Young Children Responding to Multicultural Children's Books: A Multiple-Site Report

• In Event: Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Multicultural Teacher Education

Abstract

Employing a qualitative research method, this study examined pre-school children’s responses to multicultural picturebooks and gained insight into how pre-school children make meaning about illustrations and textual features that include aspects of culture. Participants demonstrated high level of engagement with personal, physical and performative responses. While the majority of participants showed understanding of textual themes through oral responses and writing/illustrations, some demonstrated the understanding of others in their remarks and behaviors. Remaining challenges include finding more appropriate multicultural books for preschool children, addressing classroom teachers’ reluctance to use multicultural books due to their personal belief of lacking multicultural knowledge, and more exposure to multicultural books needed to develop further understanding of explicit cultural identities.

Authors

• Xiufang Chen, Rowan University

• Susan Browne, Rowan University