scholarly journals Literacy Teacher Educators Creating Space for Children’s Literature

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 288
Author(s):  
Lydia Menna ◽  
Clare Kosnik ◽  
Pooja Dharamshi

This paper reports on a qualitative research study that examined how 10 literacy teacher educators (LTEs) utilized children’s literature to invite teacher trainees to critically engage with social issues, challenge their assumptions about literacy, and begin to develop the knowledge and dispositions to work alongside diverse learners (e.g., culturally, linguistically, socio-economically). The LTEs recognized that teacher trainees often entered their literacy courses with restricted conceptions of literacy and deficit assumptions about children from economically marginalized and/or culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Within their courses, the LTEs positioned literacy as a multifaceted social practice, wherein access to a variety of representational resources facilitates the active construction of knowledge and identities. The LTEs modeled instructional strategies and designed assignments that encouraged teacher trainees to use children’s literature as a means to connect with issues relevant to the lives of young learners within contemporary classrooms. This research will be of interest to LTEs who endeavor to use children’s literature as a springboard to support teacher trainees to develop a self-reflective stance and a critical cultural consciousness.

Author(s):  
Anne Homza ◽  
Tiffeni J. Fontno

Critical consciousness, teacher agency, intellectual freedom, and equity-informed practices are vital aspects of a collaboration between a faculty member and an educational librarian, whose shared goal is to support teacher candidates' capacity to use diverse children's literature to teach for social justice. In this chapter, teacher educator Homza and head librarian Fontno share ways to help teacher candidates use diverse children's literature to develop their own critical consciousness, explore issues of equity, and teach for social justice in their future classrooms. Grounding their work in conceptual frameworks, the authors discuss their positionalities, how the literature collection is built, and course activities that use diverse children's literature. Teacher candidates' reflections suggest that these efforts have an impact on their critical consciousness and capacity to engage in the challenging work of transformative pedagogy. The authors share implications for other teacher educators and librarians and questions to explore in future work.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca M. Giles ◽  
Susan F. Martin ◽  
Vitulli Paige

AbstractAdministrators, librarians, parents, teachers, and teacher educators need to be familiar with quality multicultural children's literature as a means of helping children develop an understanding of others as well as affirming their own diverse backgrounds. In this study, 31 fictional picture books identified as containing representations of ethnic Chinese or their culture were examined for literary quality and cultural authenticity. Six reviewers (three Chinese and 3 American) independently evaluated each book using a revised 10-item version of the Multicultural Children's Literature Evaluation Tool (Higgins, J. J. (2002). Multicultural children's literature: creating and applying an evaluation tool in response to the needs of urban educators. New Horizons in Education. Retrieved from http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/strategies/topics/multicultural-education/multicultural-childrens-literature/index.html) with the highest possible score being 30. Results indicated good interrater reliability with the mean score of the Chinese and American reviewers differing by less than 5 points for 24 books (80 %). Three books received a mean score of 30 by at least one group of reviewers, and three books received a mean score of below 19 by at least one group of reviewers. With results of studies such as this one at their disposal, adults are better prepared to select quality, culturally authentic literature to share with children.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 253
Author(s):  
Miikka Wikholm ◽  
Juli-Anna Aerila

The Finnish school system will transfer to the new Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2014 in 2016. The new curriculum emphasizes integration of subjects. In Finland, mathematics and the mother tongue are the two subjects which are taught the most and therefore play a significant role in every primary teacher’s weekly routine. Unlike English-speaking countries, Finland lacks children’s literature aimed towards use in mathematics teaching. This study aimed to understand teachers’ and teacher-trainees’ points of view on the extent to which they use children’s literature in teaching mathematics in primary school and how to efficiently use children’s literature in teaching mathematics in primary school. This study was a part of an international study entitled ‘Teachers’ beliefs on the integration of children’s literature in primary mathematics learning and teaching: A comparative study’, including universities from England, Hong Kong, Australia, and Finland. The aim was to determine teachers’ beliefs concerning integration of children’s literature into mathematics teaching and to the extent to which this benefits learning. Data collection was conducted via web-based questionnaires translated into Finnish from spring to autumn 2015. Mixed methods data analysis showed that teachers/teacher-trainees do not use children’s literature in mathematics teaching, but they still recognize various ways to implement it into their teaching. Previous studies on the use of literature in mathematics teaching show that children’s literature may provide a meaningful context to develop mathematical skills and foster children’s positive attitudes towards mathematics, as the stories in the literature are presented in an engaging and approachable manner.Keywords: mathematics, children’s literature, teaching


