Why Build a Field of Children's Racial Learning?

How children learn about race has become a public conversation in ways it wasn’t a generation ago. 

Parents are asking questions. Educators are seeking better tools. Researchers are producing new insights about how children understand identity, fairness, and difference. Health professionals are recognizing that race is a part of longitudinal care. 

Across the country, people and institutions are doing important work.

But much of this work has developed in parallel– often without a shared framework, shared language, or shared infrastructure.

That's where field building comes in.

What we mean by field building

A field isn’t just a collection of people doing similar work.

A field is a community with shared knowledge, shared goals, and the infrastructure to make lasting change possible.

Field building brings together the many actors working on the same challenge so that progress becomes coordinated, cumulative, and sustainable.

Research on systems change shows that fields grow stronger when they develop several key elements, including a strong knowledge base, collaboration across diverse actors, shared strategy, and the connective infrastructure that allows people to learn and act together.

In the field of children’s racial learning, that means building connections between:

• Parents and caregivers
• Educators and school leaders
• Researchers and developmental scientists
• Pediatric and mental health professionals
• Community organizations and advocates
• Media creators and storytellers
• Philanthropy and policy leaders

Each plays a role in shaping how children understand race.

Together, they form a field.

Why this field matters

Children begin noticing racial differences early in life.

Without guidance, they also absorb the messages and inequities present in the world around them.

When adults have the knowledge, language, and confidence to talk about race honestly and thoughtfully, children develop:

• Stronger identities
• Greater empathy
• A deeper understanding of fairness and justice
• The skills to navigate a diverse world

But no single parent, classroom, or organization can create that shift alone.

It requires a field working together.

EmbraceRace as a field catalyst

Fields rarely grow on their own.

Research shows that many successful social change movements rely on field catalysts—organizations that connect actors, share knowledge, and help coordinate progress across a field.

EmbraceRace plays this catalytic role for the field of children’s racial learning.

Rather than trying to do everything ourselves, our work focuses on strengthening the ecosystem so that many actors can contribute and learn together.

We help build the field by:

• Convening across sectors - Bringing together leaders from education, research, healthcare, media, and family engagement to develop shared language, strategy, and collaboration.
• Translating research into practice - Connecting what developmental science tells us about children’s racial learning with the practical needs of parents, educators, and communities.
• Building shared knowledge - Documenting what’s working—and where gaps remain—through efforts like the National Parent Survey on Children’s Racial Learning and Reflections on Children’s Racial Learning, helping the field better understand our intersecting work, families' experiences and how children learn about race in everyday life.
• Strengthening connections - Creating spaces where practitioners, researchers, and families can exchange insights, identify gaps, and develop new partnerships.

This work belongs to everyone

The field of children’s racial learning is not owned by any single organization or profession. It belongs to everyone who helps shape children’s development. Each contributes to how children understand race—and to the future they help build. Field building helps these efforts connect, reinforce one another, and grow in impact.