“¡Olé!” Locating capital and community cultural wealth within multicultural children’s literature

Critical Multicultural Analysis of Award-winning Texts Representing Latina/o/e Experiences

“…Supported by Rosenblatt's (1978) scholarship that conceptualized reading as a transaction between the reader and the text, scholars who employ critical multicultural analysis (e.g., Pratt et al, 2018;Rodriguez & Braden, 2018;Lo, 2019;Sun, 2020) recognize that textual representations matter. Textual representations co-construct perceptions, values, and identities as we read within, through, and beyond the text (Beach et al, 2009;Sun, 2020).…”

“…These discourses of appropriateness perpetuate deficit orientations surrounding linguistically and culturally diverse students and are reified throughout the curriculum within which students are tasked to engage on a daily basis. A typical student reads countless narratives that over-idealize racialized white students and those who are middle class while devaluing the identities, cultures, and histories of diverse students (Gonzalez & Montaño, 2008;Johnson et al, 2016;Kelley et al, 2005;Pratt et al, 2018;). In contrast to this common practice, all students, including linguistically and culturally diverse students, have a right to see their own cultural and linguistic histories celebrated in schools' curricular choices (Glazier & Seo, 2011).…”

“…Using a critical multicultural content analysis (Botelho & Rudman, 2009) of 14 chapter books, as part of a larger study which also explored picture books (Pratt et al, 2018), this study aims to understand the literature awarded for writing culturally and linguistically affirming texts and how this literature might serve as both a window and a mirror for Latina/o/e students in schools. The research presented below aimed to analyze how the characters' cultural experiences were portrayed across these award-winning texts and if the common themes positioned asset-based realities within the books.…”

Pages of potential: an action research study of the affordances and constraints of using picture books as tools to deepen adult senses of identity and belonging

“…Multicultural texts, as defined by Husband (2018), are texts in which the experiences, histories and cultures of diverse groups of peoples are both celebrated and honored. Pratt et al (2021) found that the omission of racially diverse books is not only a microaggression, but is cultural invalidation experienced by feelings of discomfort or a lack of safety; to be in an optimal place for social, academic and emotional learning feeling safe and that you belong is important (CASEL). Validating the multicultural identities of students through positive representation of multicultural identities contributes to positive racial identity development.…”

“…This study builds upon research that indicates adults need support with talking about race. In the absence of facilitation grounded in a racially literate, culturally sustaining, stance; at best opportunities are missed and at worse cultural invalidation may occur (Pratt, 2021). Picture books are tools that must be handled with care, especially by adults who are using these books with an intention of building cultural competencies and understandings of the ways in which the construct of race and impact of racism must be understood and acted against.…”