If one child makes another derogatory comment about another's nose, hair, skin tone, how do we deal with it?
Meryl Shepherd, early years lecturer, Persona Dolls tutor and most importantly of all - in my eyes - Black Voices Steering Group member, addressed that very issue at the Una Conference in Amsterdam, in May. Meryl has kindly allowed me to publish her presentation here.
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| Some of the Una Conference Black Voices Network team. Clockwise from top left, Meryl, Mary, Jane, Haki and me. |
Before I start my presentation I would like to bring a real child into our discussions…
I want you to imagine four year old Kelly who is of Korean descent. That means I want you think about her very light brown skin, her straight, black hair and the shape of her eyes. I was working in a nursery with another group of children and Kelly came up to me and said, ‘Meryl, I white you brown why’? I started to answer her by stating that I was born in a hot country but the way she was looking my body up and down showed me that she was also asking another question entirely. She was in fact asking me – Meryl, where does the brown stop?
Kelly made me aware that my answer was incorrect as many people have dark skins that were not born in hot countries. I rolled up my jumper’s sleeves and said to her,’ yes Kelly, I’m brown here too’. She continued looking me up and down, clearly questioning me with her eyes so I rolled my trouser leg up and said, ‘yes Kelly, I’m brown here too’. She continued looking me up and down so I showed her my back, my neck and my stomach. Kelly then looked at me and said ‘Meryl’; I looked back at her saying ‘yes Kelly’ and she asked, ‘bottom brown’?
How can practitioners support very young in their developing understanding about the similarities and the differences that make us all the unique individuals that we are?
One practical way is to use the Persona doll approach, which has been tried and tested. This offers a practical way to support practitioners to discuss and air their questions and thoughts that relate to our racial differences. The Persona Doll approach focuses on all inequalities to challenge discrimination in a safe, non-threatening way.
Persona dolls are different to the other dolls that children use in nursery settings. They are the practitioner’s dolls and they come to ‘visit’ settings. They do not have their own voice, but through the practitioner they tell stories or ask challenging questions that allow the children to answer or comment upon.
The dolls are culturally appropriate and can be male or female. They are used to help young children to empathise with others and to consider how it might feel if something negative and or hurtful was said to them or happened to them. They can be used to redress imbalances that the children may have heard around them without highlighting people who may have made negative comments in the past. As these people could be parents or close family members this is an important point because practitioners do not want to appear to blame parents.
Persona dolls are introduced to the children as unique individuals around the same age as the children. They have families, homes, pets, strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes just like the children they are being introduced to. In this way they offer young children the chance to say, ‘I do that’, ‘I have a brother too’ or ‘my nanny visited me on an aeroplane as well’. This shows children that though we may look different to each other on the outside, on the inside we share many experiences.
Listening to the dolls’ story unfold, the children are able to comment or to elaborate on whatever they have just heard the doll or another group member say. The practitioner’s role is to facilitate the discussions that unfold. Seldom is it necessary to ‘correct’ a child’s view or suggestion as other children in the group, through open discussions are heard to say, ‘but that’s not true because’ or ‘yes they can if they want too’ or ‘that makes me sad when people say that’. Being offered this opportunity to ‘hear the children thinking’ is indeed a privilege that early years practitioners experience on a daily basis.
Using Persona dolls, all kinds of topics that may otherwise been seen as contentious can be discussed, as the focus is not on the children but on a doll. Perry’s mixed heritage for example could be introduced to the children as his mother and father originate from different parts of the world which results in them being different colours and Perry being a third colour. To learn more about Perry though you will have to come to our symposium later on today!
Patrice
