From Publishers Weekly
Decades of "adultcentric" research have led social scientists to deny the existence of racial awareness in young children. Yet childrenAeven very young onesAare clearly able to understand sameness and difference, say sociologists Van Ausdale and Feagin after studying 58 children, three to six years old, in an urban nursery school. According to their findings, children learn to identify racial or ethnic markers (skin or hair color, eye shape, accent) and use them to gain social control, even in a nursery school with an antibias, pro-tolerance curriculum. Van Ausdale, the fieldworker of the two, spent 11 months listening to the children chat and observing their play, effacing her presence as much as possible. While the authors' validation of the child's perspective is compelling, and their societal approach to the race problem sensible, their study itself is underwhelming. First, the school's racial mix is curiously skewed: of 58 children, 24 are white and 19 Asian, and there is only one nonwhite teacher. The authors continually assert that Van Ausdale functioned as an invisible observer, although this concept is questionable. The most problematic aspect of this report is the anecdotal presentation of the findings. Readers are left wondering about the actual frequency of various types of racist behavior, data that would have given the study more credibility and depth. While the jacket is appealing, no one browsing this book would mistake it for a lively read. Still, early education professionals and interested parents will find it an important addition to their collections. (Jan.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
From Library Journal
The premise of this challenging study by Van Ausdale (sociology, Syracuse Univ.) and Feagin (sociology, Univ. of Florida, Gainesville) is that children are complex individuals from very early on. They are not "too little" to understand race or ethnic identity, and they can and will use those concepts to discriminate and segregate. Van Ausdale arrived at these conclusions after spending 11 months in a day-care center as a nonsanctioning adult observer. She describes many comments of the children, who were aged three to five, and the use of ethnic identity in their play. Often, when she reported what she had observed, teachers and parents responded with disbelief, arguing that the children must have picked up that attitude elsewhere. As a parent of children raised in diverse neighborhoods, this reviewer has some quarrels with the underlying meaning the authors attribute to what Van Ausdale observed. Certainly, many of the authors' opinions on race relations are well taken, but readers may have real reservations about some unsubstantiated claims made concerning the children's motivations. As the authors state, much more in-depth research needs to be done in this field. An extensive bibliography is included. Recommended for academic libraries. Margaret Cardwell, DeKalb Technical Coll., Clarkston, GA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
