Our 70 cm life-like cloth Dolls are culturally authentic, non-sexist & most are appropriately dressed
in clothes produced in South Africa by previously unskilled women and a few men from deprived communities with high levels of unemployment of whom many are HIV positive. Their work provides
much needed income as they are their families sole bread winners. Some of the shoes the Dolls wear
are also made in South Africa.

On the order form we identify the ethnicity & gender to make ordering easier but when you create personas for your Dolls you decide on the ethnicity & gender you want them to have. The plumper version of the Dolls is available and we apologies to those who don’t like this term - unfortunately there is no term that is acceptable to everyone.

The beautifully hand-crafted Dolls are made in London by a small experienced and dedicated team led by Liliane Reeves. She has been involved in making and developing the Dolls since 2001 when Persona Doll Training started.

 

 

 

 

Persona Dolls in Action & support book

This DVD/video and support book provide practitioners, students, lecturers and trainers
with an accessible guide to using Persona Dolls.
• watch and enjoy children actively responding to the Dolls
• watch the Dolls encouraging children to empathise, feel good about themselves
  and to problem solve
• watch students making Dolls
• read about what makes the Dolls and their stories so special
• raise awareness with the exercises in the support book

 

Celebrating Diversity: inclusion in practice

This video/DVD and support book are based on the principle that good practice
= anti-discriminatory practice. The children, parents and practitioners underline
the importance of implementing inclusion and avoiding exclusion.
Practitioners, students, lecturers and trainers can:
• watch and enjoy children in various settings actively exploring similarities
  and differences and unlearning any discriminatory messages they may have absorbed
• see practitioners boosting children’s self-esteem, pride in their own cultural and family backgrounds while respecting and valuing those of the rest of the group
• see a teacher using a Persona Doll in the Literacy Hour and watch the children   reading, talking, thinking and making up their own minds
  about a racist letter the Doll finds in his bag
• empathise with a parent talking about her feelings on leaving her child for the first time
  and with another’s fear of being judged a ‘bad’ mother.

Citizenship For All: respect, rights, responsibility

The teachers featured on this innovative video/dvd training pack view primary school children
as active citizens.
• They encourage them to be enthusiastic, empathetic, thoughtful and critical learners willing to question   their own assumptions and beliefs.
• They help them develop the skills they need to challenge racism and other social inequalities.
• They provide opportunities for them to practice democracy and take action to bring about change
• They demonstrate that anti-discriminatory practice is a key aspect of good citizenship education.

Persona Dolls with Older Children

This DVD and support provides an accessible guide to using the Dolls
with children at key stages 1 and 2
Year 1 - Literacy Hour: countering discrimination
Year 2 - Expanding horizons and developing understanding
Year 2 – Building relationships built on respect
Year 3 – Respecting other people
Year 4 – Talk about racism and take action to combat it

 

Equality in Action: a way forward with Persona Dolls

Drawing on evidence from hitherto unpublished British research, this book examines the impact of the Persona Doll approach and validates what has been assumed but not substantiated. It highlights the fact that the Dolls and their stories are engaging, thought-provoking, inter-active learning tools particularly when they are integrated into
an anti-discriminatory curriculum. They enable foundation and key stage 1 and 2 educators to raise equality issues and empower boys and girls to stand up for themselves and others when faced with unfairness and prejudice.

Embedding equality and inclusion is fast becoming obligatory and no longer a question of individual choice. For example, the Race Relations Amendment Act requires that educators encourage children and students to respect, accept and value people who are different from themselves.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families prioritises inclusion and equality and requires that educators at the foundation stage and at key stages 1 and 2 develop the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to promote anti-discriminatory education.

Equality in Action: a way forward with Persona Dolls has been written for early years practitioners,
key stage 1 and 2 teachers, learning support staff, local authority advisers, students and their lecturers. Those who are experienced in promoting equality and those new to this important task
will find much to enrich their work.

Unlearning Discrimination in the Early Years

This book encourages readers to actively contribute to the difficult but exciting process
of challenging discrimination. Examples highlight the fact that young children understand discriminatory issues when encouraged to do so but readily absorb prevailing stereotypical notions when they are not.
Some of the anti-discriminatory principles underpinning the book include:

• Inclusive educational practice involves developing empowering relationships built on   trust, respect and an appreciation of diversity.
• All children are entitled to equality of access and treatment and to be able to learn from a stimulating culturally appropriate curriculum.
• We have a responsibility to support children’s learning and to help them unlearn the prejudices
  and discriminatory attitudes they absorb from the world around them.
  Louise Derman-Sparks in the foreword suggests:
  If you choose the path of undoing discrimination in Early Years care and education, then this wise
  and informative book is for you.

Combating Discrimination: Persona Dolls in Action

This book highlights relevant research and offers practical suggestions to inspire
and motivate lecturers, in-service trainers, practitioners and students to use Persona Dolls within an anti-discriminatory and culturally appropriate context. The approach is
non-threatening and innovative. It explains why Persona Dolls are special and how
the interactive story-telling sessions enable children to develop empathy, respect
and sensitivity and to gain the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to achieve
the Early Learning Goals. It suggests that storytelling sessions enable children to reveal
the prejudices and mis-information they have picked up and enable practitioners
and students to counter them.
Issues explored in the book include:
• why children’s capacity to empathise needs to be developed
• how Persona Dolls can help to combat prejudice and discriminatory behaviour
• ways in which Persona Doll stories are different from other stories
• why parents need to be consulted and involved when Persona Dolls are selected
  and their personas created
• The links between Vygotsky’s & Bruner’s approach and Persona Doll methodology.