Ethnic diversity in diverse early childhood
contexts: researching complexity within
and across borders
The challenges & possibilities of
diversity
 What we share:
a national landscape where ethnic and racial diversity is
a source of tension and violence - historically and now
desires, hopes and work to build respect and safety
amongst the politics of ethnic diversities in our contexts
belief that research can help us in this work
belief that children’s voices should be core to this
research.
DEALING WITH DIVERSITY
LSPPA Experiences in Promoting
Diversity through Participatory
Action Research
Destroying Conflict
One time in a seminar on Conflict few years ago in Gadjah
Mada Univ Yogyakarta Indonesia:
Three children from different ethnic groups (Acehnese,
Posonese, Ambonese) were invited as witnesses of conflicts
in their own areas. One audience asked those children how
they see their group enemies. The Ambonese child
(Christian) said that he would kill Muslems. The Posonese
child (Muslem) said that he also wants to kill Christians. That
audience asked more, how they perceive the child sitting
next to them. The Ambonese and Poso gave a similar
answer that the Ambonese only meant to kill Ambonese
Muslem but not the Poso Moslem. The Poso Muslem also
did not want to kill Ambonese Christian.
Questions
 How do Indonesian people identify self and
others?
 What’s the Indonesian people’s perceptions
of Indonesia as a nation?
 What is the Indonesian people’s way of
dealing with diversity?
 How does ECE in Indonesia contribute in
escalating conflict/building peace?
 How can LSPPA contribute to improve ECE
in building peace?
Independent State since August 17 1945
17,000+ islands
100+ Ethnic groups (Javanese 41,7 %)
6 + Religions (Moslem 88 %)
History of Indonesia
 Is a nation in building
 +350 years under colonialised by Portuguese,
British, Dutch, Japan
 1900s native scholars moved individually and
organized collectively against colonialism
 1928 built a joint commitment among the native
scholars of diverse ethnic groups under Dutch
colonies to be THE NATION OF INDONESIA
 1945 proclaimed as the independent state of
Indonesia with the spirit of “a unity in diversity”
Gap: Dream - Reality
The challenges of Indonesia include advancing
the agenda of :
economic reform;
forging consensus on future economic policies;
dealing with racial tension; curbing corruption and
nepotism, accommodating the political aspiration of
Muslims;
finding a durable solution to the East Timor problem;
establishing a legal framework for individual rights;
managing a process of political renewal framework.
Source: Adam Swarz (1994)
Gap: Right Based Laws - Culture
Indonesia has ratified most of the
International conventions: Human Rights,
Women’s Rights, Child’s Rights
Legislations on those conventions
Potential/Actual Conflict (Geographical)
Areas
Aceh,
Central
Kalimantan,
Central Sulawesi,
Maluku,
Nusa Tenggara,
Irian
Solo
Jakarta
Conflict Types
State – Ethnic group (Aceh,
Timor Leste, Maluku, Irian)
Religious/tribal (Maluku,
Poso/Sulawesi)
Race/economic (Solo,
Jakarta)
Ethnic/Tribal
(Sampit/Kalimantan,
Nusatenggara)
How Conflict Happens?
Gender-Religious Biased in ECE Setting
 Forming: Since end of 1990s Muslem women
(teacher and children) are strongly suggested to
use jilbab
 Jilbab is one of taqwa attribute for women
[note: in 1980s, jilbab was forbidden by the regime
in Indonesia since it’s connected with
fundamentalism]
Ethnic-Gender Biased in ECE Setting
 Forming:
More punishment to boys (a good child
is a quiet child)
Verbally teasing against ‘feminine’ boys
(a boy should be strong)
Neglect
Lessons learnt
Children’s perception of self and others is
influenced by the interaction with others
ECE must be responsible to understand
what children’s perception of self and
others, and interfere when the perception
of self is superior or inferior to others
LSPPA can contribute in raising
awareness of teachers
HOW to Raise Awareness?
Diversity perspective must be promoted in
the right way that makes sense in specific
teacher’s situations
Every teacher has her own reason why
she does this and not that
Awareness raising is to facilitate teacher in
questioning her own reasons, so she can
be more responsible in her decisionmaking
Required Steps Towards Non-Bias
Education
Non-bias
education
Child
Participation
in learning process
Empathy level
of teacher
Teacher’s
life experience
Participatory Action Research (PAR)
Why PAR? Social problem is rooted in
human relation. PAR helps in “unfreezing”
the bad relation among people
Steps:
Teacher identifies issue in the center together
with parents and children
Planning solution to be acted
Implementing the planned actions
Reflecting
Re-planning
Impact for children
“Currently I am joining LSPPA and I am realized that I
did not know anything as a Kindergarten teacher. Now I
know that teacher’s roles are facilitating, motivating,
and assisting children. Learning method is supposed to
be by playing, I give them freedom to chose activity
they want. I am not concentrating to push them
completing all the given tasks, I am getting to value the
process rather than the result. Children will be doing
exploration freely, we often discuss with children. I
listen to any complain, opinion, and proposal of
children. I am able to give my perspective to parents
who over push their child, and I give more attention to
any child who are facing problem in participating in
learning. I am starting to have case conference with
my colleagues and parents, and document the child’s
development.” (Kartini, Principal of TK Darmabakti II
Kasihan Bantul)
Australia
Australia: starting with children’s
voices
• Researcher: And can
you tell me about
Australia? What it
means to live in
Australia?
• James (5 years old,
Anglo-Australia): That
you all have white skin.
