‘Diversity as a Verb’ in Preservice Teacher Education: Creating Spaces to Challenge the Profiling of Young Children

Profiling human beings occurs daily throughout our society, typically grounded in inaccuracies, misperceptions, and biases related to race, faith, sexual orientation, language, family structure, and other factors. This article appropriates discriminatory profiling in conjunction with conceptualization of diversity as a verb to vividly convey the need for educators to follow the lead of social justice advocates in identifying and challenging the deficit targeting of young children and their families. Acknowledging that most teachers believe that they send messages of support to every child, this article describes three studies in preservice teacher education based on the premise that unexamined biases keep us from fully recognizing when we profile children and families in ways that limit possibilities for teaching and learning. Grounded in critical sociocultural theory, findings reflect reconceptualizations of home and family engagements as important steps in helping preservice teachers identify and overturn discriminatory profiling in early childhood classrooms.