Equality and diversity

Children’s self image is enhanced when their cultural heritage, gender, beliefs and the lifestyles of their families are respected, acknowledged and used in the planning of educational experiences and activities.
(A Curriculum Framework for Children 3-5)

Education for citizenship stresses the need for work on appreciation of diversity and also of understanding and challenging inequalities.

Equalities

Early educators must have a good understanding of the issues involved when challenging discrimination and inequality in the areas of:

• ethnicity
• gender
• disability
• age
• sexual orientation
• religion.

Diversity

Learning about, understanding and respecting religious, cultural and spiritual differences is an important aspect of citizenship. By encouraging children to have an awareness of how different people perceive the world, we can enhance their appreciation of the diversity of the society in which they live.

Early education centres integrate this into their practice by celebrating a range of festivals, providing resources which reflect the rich diversity of society in book corners, home corners and activities to develop appreciation of other cultures and religions.

Organisations

Equal Opportunities Commission
The Equal Opportunities Commission works to promote fair treatment for everyone in Scotland. It has useful publications about how this affects young children - its booklet An Equal Start is available to download.

Enquire
Enquire is a service offered by Children in Scotland. It provides a telephone helpline and substantial practical and policy information services on additional needs within education. 

Research

HM Inspectorate of Education
In 2007 HMIE carried out a joint inspection of the services available to children of those seeking asylum in Glasgow. Read the report, Joint inspection of services for children of asylum seekers in the Glasgow City Council area. 

Resources

Seeking Safety - asylum seekers and refugees 
The Oxfam Education website has details of a free resource produced in Scotland by Amnesty International about asylum seekers and refugee families - Seeking Safety.  

Persona Dolls
These large dolls reflect different unique characters designed to represent the diverse nature of our society. More and more early educators are using these in their work to develop children’s understanding of issues around equality and inclusion.

Nurseries in Falkirk have been using these dolls as part of their Race Equality work. Read about their work in our case study Recognising Racism.

Gender
Read this article on gender development on the website based on the Child of Our Time TV series. (If the 'Next' button at the bottom of page one is a broken link, just change the final number in the url to a two and you will get to the second page.) The website also has an interesting activity from the series for use with 4-year-olds to find out and discuss their views on gender roles, What Do Men and Women Do?

Storysacks
A popular resource in early years, bags are now being produced which touch on many issues connected to inclusion and citizenship. One example is Ringo the Flamingo which comes with book, non-fiction book on disability, props and tape. This and other useful resources are available from the Storysacks website.

Letterbox Library
Letterbox Library is a not-for-profit specialist supplier of inclusive children’s books. The books cover a wide range of issues and packs of books are available on citizenship themes. All of the books provide positive images to reflect the diversity of society and challenge stereotypes.

MantraLingua Publishing
MantraLingua supplies resources such as puppets, maps and bilingual books.

Race Equality website 
Race Equality is a staff development website funded by the Scottish Government providing a lot of useful information and exercises including an interesting timeline on immigration to Scotland.

Other Race Equality links can be found on the One Scotland website. 

Learning for Life
The Learning for Life resource covers many topics related to citizenship and includes a section on Harmony.

Kiddiesville
Kiddiesville is an interactive children’s website for 3-8-year-olds aimed at encouraging children to value each other. The Kiddiesville FC team is made up of a unique blend of individuals. Each one of them is special in their own way. The team represents the diversity of people and cultures in our society today.

Sharing practice

There are several interesting case studies on the Early Years website on inclusion and equality.