The Role of Children’s Literature in Cultivating Preservice Teachers as Transformative Intellectuals: A Literature Review

Abstract

This review of literacy education scholarship examines the ways that children’s literature is used as a resource within literacy methods courses in the preparation of preservice teachers (PTs) as transformative intellectuals. The research indicates that the use of children’s literature in literacy methods courses has served two distinct purposes: (a) to engage PTs in learning literacy instructional practices and (b) to engage PTs in building sociocultural knowledge and learning transformative (e.g., culturally relevant) pedagogies. This review is framed by Giroux’s call for educators to disrupt technocratic approaches to instruction. The findings emphasize the importance of using children’s literature with PTs to broaden PTs’ understandings of their future student’s lives, so they might engage in transformative pedagogies as future K-12 literacy educators.

Contesting Science That Silences: Amplifying Equity, Agency, and Design Research in Literacy Teacher Preparation

“…Similarly, much of the research in these syntheses looked at preservice teacher preparation in a single semester and in one context, rather than across time and space (see Fowler‐Amato, LeeKeenan, et al, 2019; Hoffman et al, 2019). Finally, as a way of radically reimagining literacy instruction in teacher education (Sailors, 2019), the work of Flores et al (2019) and Mosley Wetzel et al (2019) suggested that research in literacy teacher education should be used to dismantle hegemony.…”

Literacy Teacher Educators Creating Space for Children’s Literature

“…There is a growing appreciation of the role children's literature can play in supporting teacher trainees to recognize a multiplicity of linguistic resources, acknowledge cultural and socioeconomic differences, and respond to the varied literacy needs of learners in classroom contexts [23,45,46]. Bishop's [47,48] use of the mirrors and windows metaphor highlights the potential of children's literature to serve as a powerful resource to teach about dimensions of diversity and cultural representation.…”

“…Within the context of this paper, critical texts refers to texts that actively take up issues of difference and dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender identity, class, or linguistic diversity. Relevant research reveals that LTEs have used children's literature to create spaces of learning, which encourage teacher trainees to consciously reflect upon categories of difference, to inquire into multiple perspectives, and to actively explore the relationship between language, culture and identity [45,[51][52][53][54][55][56][57]. These spaces of learning can encourage teacher trainees to engage in conversations that centre marginalized voices and a range of lived experiences.…”

“…For as Luke [49] highlights, "what is included and excluded, valued and denigrated in literacy and literature is not arbitrary, random or a natural expression of quality or taste", but rather "it is tied up with questions about the power and status of particular representations of culture" (p. 43). Engaging with texts that render visible cultural, racial, and linguistic differences provides opportunities for teacher trainees to extend their sociocultural knowledge and to dialogue with one another about how to effectively work alongside diverse learners [45,46]. Inviting teacher trainees to actively engage with critical texts by participating in instructional strategies, such as literature circles, dialogue journals, drama, and story mapping, has been found to encourage conscious reflection and to facilitate conversations about diverse social issues [54,61,62].…”

“…The LTEs used children's literature to invite teacher trainees to engage in critical conversations about the complex issues likely to be relevant to the lives of the young learners and families they will work alongside in school contexts. The examination of the LTEs' instructional practices provides insight into how children's literature can be utilized to consciously reflect upon and inquire into categories of difference [45,[50][51][52]. Ella, for instance, believed that "children's literature is central to the whole course in terms of equity and having diverse representations of literature and giving teacher trainees suggestions of texts they can bring into their own classrooms that showcase linguistic or racial diversity."…”