Doing anti-homophobia and anti-heterosexism in early childhood education : moving beyond the immobilising impacts of 'risks', 'fears' and 'silences' : can we afford not to?

This article explores the notion of 'risk' and the consequences of both 'taking risks' or 'not taking risks' in doing anti-homophobia (or anti-heterosexist) education within broader anti-bias and social justice agendas in early childhood education. Informed primarily by the author's collaborative research and experience as a teacher educator in cultural diversity and social justice issues over the past decade, this discussion focuses on the discursive and material barriers that reinforce negative readings of taking risks, within personal, institutional and societal contexts, in relation to doing anti-homophobia education with children as part of early childhood education curricula. The article explores 'risk' as a social construction, operating as a powerful means of societal control in order to maintain the status quo and dominant power relations that underpin societal inequalities, especially those related to the rigid binary heterosexual us/homosexual them. The question of whether early childhood educators can afford to 'risk' not doing anti-homophobia education as part of their anti-bias or social justice agendas becomes the pertinent issue explored in this article.