Every student deserves to have quality education provided for them in an equitable and

caring environment that engages its learners. I believe that diversity, identity, and classroom

setup and materials play a large role in creating an equitable and caring classroom community.

Diversity makes every child feel seen and welcome, identity lets each student feel confident in

who they are in our classroom community and the classroom structure allows the students to see

themselves in the classroom. Throughout this paper, I will go on to explain and give examples of

how of we can use these three ideas within our environment so we can better ensure that students

will have the equitable and caring environment that every child deserves.

To create an equitable and caring community it starts with diversity. Diversity should be

displayed in every way possible throughout the building, not only in the classroom but in the

staff and environment as well. We live in a world where everyone wants to be reflected in their

surroundings, we like to see ourselves in books, movies, and in important roles such as teachers

or even the president. We all want to feel as if we belong. By creating this diversity in a

classroom, we can ensure that our students and families feel connected as well as learn how to

have “comfortable, empathetic interaction with people from diverse backgrounds.” (Derman-

Sparks 2019). Showing students positive influences of their same culture and race is important

but so is learning about other races and cultures. When we teach about all the cultures in our

center in positive ways, we create an inclusive environment where people feel seen and heard as

well as learn how to respect and interact with other cultures. Diversity is not only used to show

how we are different, but it is also a great way to show how we as people can be the same. “All

human beings share similar biological attributes, needs, and rights (e.g., the needs for food,

shelter, and love; the commonalities of language, families, and feelings) and people live and
meet these shared needs and rights in many different ways.” (2019) When we use diversity to

also embrace how we are similar it can help create a community that embraces each other

wholeheartedly. It helps students recognize that while there are areas of difference, we have

many of the same goals, which are often to be accepted and supported.

Throughout my time in the ECE profession, I have had a diverse student body as well as

teaching staff. From English language learners, and DSHS families, to many different cultures

and races. We then used this to celebrate different holidays and cultures including these families

and teachers to present their culture to the center in a way of their choosing. Some of these

included events, holidays, clothing, food and even adding supplies to the classroom that would

bring their culture to life. This last year we included Lunar new year and Holi into our classroom

celebrations and created a prayer space for our Muslim teachers. This helped get the families and

teachers involved in the classroom and got everyone excited to share something from home.

Diversity does not just end in the classroom but should be embraced within the entire building

allowing everyone to be represented.

While working directly in classrooms I have seen how children gravitate towards a doll

that most similarly resembles them at the beginning of the year then towards the end of the year

as they have learned more about diversity, they would just grab any doll or there may even be a

class favorite that they all want no matter what the doll may look like. Adding foods from

various cultures in our dramatic play area has had a similar effect where students as well as

adding figures with glasses or, books in different languages. It will all seem new at first but

through more exposure we can make it just a normal thing. It truly is one of the best things about

children they are welcoming to anyone and if we can continue to have inclusion in our

classrooms then we will set them up for life.

 Another quality that will lead to an equitable learning environment is identity. This is

closely tied to both diversity and classroom structure in the sense that we want all students to feel

that their identity is represented. However, it can be different because we want to allow the

students to discover as well as show their own identity and, to be accepted for who they are. This

includes allowing students to wear clothes they feel confident in, use the gender identity they

want, speak their home language when they can, and even share their culture within the

classroom through food or stories. One of the NAEYC equity statements is about having

confidence, and self-awareness while having family pride and just having a positive social

identity (2019). Allowing a student, a safe place where they can find then express their identity is

a great way to create a positive environment that reflects equity.

When we have diversity and classroom structure that reflects an equitable environment

for learning identity can often fall into place. I have seen a boy who loved to wear dresses to

school, his favorite color was pink, but he considered himself a boy and the classroom accepted

him. They did have some questions and he was happy to answer them and would often say “I just

like dresses; they are so pretty”. This was an incredible moment for our classroom, soon after

other boys came to school in dresses or with their nails painted and no one even mentioned it

anymore. These kids all knew they were safe to discover who they were in our classroom

because they were able to see it firsthand.

