Childhood play is one of the hallmarks of early childhood education, yet most early childhood educators have stereotypical views of Black boyhood play. At the same time, few scholars have addressed teachers’ and school administrators’ stereotypes and biases of Black boys’ play styles and behaviors. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to highlight the ways in which school administrators reinforce the anti-Black misandric violence Black boys experience during play through disciplinary decision-making. We also explore how such reinforcement leads to Black boys’ entry into the preschool-to-prison pipeline. Ultimately, we aim to introduce Black PlayCrit to the field of educational leadership/adminstration in order to bring attention to anti-Black misandric violence against Black boys, and to celebrate the rich history and strength of Black boyhood play.
The prison abolition movement has brought attention to the American carceral crisis, or better yet, the mass incarceration and disproportionate criminalization of Black people in America. It has also led to and fomented recent calls to defund prison systems, the police, and to remove police from schools. While discussions of prison abolition have been addressed in the carceral studies literature, they are seldom addressed in the education literature and particularly in early childhood education. Given the ways in which young Black children are and have been negatively impacted by issues of mass incarceration (e.g. absence of family members, school-prison nexus), the lack of attention to the American carceral crisis and teaching about prison abolition is beyond concerning and contributes to the stanchless anti-Black violence Black children face in early childhood classrooms. Drawing on pro-Blackness, the imprisoned Black radical tradition, and abolitionist teaching, we introduce what we term prison abolition literacies– literacies practices that bring awareness to the injustices of the carceral state and encourage young children to become prison abolitionists––so that teachers can infuse prison abolition into the early childhood education curriculum.
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