Cambridge University Dictionary describes tokenism as a practice, an action or a policy where members of minority groups will be shown small (token) gestures in order to avoid criticism or to achieve a goal. In other words, it is a form of insidious ‘show off’ which is not based on sincere actions. In the field of education, it can relate to a range of other contexts, such as tokenism relating to consultation, or the purchase and use of textbooks to meet policies on racial and gender equality just to satisfy the regulations and show the outside world that your institution is “covering” those issues. So, tokenism can be described as an insincere attempt to meet with regulations or policy requirements, marked by superficial or limited compliance,
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First of all, as it was discussed at Module 2, the important documentations like EYLF and other National Frameworks encourages educators to plan their activities in advance according to the program by specifying the outcomes. Educators shouldn’t provide random activities just for the sake of doing an activity and filling the spare time. The program should recognise and incorporate the diverse cultures, languages, beliefs and values of families, the community and children. This step alone can reduce the tokenism significantly in the environment of early childhood education. Another strategy to avoid tokenism would be meeting and brainstorming with other educators (colleagues) and group leader where everyone can be benefited from each other’s’ experiences, where ideas can be discussed and long term strategies can be specified. Tokenism also can be avoided by engaging as many children as possible in every possible circumstance and using a broad array of activities, programs and organisations that have fun built into them, but aren’t focused solely on having fun. Last but not least, in order to avoid tokenism, educators should be sincerely interested in the children’s progress and include all students from different backgrounds to provide safe, secure and supported environment where children will blossom, excel and
First of all, as it was discussed at Module 2, the important documentations like EYLF and other National Frameworks encourages educators to plan their activities in advance according to the program by specifying the outcomes. Educators shouldn’t provide random activities just for the sake of doing an activity and filling the spare time. The program should recognise and incorporate the diverse cultures, languages, beliefs and values of families, the community and children. This step alone can reduce the tokenism significantly in the environment of early childhood education. Another strategy to avoid tokenism would be meeting and brainstorming with other educators (colleagues) and group leader where everyone can be benefited from each other’s’ experiences, where ideas can be discussed and long term strategies can be specified. Tokenism also can be avoided by engaging as many children as possible in every possible circumstance and using a broad array of activities, programs and organisations that have fun built into them, but aren’t focused solely on having fun. Last but not least, in order to avoid tokenism, educators should be sincerely interested in the children’s progress and include all students from different backgrounds to provide safe, secure and supported environment where children will blossom, excel and