WITH TWO key reports on childcare and early childhood education due within the next few months, this is a key moment to get anti-prejudice and anti-racist education on to the agenda, a conference in Dublin heard last week.

Noirin Hayes, an expert in early childhood education from DIT, told the conference, organised by the Pavee Point Travellers Centre, that anti-prejudice programmes as part of early childhood education would help combat racism in adults.

Louise Derman-Sparks, a US educationalist and writer who specialises in anti-prejudice work, estimated that the majority of Irish pre-schoolers were already learning to stereotype travellers and immigrant groups from the prevailing attitudes in society, and from what they hear, see and notice in the body language of adults.

She also talked about the "microcontaminants" - hurtful language, mispronunciation of names, the misunderstanding of their cultures by teachers - which build up in minority-culture children, so they reach a point where they feel inferior and lose confidence in their own identity.

Children needed to feel comfortable and empathetic with people from diverse backgrounds. They also need to develop their critical thinking to counter prejudice. Derman-Sparks explained how ethnic dolls could be used to lead small children to empathise with hurts done to minority children.