BLM Interview: Deija Brantley on Early Childhood Education
Black Lives Matter is trendy right now. It’s a time for tearing down statues, renaming public spaces, and engaging in virtue signaling on social media platforms. But Deija Brantley, an early childhood educator at a predominantly Black school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania feels that to truly combat the forces of systemic racism, much more than performative anti-racism is needed to build lasting change in communities of color. Change is best built from the bottom up, beginning with the children of today who will inherit whatever world we create for them.
I had the pleasure of meeting Deija in my Multicultural Counseling class for my master’s program in clinical psychology. In this course, we studied an array of social justice issues that seemed to be unfolding in real time on a national stage. Deija kindly agreed to be interviewed for my blog, and I’m excited to share the wisdom of her personal experience with my readers.
I’d love to hear about your job. What kind of work do you do?
I have worked in Early Childhood Education for seven years. For the past five years, I have worked in the classroom as a Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts teacher. The PA Pre-K Counts program is run through state grants provided with the intention of bringing quality early childhood education to children with pre-determined risk factors. I’ve had the interesting experience of holding dual roles as both a classroom teacher and Pre-K Counts specialist. This upcoming school year, I will be transitioning into the role of Education Coordinator to assist in the training of teachers and staff in curriculum implementation and handling challenging student behaviors. I am currently enrolled at Pepperdine University in their Applied Behavior Analysis program.
Do you see the consequences of systemic racism on the job? What are some examples?
The consequences of systemic racism are stark in the world of early childhood. There are various risk factors that can be tied to the results of a broken system. It’s so much to even type into words. As far as the things I see on a day-to-day basis, the school-to-prison pipeline is a real thing, and begins as soon as our babies walk into a school setting. In 2017, in Philadelphia 26% of childcare settings reported that they expelled at least one child, and 37% reported suspending a child under the age of five. Honestly, that’s not even the half of it. Toddlers were just as likely to be expelled because of typical developmentally appropriate behaviors such as tantrums and biting. There’s a racial skew in these statistics. Black students, while having the lowest numbers of enrollment in Pre-K also have a disproportionately high rate of suspension and expulsion. Now, this is not only in Pre-K. I have seen firsthand one of my friends, while we were in high school, dragged out of the school in handcuffs, because they said he was being “disorderly” for not wanting to go to class. The resulting fines and missed school had damaging results that bled into his adult life. But I digress.
Pre-K counts has statutes in place that prohibit the suspension/expulsion of students without due diligence. It is up to the independent providers what that diligence may look like. There is a lack of oversight, which means that many partner programs operate with impunity in enforcing these statutes. But it is important to note that there is also a lack of support in place to help teachers to deal with challenging behaviors in the classroom. Many are underprepared to work in these settings. While Pre-K Counts requires certified teachers, most teaching programs do not produce trauma-informed educators. So, now we have 20 students in a classroom with two teachers. Many students are 300% below the poverty guidelines, with these other risk factors at play. Their teachers are dealing with behaviors that they would have previously suspended or expelled students for, but they are not given the adequate tools to increase their students’ resiliency. So, instead of expelling students, we are holding them hostage in classrooms that are not equipped enough to teach them the positive behaviors that are needed to be successful in the setting.
How does your work go beyond teaching pre-k kids in the classroom? Does your professional role also involve educating adults in your community?
My work as a teacher focused predominantly on working with students and their families. As I move into the role of coordinator, I will also be taking on the role of training staff who work in these programs. It’s important to understand and see the effects of transgenerational trauma in our Black community. In order to understand the trauma that these children are dealing with, you have to also work with the adults in their world who are dealing with unresolved trauma that they are inadvertently passing on to their children. Mind you, this trauma has been passed down through a brutal history of Black struggle and the erasure of Black success. Staff are not exempt from these traumas. In all my time working as a Pre-K Counts teacher, I have always worked with an all-Black staff in predominantly Black communities. This is my community. We love our children fiercely, but at the same time are not given the tools and skills to teach them effectively. How do you teach a child to work through trauma that you have not been given the capacity to work through in your own childhood? The focus is on survival, and that is a day-to-day struggle that does not always fit into the school archetype as it stands.
