Sharing Instructor's Expertise and Vulnerability in Culturally Sensitive Content

• In Event: 46.076 - Transforming Self Through Intercultural Experiences

Abstract

This self-study examines the manner in which children’s literature has intersected two teacher educators' lives and work. For the first author (African American), Little Black Sambo, was a source of visual horror, as the absence of racial representations in US children’s literature was suddenly filled with horror on his first encounter with the text. For the second author (Asian), the same book was a source of delight as she shared it with her kindergarten students in Korea. We found that personal storytelling with teacher education students represented a source of discomfort and challenge, but also comprised an impetus to examine stereotypical racial representations, not only in the US, but from a global perspective as well.

Authors

• Shuaib J. Meacham, University of Delaware

• Sohyun Meacham, University of Northern Iowa