This leads us to our classroom setup and materials and how important it is when creating

this equitable environment. The classroom is set up to be our third teacher and if our classrooms

are not set up to show equity and diversity then we are already behind. “Without saying a word,

classrooms send messages about diversity, relationship building, communication, and the roles of

teachers and students.” (Teaching Tolerance 2018). Books that show different races, cultures,
and languages have a big impact on how children see themselves. If we are only reading stories

about little white girls with blonde hair, are we thinking about the diversity of our classroom? In

the Ted talk from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi “The danger of a single story” she recaps how

when she first started reading and then creating her own stories, she “did not know that people

like me could exist in literature.” (TED) Because Chimamanda had been reading stories about

little blonde girls with pigtails she believed that all stories were written this way. It wasn’t until

she began to read stories from other African writers that she realized she could create stories to

represent herself and her culture. Think of how powerful that moment was for Chimamanda, now

think about empowering the students from your classroom just by adding books, pictures, flags,

and even words into their space to represent them and their culture proudly. Now that we have

looked at our materials, is our classroom set up to be inclusive? Do we have the ability for a

child with a wheelchair to walk through every part of the classroom? Are cubbies short enough

for every student to reach theirs? Do we have necessities low that each child can have access to

independently such as tissues and soap? We often don’t think of these things until there is a

reason to but what if we have a student who starts mid-week that has a walker and on their first

day they are unable to get from the cubbies to the carpet for circle time due to the tables and

chairs not having a wide enough walkway for their walker to get through.

Adding these elements to the classroom may seem like an easy thing or even common

sense but there are so many times where we don’t see these diverse misses within our classroom

if we are not looking for them. For a truly equitable environment, you want to have these things

in place before a student who needs them begins in the program.

Take a look at your classroom and see who your students are, now look at your books, do

you have a vast amount of culturally diverse books? Are there photos throughout the classroom
where you see differing abilities? Do the dolls represent different races or are all the baby dolls

light skin with blue eyes? Are there chairs near the circle time area in case a child is unable to sit

on the floor? Having a critical eye will help me look past the pretty classroom and see if it is

equitable. In NAEYC’s Developmentally Appropriate Practices statement, they said, “Children’s

motivation to learn is increased when their learning environment fosters their sense of belonging,

purpose and agency” (2019). Just showing the students they belong can enhance their desire to

learn.

Another way to have an equitable and caring community is to have learning theories that

support equity for all of the students in your program. Through the next several paragraphs I will

review the behaviorist, cognitive, and sociocultural learning theories and how they will or won't

play a role in creating an equitable environment through acknowledging diversity and identity

while creating an inclusive classroom structure.

Behaviorism theory is focused on the behavior of the individual and the idea that

behaviors are learned and through rewards and consequences they can relearn desired behaviors.

Thorndike came up with the law of effect, where behavior that is rewarded will be increased and

non-rewarded behavior will decrease. We then move into the operant conditioning ABCs. The

antecedent is what happens before the behavior happens, the lead-up or prompt to the behavior.

To differentiate between the different cues, and generalizing the cues and concepts to take the

antecedent and relate it to other scenarios where it makes sense. Then we need to think about

what the desired behavior is. The goal is to work on reducing challenging behavior and

increasing the desired behavior through small steps with specific positive reinforcement. The

desired behavior should increase over time. We finish with consequences. Consequences do not

have to mean punishment; another option would be reinforcement. We have learned that while
punishment will supposedly decrease behavior frequency, it does not work well. “The type of

reinforcement or punishment that is used can have an effect on how the individual responds and

the effect of conditioning” (Kendra Cherry2020). We also have positive and negative

reinforcement as consequences. Positive reinforcement would be praise or a reward while

negative reinforcement would entail removing something the student may find unpleasant. For

example, maybe the student has to sit by the teacher at lunch usually because they take food off a

