A research project which considered whether Froebelian environments and practices might offer a unique example and provide affordances for anti-racist care and education, led by and within children’s play.
"Following the murder of George Floyd in the US in 2020, and the subsequent upswell of the Black Lives Matter movement in both US and international communities, we – as researchers and practitioners – felt the urgent need to consider how race and racism are being meaningfully addressed in early childhood contexts." Dr Shaddai Tembo & Simon Bateson, researchers and project leaders
Read the researchers' final project report (Download PDF) produced in November 2023
"As Froebel’s own practice developed to attune more and more to the natural world, he increasingly makes way for open-endedness, diversity and plurality as the critical provocation for children’s learning. In turn he asks both adults and children to focus keenly on attuning to the differences among them, not as fixed entities, but as spurs to relationship, agency, community and the making of new ways of seeing and doing through embodied dialogue." Dr Shaddai Tembo & Simon Bateson
Please note: A guide for educators working with young children, based on the findings of this research report, will be published here in Autumn 2024. The guide aims to support educators to understand how racial inequalities can emerge between children through play and how they can be challenged by educators. The guide will be free to download and share.
Publications and presentations
Skin deep: A review of early childhood policy affordances for anti-racist practice in England and Scotland, Journal of Early Childhood Research, Sage, April 2024
Before race: A literature review on de/colonial habits in play within early childhood, Journal of Early Childhood Research, Sage, April 2024
Diversity in Unity: Developing an anti-racist framework within Froebelian pedagogy, Final report for the Froebel Trust, November 2023
This project has also been shared by the research team at the following conferences and events:
- British Sociological Association (2022)
- European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (May 2022)
- Froebel Trust Online Conference (March 2023)
- International Froebel Society Conference, Maynooth, Ireland (June 2023)
- BERA Conference (September 2023)
- Froebelian Futures Conference (May 2024)
Project summary
Dr Shaddai Tembo and Simon Bateson identified the following research aims:
1. To examine the relation between – on the one hand - Froebelian pedagogy, as interpreted through Friedrich Froebel’s founding texts and in its application in practice within a single Froebelian nursery setting, and – on the other hand – anti-racism, understood as a range of ideas and practices that may counter racial prejudice and discrimination.
2. To develop a framework for Froebelian settings in Scotland to understand:
a) how racial inequalities can emerge between children through play
b) how they can be challenged by practitioners.
Ongoing reports of racism against Black and minoritised children within educational environments continue to paint a stark picture on the lack of progress that the early childhood field has made in the past two decades (Tembo, 2018; BBC News, 2021; Kinouani, 2021).
Yet while it is increasingly accepted that it is no longer sufficient (or indeed possible) to be merely ‘non-racist’, to date there remains little clear consensus with regards to what an actively ‘anti-racist’ approach may look like in practice.
Furthermore, few, if any, studies have examined how such an approach may align with an explicitly Froebelian pedagogy. As such, there is currently little clarity about how well Froebel’s original principles could be generatively broadened to meet the pressing commitment toward anti-racism, without departing too far from the core values of a Froebelian approach.
About the researchers
Dr Shaddai Tembo is lecturer in Early Childhood Studies at Bath Spa University, an associate lecturer at the Open University and an independent speaker, trainer, and consultant through Critical Early Years.
Simon Bateson is a Co-director of Froebelian Futures, an international training and research programme which aims to develop and deepen Froebelian pedagogy and leadership in Scotland and beyond. He teaches on the Froebel and Social Justice MSc at The University of Edinburgh. Simon also works as a senior practitioner with young children at Cowgate Under 5's Centre in Edinburgh.
Read a short article introducing the project
written by Shaddai Tembo and Simon Bateson, published by University of Edinburgh
Find out more