What does cultural competence look like in practice? And how can Americans outside the Black community engage in greater cultural competence not merely on an idealistic level, but through practical, day-to-day behaviors?
This is such a broad question, and the answers are honestly limitless. I think it’s important to see where your role is and play it compassionately. It is important to do the work to understand the communities you serve and to see the discrepancies. The first step is understanding that the system is flawed. You have to take the time to step out of your experience and into that of others. The only way to do that is to listen, first and foremost. Listen to people, listen to their stories, and most of all listen to what they need. When I say listen, I don’t mean to hear what they say and then immediately retort. These dialogues are usually hard to have. But, it’s an important first step in shifting a paradigm that has separated our experiences for so long.
Certain political groups hope to maintain “law and order” by declaring a “war” on crime and militarizing the police. Why do you, by contrast, think that defunding the police is a better alternative? How might this sort of “bottom up” approach be especially effective?
The police do not protect Black people. The “law and order” that you refer to was created in a time where Black people were not considered whole and human. So, by relying on this system, we are further subjugating Black communities to more trauma and violence that in turn perpetuates this cycle.
From a behavior analytic standpoint, it is proven that positive reinforcement is far more effective than punitive consequences. With that being said, when you pour resources into a community, it is significantly more likely to see the positive behaviors you seek, which in turn decreases undesired behavior. The militarization of police does not address the underlying issues that exist in communities; it is purely reactive and damaging. In fact, it is funding and arming the very system that oppresses that community. You have to look at the function of human behavior. Needs need to be met. That is why police are so ineffective: they are not meeting needs. They are punishing survival. They represent a purely punitive approach that ignores the basic needs of the communities that they are there to serve. By defunding the police and reallocating these resources into more reinforcing entities, you are more effectively setting up the environment for long-term behavior change and improvement.
What are some of the specific areas of need you see in your community that could be addressed through additional state funding to organizations that primarily serve the Black community? How could young children directly benefit from such an investment of resources?
As a teacher, I always believe that education is key. You have to water a seed for it to grow. When you give funding to organizations that primarily serve the Black community, you are investing in the healing of over 400 years of disadvantage. You see organizations such as the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI) that are working to combat just that. By providing more funding to these organizations and others like it, you are directly investing in the growth of an entire community. Children will directly benefit from this in more ways than one. With the focus on promoting excellence and highlighting the unique strengths that Black children have, we are effectively building up children that have so long been the focus of deficit.
Based on your experience, how have the murders of unarmed Black civilians — most recently, George Floyd — impacted Black communities in America?
I don’t feel comfortable speaking for how it has affected the Black community as a whole, because while I am a part of it, I am not a representative. I am only one individual perspective.
But, from my experiences, the first thing that came to mind when I saw this question is the fact that… this is not new. We have been reliving this sick Groundhog Day of injustice for years through our ancestors. It is “trending” now, which is great. But I think that for there to be a long-term impact, there needs to be long-term change. Many people think that the death of George Floyd is an atrocious anomaly. But this is definitely an opportunity to express that this, while horrendous and painful, is not unusual for our people. This is our life, that is now highlighted in the “trendy” media. I think that it is important to take this light and run with it. There needs to be systemic change. I am uninterested in performative anti-racism (painting “Black lives matter,” removing racist statues, banning the Confederate flag, etc.). While appropriate, it’s not what will help our people to move forward. I am interested in long-term change to make sure that what is currently my reality and has been the reality of my family for years does not continue to be my son’s reality. The only way that can be the case, is if we take apart the system that has disserved us since its inception and rebuild.
What kind of America would you like for your young students and son to live in someday?
I would like for them to live in a world that is able to see the beauty in their resilience. That focuses on their strengths when addressing potential deficits. I want an America that does not systematically kill, imprison, and oppress Black people and POC. I think I want to know what it’s like to not have such a bittersweet feeling of watching my son grow up. Not because he’s no longer going to be my baby, but because I have to harden him to survive in a world that was not built for him.
Notes
Header image photo was taken by Phil Eich of Full Steam Social Media.
The introduction to this series of Black Lives Matter posts can be found here.
