Supporting Gender Diversity in Early Childhood Classrooms: A Practical Guide

As Headstart once taught us the importance of early intervention, so do the authors of Supporting Gender Diversity in Early Childhood Classrooms brilliantly alert us to early childhood educators proactively leading the way toward gender acceptance, gender agency, and gender literacy among our very youngest citizens. With the added gift of words of both early childhood educators and the children themselves, this must-read book guides us through the exercises and partnerships between children, families, and educators guaranteed to build a better world for people of all genders. Diane Ehrensaft, Ph.D., Director of Mental Health, Child and Adolescent Gender Center, University of California San Francisco Author of The Gender Creative Child and Gender Born, Gender Made

This book is welcoming and meets you were you are with the ultimate goal to "provide you with support and direction for making your early childhood environment a space where all children feel safe, seen, and respected for who they are."

There is a joyfulness and a practicality to this book that makes it both a thought provoking and also a pleasure to read.

If the very thought of this book makes you uncomfortable read it anyway the authors made space for you in this book to learn and grow.

Ijumaa Jordan, MA - Lead Consultant at Ijumaa Jordan Consulting, social justice advocate, adjunct instructor

A book like this, in the hands of educators who are already committed to the authentic development of their students, will make a profoundly positive difference in the lives of trans and gender expansive children-but also, for the holistic social development of every student. As someone who had to blaze a trail in the absence of such practical and powerful concepts as gender justice, I hope this text becomes required reading for every teacher so that every child may have supportive guides as they become whole people in the classroom, and go out into the world. Scott Turner Schofield, Educator, Consultant, Coach, www.SpeakingOfTransgender.com

I dream of a world in which each and every young child feels such a profound sense of rightness, of deservedness, of belonging that they cannot help but know this to be the truth. This book gets us so much closer to that vision. Simply put, this book will save lives.

The authors have lovingly crafted a text that introduces the reader to new and important ideas, while also supporting us through the personal transformation that must accompany new learning for it to truly shift our practice into better alignment with our ethical and professional commitments.

Megan Madison, Trainer, New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute

This book thoughtfully, and lovingly applies anti-bias education principles to the fundamental issue of children's gender identities, leading the reader, step by step, to a new understanding of children as fully human, unlocked from the limitations and expectations of rigid binary gender boxes. They offer practical ideas for how to listen carefully to children as they show us, and sometimes tell us, who they really are. And they give wise counsel to teachers regarding their personal journeys into this new knowledge. Julie Olsen Edwards: Co-author Anti-bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves (NAEYC 2010), Emeritus Director: Department of Early Childhood & Family Life Education, Cabrillo College