Early Risers

What’s the difference between a mirror book and a window book? For part two of our Identity through Words and Images series, we go on location to climb aboard Babycake’s Book Stack bookmobile! We learn the importance of children seeing characters that look like they do, how that impacts their sense of self, and how seeing books about others broadens their sense of community. Owner Zsamé Morgan underscores the importance of...

Resmaa Menakem’s bestselling text “My Grandmother’s Hands” deals with the visceral impact of racialized trauma. But is it important for children to understand the legacy of these wounds? And how do we begin to take up such a weighty topic with young children? We sit down with authors Resmaa Menakem and T. Mychael Rambo to understand how a children’s book can provide an invitation for parents and caregivers to begin to ackn...

A child’s sense of self is shaped by their understanding of where they come from: their culture, history and heritage. But how a child begins to develop that understanding heavily depends on their having the tools to study themselves and the world around them. Host Andre Dukes speaks with Gevonee Ford, founder and executive director of Network for the Development of Children of African Descent, about the importance of lite...

New host Andre Dukes sits down with Early Risers’ founding host Dianne Haulcy to reflect on the origins of this podcast. Just days after the murder of George Floyd, Haulcy penned a wakeup call to her peers in early childhood education on the realities of racism and implicit bias in how we raise our children. That message ultimately became Haulcy’s personal call to action, and the foundation for the Early Risers podcast. Ha...

What if, before you learned to read, you learned to ask questions? Faith Rogow calls it a “habit of inquiry,” and tells Dianne it’s more important now than ever. That’s because the explosion of media can be confusing, overwhelming and reinforce racial stereotypes. Little learners CAN become critical thinkers. Dr. Rogow says never take media - from books to apps - at face value. Instead, ask open-ended questions to start co...

If you thought experiments about race were a thing of the past, Sylvia Perry has news for you. In her social psychology lab at Northwestern University, she’s trying to figure out where racial bias comes from. She is finding that talking about race with children decreases prejudice. She tells Dianne how her career was shaped by her own upbringing as a Black girl in the rural South, and she offers guidance for caregivers on ...

What was it like to work at Sesame Workshop back in the day? How about Nickelodeon? As a proud Chinese American, Courtney Wong Chin was thrilled to help the companies find ways to talk about race and culture. In this episode, Chin pulls back the curtain on content creation at Noggin and Sesame Workshop. She talks about the challenge of finding language and images that are culturally specific but not confusing, and the impo...

Nicol Russell is vice president for implementation research for Teaching Strategies, a professional development company for early childhood educators. She has taught young children, managed a childcare center, and worked in state government, consistently striving to promote self-esteem and a positive cultural identity in both children and educators.

Nicol Russell started hearing about race when she was a little girl. H...

Wouldn’t it be great to play games for a living? That’s a big part of John Sessler’s job for PBS Kids. He tells Early Risers host Dianne Haulcy the work is fun, but not simple. PBS Kids content is required to meet learning goals while also expanding what children know about race and culture. PBS Kids starts with diverse teams of content creators and ends with children as active and curious consumers of media.

Guest: Jo...

Media companies like Cartoon Network consult Dr. Kira Banks to help ensure they portray diverse families accurately and respectfully. When Michael Brown was killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, Dr. Banks and her family had just moved to nearby St. Louis. The psychology professor was teaching her two young sons to be proud of their African American heritage. After the crisis, she doubled down on her commitment to change ...

What if you COULD tell a book by its cover? What if the pictures and design were as important as the words? That’s the idea behind Megan Dowd Lambert’s “Whole Book Approach” to reading. As a mother to five children of color and two white children, Dowd Lambert promotes reading “with a race-conscious lens.” As a professional storyteller, she explains why it’s important to read with children, and not just to them.

Episod...

“Racial identity” refers to a person’s understanding of different racial identities, one’s preferences for a particular racial identity and how identities are ranked in their family, their society and in their own mind. Toni Sturdivant has spent her career developing a library of books and a collection of teaching ideas for the early childhood classroom that will help young children establish a positive racial identity. In...

One of the hardest parts of teaching is managing the classroom to promote learning, keep order and inspire students. Many approaches to classroom management are punitive and reproachful. Reddy describes a different approach that–at its core– celebrates students and gives them opportunities to practice their identities.

Guest: Shawn Prakash Reddy was an elementary school teacher in Chicago public schools for nearly ten ...

Structural racism is different than interpersonal racism. It is the set of policies and practices that put BIPOC communities at a disadvantage from the earliest stages of life. So how can we work in our early childhood communities to identify structural racism and make change so that young people - BIPOC and white - are no longer harmed by structural racism? Jen Neitzel shares examples from her work in communities across t...

Theressa Lenear was practicing anti-bias education long before it was widely known as an approach to early learning. As a young Black teacher in Alaska, she tapped into her intuition to guide her practices with young children. She created a classroom-wide deep respect for her students’ cultures. She shares her perspectives on how to support BIPOC children in underserved communities.

Guest: Theressa Lenear is an early c...

Many programs that offer innovation in education ask teachers to adopt a new curriculum or implement a new procedure in their classroom. But when it comes to anti-bias work, Veronica Reynoso says there is no new curriculum. Instead, you need to be in community with children and disrupt the biases and stereotypes they pick up from the world. She explains how she does this and how the children respond.

Guest: Veronica Re...

If we adults want to work with young children on issues related to race and racism, we first need to work with ourselves. Marie Lister describes the learning communities she facilitates with teachers to help them become aware of, and address, their own biases. She discusses how the work adults do in these communal learning spaces can benefit young children immeasurably for years to come.

Episode Resources: Marie coache...

In this episode, Dianne is joined by Dr. Richard Lee, a distinguished professor of psychology and director of the Asian American Studies program at the University of Minnesota. Together, they explore some of the parenting stories featured in season four of Early Risers. Dianne and Dr. Lee also share valuable insights to help parents discuss race and racism with the young children in their lives.

Early Risers Season 4 E...

In this episode of Early Risers, we delve into the parenting journey of Ayan Omar, a Somali American mother living in St. Cloud, Minnesota with her husband and two young daughters. As an interracial and interfaith couple, Ayan and her husband have faced unique challenges in raising their children. In this conversation with host Dianne, Ayan shares her experiences navigating conversations about race and racism with her daug...