Examining Agency in Children’s Nonfiction Picture Books
| Autor: | Margaret Vaughn, Vera Sotirovska, Janine J. Darragh, Mohamed Elhess |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Linguistics and Language
White (horse) Literature and Literary Theory Cultural identity media_common.quotation_subject 05 social sciences Ethnic group 050301 education Gender studies The arts Education Multiculturalism Honor Agency (sociology) Language education 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Sociology 0503 education 050104 developmental & child psychology media_common |
| Zdroj: | Children's Literature in Education. 53:33-51 |
| ISSN: | 1573-1693 0045-6713 |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s10583-021-09435-y |
| Popis: | Given increased attention toward nonfiction and informational texts due to recent educational reforms in the nation, it is critical to examine how various cultural identities are depicted in nonfiction children’s picture books. Focusing on the Orbis Pictus honor and awarded texts (n = 60) from 1990 to 2019, this article reports the findings of a critical multicultural analysis of the depictions of age, sex, socio-economic status, ethnicities, and geographic regions of these awarded texts. Using a secondary analysis of opportunities for agency, we examine how focal subjects (Crisp in Lang Arts 92(4):241–255, 2015) exert their agency in their respective contexts. Our aim in doing so is to problematize the notion of agency in these texts, specifically understanding who exerts agency, how, and for what purposes. Findings suggest that the authors of these awarded texts rely on highlighting White, European males where agency is typically depicted as an act that occurs in adulthood. As a result, discussion focuses on how such texts, although well-meaning, perhaps perpetuate the traditional notion and passivity of young children in relation to their agency and calls to question the lack of multiple perspectives and voices in the awarded texts. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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