Responding to challenges to anti-racist practice in the Early Years

How to respond when anti-racist practice feels difficult, uncomfortable, or contested

Anti-racist practice can bring up defensiveness, uncertainty and discomfort. These moments can become opportunities for reflection and change when they are held carefully. Common challenges include:

• The belief that racism does not exist in a setting
• Fear
• Hesitation
• Reluctance to talk about race with very young children.

As you read about the challenges we have encountered, think about how they relate to your own experiences of engaging in anti-racism and how they might surface in your context.

“My Early Years setting is not racist”

When creating anti-racist spaces, it is important to create a shared starting point for everyone who attends. Our core belief is that racism exists at institutional, systemic and personal levels, and we acknowledge that this impacts our work in early childhood. Naming this shared starting point can reduce the shame that adults may feel when they begin noticing bias in practice.

We encourage practitioners to hold a critical anti-racist lens up to common practices and ask: “Could this resource give off a negative message?” or “Do the things we offer continue to present white societal norms as the default?”

Question for reflecting on your provision:

• Do any of your books depict Black or brown characters as scary, evil or dirty?
  
  • How does this feel for children who identify as black or brown? 
• Do your home areas have resources that all children would see at home?
  
  • How many children can identify with the tea set?
  • How are you encouraging their role-play if they are unfamiliar with the resources? 
• Do your sunhats fit a variety of hair types, and what messaging is this giving to the children where the hats don't fit? 
• Does your first aid box have a variety of colour plasters, or do children with brown skin wear peach-coloured plasters? How might that feel?

For us, this is not about labelling a setting as “racist” or “not racist”, but about staying curious, honest and willing to notice where everyday practice might need to change.

“I feel nervous discussing race and racism with children”

Perfectionism is a habit many of us have across all walks of life, and in the Early Years we spend hours on perfect visual displays, setting up tuff trays and cosy little nooks. You are not expected to know everything about anti-racism or provide the perfect answers to children when they ask; saying “I don’t know, but we can find out” helps create an open culture. It’s good to always have a children’s book to hand, such as Standing Up to Racism by Dr Pragya Agarwal, which you can use when the words may not come naturally to you. 

Hesitance to discuss race or racism gives the message to children that it is a topic that shouldn’t be explored. Taking time to understand the concepts and practise conversations with colleagues can help build confidence. 

At the forum, we prepare scenarios to discuss in small groups these include topics such as:

• A child saying that they would like to change their skin colour when they grow up
• A child saying that they would not like to play with another child because of the colour of their skin
• A member of staff forcing a sun hat on a child’s afro hair
• A caregiver raising concern because staff have not understood the care needs of their child’s afro-textured hair.

We hold in mind that the personal anxiety of discussing racism is far outweighed by the risks of not doing it for children and young people themselves. 

“Our children are too young to understand the concept of racism”

Research on racial identity development in early childhood challenges the idea that children are too young to notice race. 

Tembo and Jones (2025) highlight that infants begin to attend to race-based facial differences within the first few months of life, best understood as early perceptual awareness. As children grow, this awareness develops further. 

By around age 3, children can begin to sort people into racial groups and use those categories to reason about people’s behaviour. By around age 5, children may begin to attach positive and negative meanings to racial groups, reflecting the wider messages they absorb from the world around them. 

This shows that children are already noticing race and forming ideas about difference from a young age. It is therefore not true that children are too young; the Early Years are a vital time to talk about race, identity, and fairness in developmentally appropriate ways.

“We only have white children at our setting and they won’t experience racism” 

Exposure to difference is a positive experience for all young children growing up in an interconnected world. Children in predominantly white settings still need opportunities to encounter a fuller and more truthful picture of the world. Limited exposure to diverse cultures, communities, and perspectives can lead to a narrow worldview, and children may begin to see whiteness as the norm if this is all they regularly encounter.

White children also need support to recognise and challenge racism, so that they can grow in empathy, compassion, fairness and understanding. Early Years educators have an important role in helping children connect with people whose lives, families and experiences may differ from their own. 

Encouraging anti-racist practice in predominantly white settings means broadening children’s understanding of the world, supporting empathy, fairness and critical thinking, and preventing narrow or hierarchical ideas from becoming normalised.

“We have a very diverse staff team and cohort of children” 

The presence of people from racially minoritised groups is a strength, and it still requires thoughtful discussion about race and racism. It is important that children, families and staff from racially minoritised groups feel seen, celebrated and represented. We encourage settings to foster a culture where everyone is actively engaging with anti-racism, so this work is not left to one person, particularly minoritised members of staff.

A common example is cultural celebrations. It is important that all staff members learn about the celebration, so the work does not fall only to the person from that culture. They may want to be part of it, and their experiences should be celebrated, but others in the setting should also do this valuable learning with the children.

Alongside this, not having a diverse staff team can also become an excuse to avoid authentic learning opportunities. You can reach out to families, visitors and community members to share their experiences with staff and children. Books are a fantastic resource, as are small video clips, such as BBC’s My First Festivals. 

It is equally important to research a particular celebration, religion, or resource and share this with the whole team, so they feel informed and confident to talk about it with the children. We might ask, for example: do staff put as much energy into a group time about Diwali as they do when reading We’re Going on a Bear Hunt?

Conversations about anti-racism can also open up other experiences of marginalisation, including the barriers and discrimination faced by people who have English as an additional language (EAL). These experiences matter and deserve careful discussion. They can also intersect with racism, for example when language, accent, nationality, ethnicity and racialisation are read together. 

At the same time, racism has specific histories, structures and psychological impacts, so we try to acknowledge the person’s feelings and experiences while gently bringing the conversation back to the anti-racist focus of the session.