Theorizing Race, Gender, Ability, and Precarity in Early Childhood Education: A Way Forward

This paper argues gendered racism, patriarchy, precarity and the ableism/disabelism culture is imbedded in Early Childhood Education training and workplace contexts that simultaneously claim to value and promote inclusivity and diversity. Therefore, this paper seeks to ask inclusion and diversity for who? In this paper, I first showcase the policies and guidelines that govern Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) and students who are entering Early Childhood Education programs in post-secondary institutions. I then draw on the analytical framework of race/racism, gendered, dis/ableism, patriarchy, precarity, to explore how the field of ECE has created an oppressive culture; this section also brings fourth some understanding on inclusion and diversity. I also engage with legal frameworks such as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom and the Human Rights Code Ontario to help frame my argument in a policy context. I conclude that discourses of inclusion and diversity are evoked loosely in current training and workplace contexts; and therefore, I argue that awareness of race, gendered racism, dis/ability and precarity should be included in all ECE post-secondary programs. I conclude with some propositions for a way forward for the ECE field, and toward equity for ECE workers