friend's plate. We can use negative reinforcement by allowing them to sit next to their friend at

snack because they kept their hands off others' food during lunchtime. The goal of the

behaviorism theory is to decrease undesirable behavior and increase desired behavior. This starts

with data. Before you enact your plan, you should observe and gather data for the student's

behavior that you want to address. If we use our lunchtime example from above, we can observe

how many times our student reaches for food off their classmates' plate during the three meals a

day. If the student is reaching twice per mealtime, we see about 6 times a day that they are trying

to grab another child's food. Now we model the behavior and use positive and negative

reinforcement to shape the desired behavior. How do we know if the student is learning from this

practice? If the desired behavior has increased while the undesired behavior has decreased, we

know they have learned. Remember to continue to collect data throughout the process to see how

the behavior has trended. With Behavioral theory, they don’t know or care if they understand the

behavior just that they are not using the desired behavior. The main belief around this is that

anyone can learn anything with small steps and reinforcement. This, however, will not mean

deep understanding.

Now comes the question does behaviorism fit into my idea of an equitable and caring

community? I believe that if we use behaviorism along with other learning techniques and
theories it can aid in an equitable and caring community. One great thing about behavioral theory

is that you are accepting a student for where they are at and creating an individualized plan to

assist that student where they may be struggling behaviorally. We do have to keep in mind their

diversity and identity when we create these plans as different cultures and family dynamics will

change how we work towards a goal. Including the family when creating a plan is the best way

to accomplish this task. I believe if we can observe and bring data to a family and then review

our potential plan, they can help us create a strong plan that will help the child and family both in

school and at home.

Cognitive theory was introduced by psychologist Jean Piaget in the 1930s. Cognitive

theory focuses on what is happening in the brain, what we are thinking, and what we already

know. Berkely’s Graduate Division sums it up as “Learning is presented as a process of active

discovery”. This theory focuses on facilitating a child's learning by offering discovery and

investigation in things they may already have some background knowledge in and allowing them

to explore and add more information to what they already know or think they know. The students

then use schemes to recognize and file patterns of how things work. So, knowing that a rubber

ball rolls, they then will add other balls to the scheme, and then maybe even decide that all-

around objects. The Berkley Graduate Division explains that our job as the teacher is to

“facilitate discovery by providing the necessary resources and by guiding learners as they

attempt to assimilate new knowledge to old and to modify the old to accommodate the new”

(2021). We can do this by adding balls to our outdoor play area allowing students to explore with

various balls and other round objects. Then add a ramp or a tunnel giving students a way to

explore a topic they already have some background knowledge about.

 When it comes to providing an equitable and caring community, I believe that using

some cognitive theory can be a great addition to the classroom but should not be the basis for all

learning. Allowing exploration through adding materials and natural inquiry is an organic way

for students to learn, we just must be sure that we are being inclusive with our topics and

considering our student's backgrounds and cultures. If we can consider diversity and identity

when we are setting up our classrooms and placing materials we can use cognitive learning to

deeper engage in topics they are interested in. If a child lives on a farm, she may know a lot

about ducks and other farm animals so things around this topic may be easy for her whereas a

child who lives in an apartment complex in the city may have never seen a duck in real life and

thinks they are yellow just like in their story book. Are we considering this? How are we then

adjusting the tools and materials we are offering? All in all, giving students the ability to learn

through exploration is a huge benefit and makes them more independent, but we have to realize

students will not come with the same knowledge or background.

