Education Commons^™

The Evolution Of The Child Character With Learning Differences, Mary Viera

Honors Program Theses and Projects

In this paper, I will analyze the various representations of learning disabilities in selected children’s literature from the early twentieth century to recent literature published in the last decade. In the typical American classroom specific learning disabilities account for about 20% of students. It is the largest classified group to receive services in special education, and also the broadest: “Learning disabilities are disorders that affect the ability to understand or use spoken or written language, do mathematical calculations, coordinate movements or direct attention” (NIH, 2022). I will use the term “learning differences” as it encompasses all children who learn differently …

Gender Equity In Early Childhood Picture Books: A Cross-Cultural Study Of Frequently Read Picture Books In Early Childhood Classrooms In Australia And The United States, Helen Adam, Laurie Harper

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Children’s picture books contribute to children’s development of gender identity and can impact aspirations and expectations of roles in families and society. However, the world represented in children’s books reflects predominantly middle class, heterosexual, male heroes and characters. This paper reports on a cross-cultural study investigating gender representation in frequently read picture books across eight early learning centres in the United States and Australia. Forty-four educators working with 271 children participated. Data were collected from book audits and observations. Unique to this study is the presentation of a new data analysis instrument, Harper’s Framework of Gender Stereotypes Contained in Children’s …

Mirrors Of Our Own: Multiracial Representation In Children’S Picture Books, Kiana Foster-Mauro

Honors Scholar Theses

The United States multiracial population is a fast-growing portion of our population. As the multiracial population grows, so does the need for multiracial representation within books. This study analyzed the representation of multiracial individuals in children’s picture books for ages newborn-8. I identified 75 board and picture books published in the United States between the years 2009 and 2019 that feature mixed race characters. The identified texts were analyzed in a critical content analysis using a framework based upon Critical Race Theory. Through this framework, I examined how multiracial characters in the texts are portrayed, the power dynamics, and what …

Paper: Beware The Cat In The Hat: How Children’S Literature Is A Reflection Of A Bleak Society, Lucy Kebler

Womanist Ethics

Children’s literature is full of messages that are relayed to children. Unfortunately, many of these messages are involve cultural appropriation. Others involve harmful interpretations of sexuality, consent, and identity. This essay explores why classics such as Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat, and Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie. All these books present different problematic material, which must not only be revaluated based on content, but also on the way it is taught and relayed to children. Along with the books listed above, this essay also looks …

Exploring Diversity, Citizenship, And Gender Through Jazz: A Narrative Criticism Of I Am Jazz, Mary Beth Jones

Northwest Communication Association Conference Papers & Presentations

In this study, a narrative analysis of a children’s picture book was conducted to uncover how young audiences are taught about diversity and inclusion through books. The setting, characters, narrator, and target audiences of the 2014 book I am Jazz were evaluated to decipher how readers are educated about transgenderism and diversity in greater context. Specific rhetorical qualities in the visual and written elements emphasize the importance of diversity, uniqueness, individuality, and acceptance. This particular book has created a range of support and protest since its publication, and it is an important example of the emotional and political power of …

La Representacion De “Raza” En La Literatura Escolar Y Juvenil Norteamericana Del Siglo Xix, Karl M. Lorenz

Education Faculty Publications

Este documento relata cómo las razas angloamericana, amerindia y negra estuvieron representadas en libros de texto de la escuela primaria y na literatura juvenil en el siglo XIX. Una muestra de textos de geografía, historia y lectura, y revistas juveniles y infantiles publicadas entre 1790 y 1890 fueron examinadas para determinar cómo se representaron las tres razas. También se presenta información adicional de publicaciones para adultos y científicas para proporcionar un contexto para las opiniones expresadas en los libros de texto y la literatura relacionada. Con base en la información transmitida en las publicaciones, se identificaron y discutieron brevemente conceptos …

Exploring The Collection Of Swedish-American Children’S Literature, Katie Hanson

Swenson Center Faculty Research Stipend Reports

For five days I examined resources related to children’s literature held in the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center collection. Initially, I proposed that I would examine anything having to do with children's literature. I ended up looking at lots of immigration stories as well as the holdings in the children's collection.

Promoting Exploratory Talk With Emergent Bilinguals, Yvonne S. Freeman, Alma D. Rodríguez

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The authors explain their approach to teaching literatura infantil (children’s literature) in Spanish to bilingual teachers pursuing their master’s degree in bilingual education at a university in South Texas. In this Self-Study of Teacher Education Practice (S-STEP) research, the authors investigated how teachers can transform their practice and come to value their students’ abilities to interpret literature. They engaged the teachers in projects using quality children’s literature. The projects were carried out by graduate inservice teachers teaching Spanish/English bilingual students studying at different grade levels. Some teachers taught along the Texas/Mexico border and others taught in a large metropolitan school …

Examining The Historical Representation Of Native Americans Within Children’S Literature, Lauren Hunt

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this research, I evaluated the historical representation of Native Americans in children’s literature. The portrayal of Native Americans in children’s literature is important because Native Americans are commonly included within elementary school social studies curriculum. For this reason, teachers should know how the literature they select historically represents Native Americans. This historical representation includes—but is not limited to—their interactions with European explorers, colonists, and eventually Americans. Teachers must be aware that publishers of children’s books are businesses; their job is to sell books. As a result, these companies do not always ensure that the books they sell are historically …

What's New On Jane's Bookshelf?, Jane Leeth

Articles

When I’m not teaching, I’m scouring bookstores and websites for interesting new releases in children’s and young adult literature. My dogs don’t even bark anymore when the UPS man shows up at the front door with a box of books; he’s sort of become part of our family.

I’ve listed here a handful of books that recently piqued my interest—whether I was intrigued by the topic, the aesthetic post-modern appearance, and/or what I can do with the text in the classroom.

Education, Elisabeth Rose Gruner

English Faculty Publications

In both Keywords (Williams 1983a) and New Keywords (Bennett, Grossberg, and Morris 2005), "education" (Keywords has "educate") is primarily an institutional practice, which, after the late eighteenth century, is increasingly formalized and universalized in Western countries. Bearing the twin senses of "to lead forth" (from the Latin educare) and "to bring up" (from the Latin educare), "education" appears chiefly as an action practiced by adults on children. The Oxford English Dictionary thus defines the terms as "the systematic instruction, schooling, or training given to the young in preparation for the work of life."

Teach The Children: Education And Knowledge In Recent Children's Fantasy, Elisabeth Rose Gruner

English Faculty Publications

This essay is an investigation into how learning is portrayed in children's books. It starts from two premises: first, that at least one origin of children's literature is in didacticism, and that learning and pedagogy continue to be important in much of the literature we provide for children today. Thus, for example, David Rudd claims that most histories of children's literature on "the tension between instruction and entertainment," and that the genre as we know it develops within, among other things, "an educational system promoting literacy" (29, 34). Seth Lerer's recent Children's Literature: A Reader's History similarly traces the origins …

Raising Cultural Awareness In The Elementary Classroom Through African-American Children's Literature, Kirsten Seebeck

Graduate Research Papers

This research project topic was selected because of the need for raised cultural awareness in elementary classrooms, as indicated in current research findings. I chose African-American literature because in this region of the United States, Iowa in particular, the classrooms tend to be largely homogenous. Children who are from African-American descent find themselves to be in the minority in their classroom settings.

These children are not seeing many other children like themselves in their school community. It is therefore important that they see themselves in the literature shared within this community, in order to help them to relate to their …