Education Commons^™

Using Texts As Mirrors: The Power Of Readers Seeing Themselves, Amy J. Heineke, Aimee Papola-Ellis, Joseph Elliott

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

In schools across the country and world, students enter classrooms with rich diversity in backgrounds, identities, and experiences. They speak hundreds of different languages, come from countries around the world, espouse nuanced cultural and gender identities, and have an array of abilities and interests. But texts in school and classroom collections continue to reflect the so-called mainstream with primarily White, English-dominant, cis-gendered characters without disabilities. Efforts have emerged on social media to encourage resources with relevance to children's lives, but teachers often struggle to make the case for their use in instruction. In this article, we provide a framework for …