Sociodramatic Play with Racially Diverse Dolls in a Child Development Center

Oct 15, 2026

Explores how young children notice and construct racial awareness and racial attitudes through dramatic play in a preschool setting using racially and ethnically diverse dolls. Frames the work against research showing early racial awareness, including documented preferences and biases toward whiteness across multiple study types. Uses an exploratory observational design based on teacher observations of children’s play to examine the racial discourse present in doll play, and to inform how early childhood educators can address race and ethnicity.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

What the Literature Reveals

Evidence of early racial preferences

Possibility of influencing racial attitudes

Observations of play and bias

Sociodramatic Play with Racially Diverse Dolls in a Child Development Center Toni Denese Sturdivant There is a prevailing myth that young children do not notice race (Doucet & Adair, 2013; Hirschfeld, 2012) . While, in fact, infants as early as three months old notice race (Bar-Haim et al., 2006; Kelly et al. , 2005) . Further, three-year-old children have been documented as showing racial bias (Clark & Clark, 1939b; Spencer & Markstrom-Adams, 1990; Stevenson & Stewart, 1958) . Additionally, Hindley and Olsen (2017) argue that “by age eight, racial attitudes are well developed and tend to stay the same unless a child has significant experiences and adult guidance that directly contradict the prevailing social attitudes”(p. 14) . Unfortunately, our society is filled with racism (Delgado & Stefancic, 2012; Ladson-Billings, 1998; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995) . In short, children notice race and use the information available to them to make racial preferences. Therefore, if numerous early childhood educators find discussing race and ethnicity inappropriate for young children, children could be left to figure out race and ethnicity using the products of our society that praise some groups and negatively depicts others (Doucet & Adair, 2013) . This study sought to increase our knowledge of racial awareness in young children by utilizing teacher observations of their students’ play with racially/ ethnically diverse dolls. Thus, the purpose of this exploratory study was to explore racial awareness and racial attitudes through the racial discourse present in the dramatic play of children in the preschool classroom. Knowing more about how children are making sense of race and ethnicity in their play provides insight in how early childhood educators can address race and ethnicity in classrooms and what specific issues could be of interest to their young learners. The intention of this exploration was also to learn more about the ways in which early childhood teachers notice and describe racial bias and racial attitudes in the doll play of their preschool students. What the Literature Reveals Research involving interviewing young children about dolls has a long history and similar findings. Researchers using Black and White dolls consistently found that both Black and White children showed a preference for whiteness (Clark & Clark, 1939a, 1939b; Spencer & Markstrom-Adams, 1990; Stevenson & Stewart, 1958) . Jordan and Hernandez-Reif (2009) found the same White bias in preschoolers that were presented with two choices of a White or Black digital cartoon character. Even recently, Sturdivant and Alanis (2020) found that children in a preschool classroom with no talk about diversity, rejected the Black dolls in the classroom in favor of the White and Latina dolls, both having light skin and straight hair. This is not just a Black American and White American issue either. Jesuvadian & Wright (2009) found that children associated the dark skin of an Indian doll with why the doll did not have any friends. Additionally, in an implicit association test of Chinese and Indian 10 Dimensions • Volume 48/Number 3 children in Singapore, Setoh et al. ,(2017) found that the Chinese children (dominant group) showed a clear preference for their own race, and the Indian children did not. Taken together, it is possible that young children tend to prefer the dominant race or ethnic group in their society. It is important to note that in two of the studies listed above, the researchers were able to alter their racial attitudes through rewards and storytelling (Jordan & Hernandez-Reif, 2009; Spencer & Markstrom-Adams, 1990) . While it is unfortunate that this strong preference for whiteness and dislike of blackness has been found over and over again, it is quite encouraging that adults can play a role in the views of children. As stated by Escayg, Berman, and Royer (2017) “although research has demonstrated a pro-White bias among minority

FAQs

What is the study aiming to understand about children’s play?

The study examines how children develop racial awareness and racial attitudes through the racial discourse in their dramatic doll play in a preschool classroom.

What does prior research say about children’s preferences related to race?

Research cited in the text reports that children often show preferences for whiteness, including findings from studies using dolls and other choices, and across different cultural settings.

How might teachers influence children’s racial attitudes according to the text?

The text describes studies where rewards, storytelling, and teachers intentionally incorporating culturally relevant interests and materials helped promote more positive racial identity and changes in children’s dispositions.

Oct 15, 2026

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