As an educator, you will work with children and families from culturally diverse backgrounds throughout your career. In this lesson, you will learn about cultural diversity and the benefits it has on children, families, and the program community. You will have an opportunity to examine your identity and reflect on what impact it may have on the children, youth, and families in your care.

Implicit bias affects the way children and youth experience schools and programs on a daily basis. This is especially true for children and youth from marginalized backgrounds. Oftentimes, implicit bias can be hard to recognize. In this lesson, you will have opportunities to think about what implicit bias looks like in an educational setting and reflect on how your implicit bias can affect your work with children, youth, and families.

Educators can help children and youth recognize and appreciate diversity through intentional anti-bias and anti-racist teaching strategies. This lesson will focus on anti-bias and anti-racist teaching and the best way to incorporate them into everyday learning opportunities.

As culturally responsive teaching becomes a more widely used practice, it is imperative that educators understand its components. This lesson will define culturally responsive teaching and address how it leads to better learning outcomes for all children, regardless of their race or ethnicity.

Family members are the most important people in young children’s lives. Partnering with families will help to create an environment that meets the needs of each child. This lesson will define aspects of family partnerships, focusing on honoring and celebrating individual and cultural identities and experiences that are essential to your work and your program.

Equity and equality are often talked about in similar ways, but they do not have the same meaning. In this lesson, we will discuss what it means to have equality and what it means to have equity in your program and how addressing these concepts will benefit the children, youth and families in your care.

Coaches play a critical role in centering anti-bias, anti-racist, and culturally responsive teaching in child and youth programs. This lesson explains the role that coaches play in supporting staff members, children, and their families in these practices. You will learn how to how to help staff create a routine for reflecting on their assumptions and biases, navigate conversations around diversity, and implement anti-bias, anti-racist, and culturally responsive teaching.

Program Managers play a critical role in creating culturally responsive and equitable child care programs. You lead this effort through your program’s philosophy, vision, policies, and practices. This lesson highlights how Program Managers can best support staff in understanding and implementing practices that are responsive and equitable for all children. You will also learn how to examine and evaluate program policies and procedures to ensure the program’s commitment to equity and diversity.