Researcher: You think
Franca’s the prettiest? What
about Franca that makes her
look pretty? I’d like to know.
Spot (4 year old AngloAustralian girl): Ahh,
because she has white
socks and I like white and
she has blue jeans and I like
blue and she has a green
top and I like green. And
she has, and she has white
skin and I like white skin.
And I like her hair.
National landscape of ethnic diversity
 Languages
 1788 - 600 different social groups speaking about 200 distinct languages.
 2006 - 16% population speak a Language other than English at home
 2008 - 152 community languages and 55 Indigenous languages. The most
common languages spoken other than English are Italian, Greek, Cantonese,
Arabic and Vietnamese.
 Ethnic groups
 1700s - Approx 25% the first 4,000 of the convicts sent to NSW were non-white
and about 25% Jewish.
 1800s - 117,000 immigrants from Europe, China, the USA, Canada, New
Zealand and the South Pacific. 62,000 Pacific Islanders brought to Queensland
as indentured labor.
 2000s -1 in 5 born overseas and Australia is now one of the most ethnically and
racially diverse nations in the world with people from over 232 countries living in
Australia. They are affiliated to over 25 different religious denominations.
National landscape of diversity
Questions children’s voices bring us
Amongst our diversity:
How did James come to understand being
Australian as being white
Does this matter and to whom?
Does it matter and to whom that Spot likes
white skin?
Ethnic divisions and whiteness
 One of the first acts of the Australian national Parliament formed in
1900 was the Immigration Restriction Act (1901).
 Australia has never known cultural and ethnic homogeneity,
although many powerful institutions have worked to project an image
of Australia as a white, Anglo-Celtic and Christian nation.
Throughout the twentieth century the Constitution, and much of the
legislation which flowed from it, have attempted to make this image
the reality by determining who belonged and who should be
excluded from the community of the nation. (Jordens 2004)
An image from Australia's Sky News shows a man
shouting as police stand by to quell racial violence
which erupted on Sydney beaches on Sunday. [AFP]
Anti-Lebanese protesters clash with police in Cronulla,
Australia December 11, 2005. [Reuters]
Ethnic divisions, tensions and whiteness
Cronulla riots - white, Anglo-Australia, religion, ethnicity and race (2005)
Ethnic tensions, divisions & whiteness
The everyday of being Anglo-Australian - language, ethnicity and race
Researching amongst the tensions CEIEC projects
 Preschool Equity and Diversity Project - children’s identity
construction (James and Spot)
 ERIS - Enhancing relationships in school communities - teacher’s
discourses & curriculum practices
 TALED - Teaching and Learning for Equity and Diversity.
 RESPECT - Researching Equitable Staff Parent Relationships in
Early Childhood Today - relationships between culturally and
ethnically diverse parents and staff
 Children, Carer, Country - building culturally relevant and
respectful early years programs with Indigenous communities.
 Centre for Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood
 http://www.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/CEIEC
PESD - insights from children
 Children are actively constructing sense of self & others
using ethnic & racial categories.
 Children’s ethnicity & gender influence this process. For
example:
 Anglo-Australian children’s relationship with whiteness is forming
from three years of age
 Anglo-Australian children’s relationships with whiteness is multiple
and complex:







‘Race-colour’ matters
Whiteness is desirable
Whiteness is normal
Others are strange
The dark ‘Other’ is fearful
Being black is beautiful
Being Aboriginal is hard
Research - mapping the complexity of
ethnic identities & the equity terrain
 a metaphor
how ideas and practices about ethnic and racial diversity
come together at a specific point in time to produce how
we understand, practise and shape ethnic relationships
with each other.
 built by
a complex meeting of our histories, knowledges,
desires, experiences, practices, and positions.
(MacNaughton 2005, p 173)
The equity terrain - researching and mapping the
complexities of ethnic & racial identities
Experiences of ‘race’ and ethnicity
Ideologies/discourses about ‘race’ and ethnicity
How have things been in Australia for me and
How should I be, How should you be? How should we be?
for you?
Equity positions
Who am I, who are you (gender, ‘race’,
Desires about ‘race’ and ethnicity
How do I want things to be? How do you want
things to be? How do we want things to be?
class?
Knowledge of ‘race’ and ethnicity
History (legacy) of ‘race’ and ethnicity
How do I understand myself? How do I
What has happened, what power relations have already been
understand you? How do you understand
yourself? How do you understand me?
accomplished? How has history mattered to who you are? How
has history mattered to who I am? How has history mattered to
who we are?
Planning programs - from tensions & divisions
towards a just politics of difference
Children’s and educators’ equity terrain
create complex pictures and patterns
about how the politics of ethnicity, ‘race’
and difference are experienced and
enacted.
Educators positions in the equity terrain
I felt…
I thought…
empowered as it is easier
to discuss and/or act now
that these discussions /
ideas are out in the open
relieved that these
experiences & ideas
were being talked
about/given voice
guilty that I
haven’t realised
or seen the
issues &
experiences
talked about
angry & upset that my stories
& experiences were denied by
members of the dominant
group
angry that I was made to feel like I was
somehow responsible for or connected
to these issues
surprised by strong feelings some people
held
That these issues are
not really relevant to
my school and my
community
That children do
not know and do
not need to
know this That I’d like to
learn more and
deepen my
understandings
That we as a
school were
doing a good job
already
Researching identities, mapping
complexities, targeting programs
Research identities
Map the terrain - for children and educators
Target the program to your specific terrain
Target the program to all features in the
terrain
 Complex terrains = complex programs.