Glossary

Anti-bias education is a responsive curriculum built on foundational values of diversity and equity.  Derman-Sparks and Edwards (2019) identify four interrelated goals of anti-bias education:

• Goal 1: Identity:  Demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social identities.
• Goal 2: Diversity: Express comfort and joy with human diversity; accurate language for human differences; and deep, caring human connections.
• Goal 3: Justice: Recognize unfairness, have language to describe unfairness, and understand that unfairness hurts.
• Goal 4: Action: Demonstrate empowerment and the skills to act, with others or alone, against prejudice and/or discrimination.

Reference

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2019). Understanding anti-bias education: Bringing the four core goals to every facet of your curriculum. Young Children, 74(5), 6–12.

As defined by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to be an Antiracist (2019), “Antiracist: One who is expressing the idea that racial groups are equals and none needs developing, and is supporting policy that reduces racial inequity” (p. 24).

Reference

Kendi, I. X. (2019). How to be an antiracist. Penguin Random House: One World.

Care as a relational way of knowing and being beyond solely responding to a person’s needs. Care and the acting of caring is subjective, complex, and looks and feels different for everyone. 

Reference

Relational leadership. (2025). Moodle course. [RRU].

Possession of sufficient knowledge or skill. 

Reference

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Competence. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/competence

Critical reflection involves thinking carefully and methodically about fundamental beliefs, with the goal of better understanding the various cultural, social, material, and historical forces that shape our sense of self and others and how we view the world. Critical reflection is both an individual and collective process that includes dialogue with colleagues as well as with the broader community.

Reference

British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2019). British Columbia early learning framework. Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Children and Family Development, & Early Advisory Group.​

All of our care routines give messages. 

If we rush our routines and do them mindlessly, what message do children receive? Our caregiving is part of what children are learning, when I change a diaper do I give the child the message that I enjoy this one-on-one time with them? Do I see their bodies in a positive light? When we eat together do we share ideas and notice what we are eating? When settling a child for a nap, do we take time to acknowledge who they are and what they need to fall asleep? 

Working with young children we remember that our care routines and our caring for and about the children and families is part of the curriculum.

Reference

Elliot, E. (2013). Listening with two ears: Caregivers listening deeply to babies and to self. In M. O'Loughlin (Ed.), The Uses of Psychoanalysis in Working with Children’s Emotional Lives (pp. 47-67). Plymouth, UK: Jason Aronson.

The application of a Eurocentric, Western view of children and childhood as unilinear, predictable, and eternal which posits the existence of a supposedly normal or typical development and trajectory ( p. 61)

Reference

Abawi, Z., Eizadirad, A., & Berman, R. (Eds.). (2021). Equity as praxis in early childhood education and care. Canadian Scholars.

1. A prevailing tendency, mood, or inclination.​
2. Temperamental makeup.​
3. The tendency of something to act in a certain manner under given circumstances. 

Reference

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Disposition. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disposition

To have a dual understanding of something would be to understand both (of two) sides. The word dualistic is etymologically rooted in “duo” or “two” (Harper, 2025). 

In a philosophical sense, dualistic thinking can reinforce binary thinking, which is limiting and reductionist. It opposes large concepts, such as good/bad, right/wrong, strong/weak, etc.

Reference

Harper, D. (2021–2025). Dualism. Online Etymology Dictionary. https://www.etymonline.com/word/dualism

Offers is the notion of care as a relational way of knowing and being beyond solely responding to a person’s needs. Taking up care in this manner commits to cultivating resistances, practices, processes, and policies which work toward the flourishing of all, human and other than human, within complex interconnected systems.

Reference

Relational leadership (2025). Moodle course. [RRU].