Author(s):  
Amy Tondreau ◽  
Zachary T. Barnes

This chapter explores the incorporation of diverse children's literature into a teacher preparation program, both in and beyond a required Literature for Children course. With the aim of cultivating positive reading identities for pre-service teachers, the authors focus on the process for implementing changes to build a culture of reading, so that pre-service teachers identify as life-long readers, and specifically readers who understand the importance of diverse texts. Changes to curriculum in writing, social studies, and special education methods courses are described, as is the creation of a college-wide book club. The goal of embedding children's literature in and across teacher preparation programs is for pre-service teachers to feel prepared to bring these texts into their own classrooms and to facilitate discussions on the topics that these texts raise with their students, administrative team, and parents. In order to do this, teacher educators need to provide ample opportunities for students to practice selecting, analyzing, and discussing diverse children's literature.


2015 ◽  
Vol 117 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-40
Author(s):  
Danielle E. Forest ◽  
Kasey Garrison ◽  
Sue C. Kimmel

Background Scholars of children's literature have been investigating portrayals of females and racial groups for several decades, yet few have examined depictions of social class. Research on social class depictions in children's literature is needed in order to identify books that affirm children's class identities and offer portrayals of socioeconomic diversity. Focus of the Study This study investigates portrayals of social class in 35 titles receiving the Batchelder Award or Honor between 2001 and 2013. The Batchelder Award recognizes outstanding translated books with international origins. International books for children were selected in this study because American titles are thought to be middle class in orientation; the researchers hypothesized that the international books might provide a more complex analysis of social class. Research Design The inductive approach to qualitative content analysis was utilized. At least two researchers read and coded each book in the sample. The researchers examined passages referencing social class as well as other cultural constructs such as race/ethnicity, gender, religion, and nationality. Findings The researchers identified several markers that served as indicators of social class status: living conditions, food, safety and protection, healthcare, leisure, education, occupation, residence, speech and mannerisms, clothing/dress, death rituals, and material possessions. Social class was often associated with other identities such as a character's religion or ethnicity. Characters from typically marginalized class groups, such as the poor and the working class, were portrayed sensitively and with dignity. Conclusions The markers of class identified in this study may serve as a framework for other researchers interested in examining class in children's literature or media. The findings may help teachers and teacher educators identify and select books that realistically and respectfully portray members of different social classes.


2021 ◽  
pp. 66
Author(s):  
Matea Butković ◽  
Ester Vidović

In the Republic of Croatia, the importance of intercultural education and competence-oriented curricula has gained momentum in the last decade, with children’s literature being perceived as an invaluable source of intercultural learning and a fruitful tool for an exploration of global cultural diversity. Given that empirical data indicate the importance of children’s age for selecting age-appropriate intervention methods that would help combat discriminatory and prejudicial views, especially during the period between early and late childhood, this paper explores the choice of authors and picturebook titles taught in children’s literary courses at six Croatian Faculties of Teacher Education (Rijeka, Pula, Zagreb, Osijek, Zadar, and Split) with the aim to determine how university instructors interpret multicultural children’s literature and to which extent their syllabi accentuate the potential of picturebooks in fostering future pre-school and elementary-school teachers’ intercultural competence. The findings indicate a misalignment between the objectives of intercultural education and the racial and ethnic representation of authors and their characters, especially protagonists. Furthermore, intercultural competence is not a major learning objective in the analyzed university syllabi. The choice of authors and picturebooks indicates a clear preference for white North American and European authors and white characters and protagonists. These findings highlight the need for teacher-educators, i.e., university instructors, to rethink the nature of their learning objectives and study content and to expand their reading lists with more diverse voices that challenge the traditional models that have historically left many ethnic groups misrepresented, under-represented, or fully omitted from school and university curricula.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Bjørg Oddrun Hallås ◽  
Eli Kristin Aadland ◽  
Tom Lund

