(Re)Animating Children's Aesthetic Experiences With/Through Literature: Critically Curating Picturebooks as Sociopolitical Art

Zapata, Angie

doi:10.1002/trtr.2128

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Visual depictions of oppression could help children identify oppression in their everyday lives and decode it in history, preparing them to take informed action against oppression here and now. Picturebooks are socio-political artifacts for opening up critical conversations in classrooms (Zapata, 2022). Because children may misinterpret illustrations and texts (Schickedanz and Collins, 2012), teachers' scaffolding and support is critical.…”

Section: Picturebooks As Anti-oppressive Artifactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What does oppression look like in 2022 notable books?

Zhao,

Khan,

2023

SSRP

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PurposeThis critical content analysis aims to examine the depiction of oppression in the 2022 Notable Social Studies Trade Books (K-2). From the framework of major types and levels of oppression, this paper sheds light on the rich affordances and problematic representations of oppression.Design/methodology/approachFrom the perspectives of an intersectional approach and the framework of oppression, the authors conducted a critical content analysis of the written texts, illustrations and peritexts of the notable books for young readers.FindingsAmong the 73 picturebooks, 46 (63%) include representations of oppression in the written texts and/or illustrations. Half of these books depict more than one type of oppression. The most frequently represented oppression is racism, followed by sexism. There are limited depictions of homophobia, transphobia, ableism, ageism, antisemitism and Islamophobia. Nine books (20%) only include the representation of oppression in the peritexts.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to anti-oppressive education by offering a theoretical framework of oppression, which emphasizes the interlocking systems of oppression. This framework can help foster a holistic understanding of oppression and dismantle it in a holistic way.Practical implicationsThe authors also offer suggestions to help educators curate picturebooks for anti-oppressive social studies education.Originality/valueThis study contributes to anti-oppressive education by offering a theoretical framework of oppression, which emphasizes the interlocking systems of oppression. This framework can help foster a holistic understanding of oppression and dismantle it in a holistic way. The authors also offer suggestions to help educators curate picturebooks for anti-oppressive social studies education.

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Section: Picturebooks As Anti-oppressive Artifactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What does oppression look like in 2022 notable books?

Zhao,

Khan,

2023

SSRP

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“…The literature utilized in this study served as a launching pad for the critical discussions that transpired, which opened the space for topics of race, racism, and difference. In addition to researcher and facilitator, I served as a critical curator (Eeds and Peterson, 1991; Zapata, 2022) of Black children’s literature. The children’s books were a platform, a sliding glass door (Bishop, 1990) for the children to explore sociopolitical issues that were grounded in their experiential experiences, weaving together multiple narratives to represent their knowledge, related to and beyond the books.…”

Section: Researcher Identity and Positionalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Conducting racial awareness research with African American children: Unearthing their sociopolitical knowledge through Pro-Black literacy methods

Johnson

2022

Journal of Early Childhood Literacy

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Black children around the globe develop and learn in persistently racist environments. Decades of early racial awareness research primarily center on the development of young children’s self-esteem, racial biases, or friendships. Researchers have yet to learn all that can be understood about young children’s perspectives on structural racial inequities. There is a dearth of research that examines young African American children’s emergent sociopolitical consciousness. As such, this article explores the following inquiry: What research conditions make it possible to elicit young African American children’s racialized sociopolitical awareness and knowledge? Over the course of one school year, I studied five African American first graders’ literacies, racial awareness, and sociopolitical knowledge who were enrolled in an independent neighborhood elementary school. Through a synthesis of my methodology, I detail three foundational orientations: (a) privileging intraracial spaces as contexts for narrating and grappling with racialized, sociopolitical realities, (b) utilize children’s literature by and about Black people with critically conscious narratives, and (c) operating from the belief that young children are competent to speak about the racialized conditions in which they live. The implications from this research demonstrate the possibilities of pro-Black research at the intersection of racial awareness and sociocultural literacy studies. To combat antiblackness in education research and in schools, we need to hear the voices of African American children and carve out spaces that center Blackness for them to express racial sociopolitical truths. Conducting early racial awareness research about and with young African American children requires that we believe they possess the developmental capacity to name and resist inequity and imagine the possibilities of racial justice.

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“…What is of particular research interest are the ways in which picturebooks communicate cultural and social meanings (Coats, 2017 ) and how these evolve with new means of communication and literacies. The recent turn towards phenomenological (Rowsell, 2014 ), affective (Leander & Ehret, 2019 ), and embodied (Hillesund et al, 2022 ) literacy studies with adult readers have also influenced literary understandings of children’s picturebooks (Papen & Peach, 2021 ; Zapata, 2022 ). The phenomenological turn inspired our thinking around the body-mind connection in children’s literacy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children’s Olfactory Picturebooks: Charting New Trends in Early Childhood Education

Kucirkova

Tosun

2023

Early Childhood Educ J

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Converging global trends (digitization, globalization, datafication) have influenced all aspects of children’s literacies, including children’s picturebooks. The recent turn towards embodied, affective and sensory literacies, stimulated our interest in multisensory picturebooks that engage all children’s senses, including the sense of smell (olfaction). Olfactory children’s picturebooks demand new forms of literary conversations, which capitalise on unique properties of odours and integrate these with stories. Drawing on a systematic search of children’s picturebooks about, and with, smell, in paper-based and digital formats, we identified three principal ways in which olfaction is currently embedded in children’s picturebooks: 1, as an add-on to depiction of objects (including foods, plants) and places, 2, as a device to introduce humour into a story, and 3, as an engagement tool for children’s active participation in the story. We mobilise Sipe’s (2008) concept of seven constituting elements in children’s picturebooks to describe how current olfactory picturebooks apply the elements in their design and make recommendations for future development of children’s olfactory picturebooks. Reflecting on the generative potential of literary theories and olfactory power to stimulate children’s non-linguistic embodied interactions with picturebooks, we propose some extensions to the current olfactory picturebook landscape.

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(Re)Animating Children's Aesthetic Experiences With/Through Literature: Critically Curating Picturebooks as Sociopolitical Art

Abstract: In this column, I evoke a long‐standing call for children's aesthetic experiences with literature and do so by (re)claiming picturebooks as sociopolitical art that demands critical curation and instruction in the classroom.

Cited by 7 publications

References 12 publications

What does oppression look like in 2022 notable books?

What does oppression look like in 2022 notable books?

Conducting racial awareness research with African American children: Unearthing their sociopolitical knowledge through Pro-Black literacy methods

Children’s Olfactory Picturebooks: Charting New Trends in Early Childhood Education

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