The four goals of anti-bias education are forming identity, promoting diversity, teaching justice, and fostering activism. Identity formation presupposes that each child sees himself or herself as an individuum who associates himself with a certain family group. Diversity presupposes learning to respect differences between individuals and cultures. Teaching justice means teaching children to understand where wrong is done and to behave respectfully to all people (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2019). Activism is about educating children to be self-confident and not afraid to speak out for themselves. These goals are valuable since they allow us to educate people who will respect others, be responsible for their actions, and be ready to call attention to the wrongs that are done.
The challenges of anti-bias education are making children behave respectfully even to those individuals they may not like, overcoming shyness in class, and teaching them to differentiate between right and wrong. When I was a child, I was very shy and it was a challenge for me to speak out for myself. What helped me to cope was the friendly atmosphere created in class and the respect for differences instilled in us by our teacher.
Sometimes teachers can be biased too and not realize it. Some teachers may give better marks to students they like and worse marks to those they do not. Some teachers believe that introverted students keep silent because they do not know anything. It is important to recognize and mitigate these biases since they often limit educational opportunities for children. To combat biases one should put oneself in the place of other people, look at the world from their position and consider all possible options. The whole society benefits from combating biases as people become more tolerant towards each other.
Reference
Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2019). Understanding anti-bias education. YC Young Children, 74(5), 6-13.