I NT ER RU PTI N G M I C R OAGGRE S S I O N S
kler describes how this natural inclination
to categorize continues into the preschool
years and can be observed as young chil-
dren begin to navigate their social environ-
ments. The differences that they notice at
six months begin to take on social mean-
ing. Young children are natural researchers.
Winkler, supported by the research of oth-
ers, argues that children seek to make sense
of those differences, gathering information
from the world around them, from sources
which include, but are not limited to: their
family, their peer group, the media, and
their general environment.
“... we are helping [young chil-
dren] develop a lens with which
they begin to identify those
moments of marginalization,
and in turn, interrupt them.”
thing that further marginalizes you because
of your identity. As a queer, Christian, able-
bodied, traditionally educated, English-
speaking, cisgender woman of color in the
United States, I will experience privileges
that come with being a member of some of
those groups which wield power (political,
social, economic, etc.), and I will also experi-
ence the marginalization that comes from
being a member of other groups that do
not wield power in my American context.
They do so by tapping into the messages
that are communicated about the ways in
which our society values or devalues dif-
ferent identities across race, gender, sexual
identity, class, ability, and other social iden-
tifiers. These messages, unless interrupted,
become part of the lens they use to under-
stand and interpret their world. As a result,
the interactions that the students have
with each other and with the adults in their
schools and learning communities are in-
fused with those messages. A kindergarten
child being told that their skin looks dirty
because it is brown, a first grader telling
her classmate that it is impossible for her to
have two moms, or a teacher consistently
confusing the two Asian students in her
class are examples of moments in which a
piece of a person’s identity is marginalized.
These acts of marginalization based on a
person’s identity have come to be known as
microaggressions (Wing Sue, D. et. al., 2009).
If, as early childhood educators, we believe
in the importance of creating safe learning
spaces, where children can take risks, and if
this necessitates that each child feels that
they belong, then we have a responsibility
to interrupt microaggressions that we wit-
ness and perpetuate in our learning envi-
ronments as we navigate the differences
that will inevitably exist in any classroom
made up of individuals who occupy mul-
tiple identities. When we name those expe-
riences for young children, we are helping
them develop a lens with which they begin
to identify those moments of marginaliza-
tion, and in turn, interrupt them. An impor-
tant piece of this work belongs to the adults
who must model what it means to bring
their full selves into the classroom. When
we do this, we are explicitly sending the
Microaggressions are often described as
“small paper cuts” that represent all of the
times that someone says or does some-
Continues on page 12
CSEE Connections
Summer 2020 Page 11