Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Education Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Curriculum and Instruction

PDF

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Journal

Children's literature

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Education

“Pockets Of Hope”: Changing Representations Of Diversity In Newbery Medal–Winning Titles, Kathleen A. Paciga, Melanie D. Koss Apr 2022

“Pockets Of Hope”: Changing Representations Of Diversity In Newbery Medal–Winning Titles, Kathleen A. Paciga, Melanie D. Koss

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Newbery Medal–winning books provide cultural models for children’s developing cultural understandings of themselves and others. This article presents results of a critical content analysis that used sociocultural and historical lenses to examine representations of race/ethnicity, gender, and ability of main characters across the Newbery-winning corpus and how these representations have changed over the history of the award, 1922–2019. Findings present a lack of consistent diverse representation across all fields, with increased diverse representation in the most recent decades. The discussion contextualizes findings against historical events. Understanding the representations of diversity in these texts and the historical contexts within which such …


“It’S Just Too Sad!”: Teacher Candidates’ Emotional Resistance To Picture Books, Aimee Papola-Ellis Jul 2016

“It’S Just Too Sad!”: Teacher Candidates’ Emotional Resistance To Picture Books, Aimee Papola-Ellis

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

The use of critical literacy with children’s books that focus on social issues and disrupt the status quo can be a powerful way to create spaces for conversations with students about social justice and empowerment. Teacher candidates in a semester long children’s literature course were asked to respond to a range of children’s texts that dealt with many social issues and disrupted the commonplace. Despite an explicit emphasis on critical literacy and social justice, the candidates were very resistant to using many of the texts in their own future classrooms. They had strong emotional reactions that prevented them from consideration …