Sociocultural learning theory is the thought that learning starts with social and cultural

interactions and moves from the interpsycological plan to the intrasphycological plane through

ZPD, scaffolding, and mental tools. The interpsycological plane is what is known by those in the

community through learning you will absorb the information and once you know it you will

move to the intrasphycological plane. Vygotsky’s theory around the zone of proximal

development says that we gain this knowledge through the zone of proximal development or

ZPD (2012 p. 40). The boundaries of this zone are independent performance and assisted

performance (2012 p. 40). This zone shows what someone can accomplish with help and gives a

true picture of what the potential level of development could be. “The skills and behaviors

represented in the ZPD are dynamic and constantly changing.” (2012 p. 40). What this means is
that what a child may do today assisted may become something they can do independently

tomorrow, the child’s ZPD is changing constantly as they learn and grow. This is often

accomplished through scaffolding where we supply students with small steps and assistance to

get to the next level of their development. Then we have mental tools which are used to help us

remember in a specific way, for example when learning about the four main compass directions

we learned to never eat soggy waffles, which stood for North, East, South, and West. Using these

three tools together helps all students come up with what knowledge they currently have and be

able to participate and grow within their capabilities.

The sociocultural Theory of learning supports my idea of an equitable and caring

community because it is about meeting the student where they are and helping them reach their

next development milestone. Starting in the zone of proximal development, scaffolding, and

assisting in the learning process until they can learn and do independently, then moving on to the

next potential development. Because you are taking into consideration what they already know

due to their diversity, identity, and understanding you are better able to create a classroom

community and set up based around their knowledge and not just focusing on behaviors. You can

also use this theory in support of the more challenging behaviors as well by scaffolding. If you

notice that a student has a hard time sharing in the dramatic play area you can start by offering a

lot of assistance when they are playing with other students in that area. Then as they start to see

and understand the appropriate way to play in the kitchen and share with friends you can slowly

remove yourself from the situation, giving the student some mental tools to remember how to

share or play with gentle hands.

To create an equitable and caring community it takes more than one learning theory. In

the end, it requires you to use a little bit of behaviorism, cognitive, and sociocultural theory
while knowing what each child’s diversity and identity needs to help them be successful in our

center. Truly knowing what works for one will not work for all is the basis of an equitable center.

I always think of it this way, equitable does not mean the same it means fair and impartial, and

that goes for how we teach and interact with students as well.

How I plan to enact this process in my center is to start by creating a profile for each

student. Mapping strengths and opportunities, what the family stands for, what the student’s

identity is, and ways the student feels most supported and included. With these profiles, I can

then know how to better help each student and be there for the whole classroom. After I have

done this, I can also step back and look at the environment does it also meet the needs of every

student and teacher in the classroom? In the building? And most importantly how do we adjust

and change quickly to include new people into our space? The key to having an equitable and

caring community is always self-reflecting and making changes. I will add different languages

and pieces of culture in each center of my classroom. Adding various food menus to the dramatic

play area, pictures of buildings and community landmarks in the block area, different art

materials in the art center, and so on. When reflecting on how to implement the different

behavioral theories within my center I will use my child portfolio to look at what is the best

theory for the individual student and use that to help create a plan of where we want the student

to be in the next 12, 6, 3 and 1 month, following up with the family and other teachers in the

classroom. Lastly while planning curriculum activities around our weekly topic, I will look at

each child’s zone of proximal development and see how we can scaffold the activities to each

student get the most out of it. ‘

 References

Advancing equity in early childhood education. (2019). Retrieved from

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Bodrova, Elena & Leong, Deborah. (2012). Tools of the Mind: Vygotskian approach to early

childhood education / E. Bodrova, D.J. Leong.

Cognitive constructivism. GSI Teaching Resource Center. (2021). [Link]

guide-contents/learning-theory-research/cognitive-constructivism/

DERMAN-SPARKS, L., & OLSEN EDWARDS, J. (2019, November). Understanding anti-bias

education: Bringing the four core goals to every facet of your curriculum. NAEYC.

[Link]

Linda Darling-Hammond, Lisa Flook, Channa Cook-Harvey, Brigid Barron & David Osher

(2020) Implications for educational practice of the science of learning and development,

Applied Developmental Science, 24:2, 97-140, DOI: 10.1080/10888691.2018.1537791

Teaching Tolerance (2018) Critical Practices for Anti-Bias Education, (p. 8-18)