Artikkelen tar utgangspunkt i at bærekraftig utvikling er vedtatt som tverrfaglig tema i norsk skole (grunnopplæringen) og i de femårige grunnskolelærer-utdanningene. Som lærerutdannere og skoleforskere tilknyttet forskergruppen Nature in Children’s Literature and Culture, ved Høgskulen på Vestlandet (HVL), er vi opptatt av miljødebatten og oppfatninger av natur i planverkene for de femårige grunnskolelærerutdanningene i fagene kroppsøving og mat og helse. De nasjonale studieplanene for 2017–18 og emneplaner fra fem UH-institusjoner utgjør vårt empiriske materiale. Vi har identifisert ord og begrep om miljødebatten og natur med analyseverktøyet NVivo. Funnene viser at ordene klima, menneske, naturen, ressurs og ute er lite brukt i planene, men selve meningskonteksten ordene står i kan tolkes som en noe menneskesentrert måte å forstå naturen på, et antroposentrisk syn. Ordene bærekraft og friluftsliv forekommer flere ganger i planene og representerer både et antroposentrisk syn og en mer økosentrisk, helhetlig måte å tenke liv og omverden på. Vi diskuterer våre funn opp mot The Nature in Culture Matrix. Drøftingene konkluderer med at det er behov for forskning som også studerer ulike undervisningspraksiser og lærerutdanneres, praksislæreres og studenters egne erfaringer med utdanningene sett fra et miljøperspektiv. Vårt mål er at artikkelen kan bidra i en bevisstgjøring og refleksjon omkring hvordan man kan legge opp til mer økokritisk undervisning i fagene kroppsøving og mat og helse i norsk lærerutdanning.Nøkkelord: grunnskolelærerutdanninger, kroppsøving, mat og helse, natur, bærekraftig utvikling, miljødimensjonenConcepts of Nature in the Physical Education and Food and Health Curricula in the Five-year Teacher Education ProgrammesAbstractThis article takes as its starting point the decision that sustainable development is to be an interdisciplinary theme in Norwegian primary and secondary education and in the five-year teacher education programmes. As teacher educators and education researchers in the research group Nature in Children’s Literature and Culture, at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, we are concerned about the environment debate and how nature is perceived in the plans for teacher education in two subject areas: Physical Education, and Food and Health. Our empirical material consists of the national study plans for 2017–18 and the course plans from five tertiary institutions. We have identified words and phrases related to the environmental dimension and nature using the analytical tool NVivo. The findings show that the words climate, people, nature, resource and outdoors are seldom used in these plans. Moreover, the contexts in which these words are used can be interpreted as indicating a human-centred view of nature, an anthropocentric view. The words sustainable and outdoor recreation (friluftsliv) occur numerous times in the plans, and represent both an anthropocentric view of nature and an ecocentric perspective, a more holistic way of thinking of life and the environment. We discuss our findings in relation to the Nature in Culture Matrix. The discussion concludes that there is a need for more research focusing on various teaching practices and on the experiences of teacher trainers, practice teachers and students in these subject areas, viewed from an environmental perspective. The objective of the article is to contribute to awareness raising and encourage reflection regarding strategies for more ecocritical teaching in the subjects Physical Education and Food and Health in Norwegian teacher education.Keywords: teacher education, physical education, food and health, nature, sustainable development, environment


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