Child Care Justice: Transforming the System of Care for Young Children

This book challenges the mental models that place the work of early care and education with enslaved African women and the stigma that relegates present-day child care workers to a low-status, low-wage field. Expert authors contribute their wisdom, experience, research, and practical knowledge on equity and social justice issues, examining the oppressive historical, political, economic, educational, and cultural systems that continue to oppress early care educators and racialized children and children in poverty. The book calls on educators, activists, and their allies to rethink, reimagine, and reconstruct a more equitable and just system for all who receive and provide care to our nation's youngest children, emphasizing the importance of holding historically marginalized child care workers in high esteem for America to live up to its promise of liberty and justice for all.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 28 October 2022
Publisher: Teachers' College Press

Join the authors of this groundbreaking book in starting a movement of hope and possibility for an antiracist child care and early childhood education system. This volume challenges mental models that place the origins of early care and education with enslaved African women, perpetuating a stigma that relegates present-day child care workers to low-status, low-wage fields of practice. Expert authors contribute their wisdom, experience, research, and practical knowledge on issues related to equity and social justice. They examine the oppressive historical, political, economic, educational, and cultural systems that continue to oppress early care educators and, by extension, racialized children and children in poverty. The book delves into the interrogation and litigation of past and current issues and grievances of injustice and inequities in the field, while threading the needle of social justice and critical consciousness throughout the chapters.

Child Care Justice urges educators, activists, and their allies to rethink, reimagine, and reconstruct a more equitable and just system for all who receive and provide care to our nation's youngest children. When historically marginalized child care workers are held in high esteem, then, and only then, will America live up to its promise of liberty and justice for all.

Key Features of the Book:
1. Centers the historic and current oppression of Black people in the United States as foundational to the disregard for childcare workers today.
2. Uses Paulo Freire's critical consciousness framework to guide readers to see, analyze, and act.
3. Calls for a multiracial coalition of activists for racial justice, gender justice, and economic justice.

By reading and engaging with Child Care Justice, you can become a part of the movement toward a more just and equitable child care and early childhood education system. Let's work together to create a world where every child is valued, respected, and given the opportunities they deserve to thrive.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780807767580