Challenges of developing pedagogy through diversity and equity within the new Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum

Abstract

A commitment to diversity and equity principles through social justice lies at the heart of many Early Years' practitioners working practices. However, the term social justice is complex, and this complexity manifests itself through its multiple meanings, in different cultural contexts. This paper investigates how diversity and equity are linked through an understanding of social justice within the new Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum. It also explores how diversity and equity is promoted through the Early Years curriculum and what remain the potential challenges practitioners. Interviews in multi-cultural and mono-cultural primary schools with Early Years age phases were conducted. The findings showed that the principles of social justice through diversity and equity was interpreted differently in each Early Years setting, which is unsurprising given the complicated nature of its meaning. The multi-cultural schools appear to use a greater variety of activities to embed social justice principles that involved their diverse communities more to enrich the curriculum in contrast to the mono-cultural schools. In mono-cultural schools however, practitioners had to be more creative in promoting diversity and equity given the smaller proportion of their diverse pupil and staff population.