| Young children may or may not notice implied behaviors and feelings displayed by parents and peers about other groups of people. Their racial attitudes significantly correlate with parents' racial attitudes when parents reported discussing those attitudes with their children (Katz and Kofkin, 1997). Teachers can be as effective as parents in helping to prevent children's development of racially biased attitudes (Frawley, 2008). They can use multicultural literature to expose students to ideas that might be unfamiliar to them. Additionally, teachers can use the images and text in picture books to conduct discussions with young children that are developmentally appropriate for their level of cognition.;The study explored the effect of reading multicultural literature which features a primary African American character and holding positive, explicit discussion about African Americans following the reading on white preschoolers' racial attitudes. The Preschool Racial Attitude Measurement II (PRAM II) was administered to 16 four-year olds from two classrooms in a private preschool setting and provided pre and post test scores on racial attitudes in both the control and treatment groups. All children listened to two different literature selections which featured primary African American characters each week for four weeks. For the treatment group only, readings were followed with positive, explicit discussion about African Americans.;Paired t-tests conducted on each groups' pre and post PRAM II scores showed a statistically significant difference in the treatment group's scores but not in the control group's; treatment group, t (7) = 3.86, p = .01, d = 1.37, control group, t (7) = 1.78, p = .12, d = .63. However, a paired t-test on post test scores from matched pairs composed of both groups did not show a statistically significant difference from the treatment, t (7) = .68, p = 0.52. This may have been because the control group's scores did increase slightly over the study period. An independent t-test on each group based on classroom placement did not show any significant impact from classroom conditions.;Analyses of post reading discussion suggested that some children were able to recognize similarities (50% or more) and differences (25% or more) between themselves and the African American main characters. Although teachers reported feeling comfortable with discussions for 87% of the readings, they only conducted discussions as directed for 29% of readings, partially as directed for 57% of readings, and held no discussion for 14% of readings. These numbers suggest that teachers may benefit by participating in anti-bias education or that story readings and discussions should be less frequent than the study design. |
