largely ostracized, bullied, shamed, and the challenges to their mental health and safety worsen as they get older.
