Technology Segregation: Disrupting Racist Frameworks in Early Childhood Education

(Hardback)

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Description

Technology segregation is an ongoing practice within early childhood programs in the United States. This research, which includes two qualitative studies in the Northeast, reveals that school segregation and technology segregation are one in the same. Utilizing critical race theory, as the theoretical framework, this research finds that young Black children are denied technological access directly affecting their learning trajectories. PTO fundraising and other monetary donations to public schools vary by district and neighborhood and are based on segregation. Therefore, structural racism flourishes within these early childhood programs as black students are excluded from another important content area and practice. This book defines the problem of technology segregation in terms of policy, racial hierarchies, funding, residential segregation, and the digital divide. It challenges the racist framework and reveals disruptions (strategies) to counter this deficit discourse based on white supremacy.

Reviews

This engaging and accessible book draws from rich classroom observation and histories of segregation in housing, education and broader society to confront technology apartheid in US communities. Detailing the persistent digital divide in childrens daily lives, Miriam Tager sheds needed light on technology racism and systematically documents ways in which childrens lack of access to taken for granted technologies has material consequences for their school and life success and contributes to overrepresentation in special education. Moving from systematic critique to engaging strategies for change, readers are challenged to disrupt racism in technology access and other arenas and engage in restorative justice. -- Beth Blue Swadner, Arizona State University

Author Bio

Miriam Tager is assistant professor of early childhood education at Westfield State University.