Representation of Refugee Children in Picture Books: A Qualitative Content Analysis

• In Event: Legally Statused Realities in the Racialized World: Educational Implications for Refugee Children

Abstract

Historically high level of refugees (UNHCR, 2015) is challenging schools in resettlement countries to provide adequate support for refugee learners (Sidhu, Taylor, & Christie, 2011). Children’s literature, as the intersection of language and ideology (Stephens, 1992), can reflect as well as perpetuate ideological undertones that impact refugee children’s identity development and shape how others (classmates, teachers, principals, policy makers, etc.) treat them. Thus, it is important to understand how refugee children are portrayed in picture books. Unfortunately, the metanarrative about refugee children is largely understudied (Hope, 2007) among research on minorotized populations in children’s literature (e.g., race in Rogers and Christian (2007), gender in Sunderland (2004), immigrant in Lamme, Fu, and Lowery (2004), and migrant in Beck, 2009). This research vacuum leaves space for uncontested images that are being portrayed for and about refugee children.
To address this gap, we conducted a qualitative content analysis (Schreier, 2014) of children’s literature to answer the research question: How are refugee children portrayed in picture books? First, we searched over 30 major publishers in English-language (e.g., Scholastic, HarperCollins, and Lee & Low) as well as publically available bibliographies online to identify 93 picture books that fit our search criteria (Birth-Grade 3 reader age and centrality of first generation refugee children characters). Second, we adopted refugee critical race theory (RefugeeCrit) framework (Strekalova-Hughes, Erdemir, & Nash, 2017; Strekalova-Hughes, Bakar, & Erdemir, Nash, in progress), which analyzes the intersection of law, politics, economics, psychology, and education to reclaim racialized and statused realities of refugee children, to critically examine the content of these books.
Our analysis revealed that picture books chained refugee children to their protective status, denying complexity of their identity and potentially reinforcing the image of helpless and hopeless refugees (Kisiara, 2015). For example, majority of the books offered a predictable plot of “becoming a refugee” (the conflict, transition to safety, and post-resettlement). These plots notably overemphasized conflict, featuring violence (e.g., helicopter fire, gunshots, knives, bullets, bombs) and its effects (injury, death of loved ones, shock, anger, sadness, and mental illness, including depression). Refugee children were portrayed as needy (being deprived of food, sleep, shelter, adult supervision, education, etc.) in contrast to helpful people in refugee camps and host countries (providing food, shelter, transportation, teaching the language, expressing sympathy, etc.). Despite the need to focus on post-traumatic life to showcase refugees’ potential beyond previous traumatic experiences (Fraine & McDade, 2009), picture books rarely depicted post-resettlement lives beyond cultural and linguistic assimilation (e.g., learning the language, connecting to the local culture, adjusting to the climate, contributing to the host community).
The findings highlight the need for teachers to critically adapt picture books about refugees and actively collaborate with refugee families to bring to light representative stories of their cultures, histories, and experiences that they choose to tell when not pressured to produce an anticipated “becoming a refugee” story on popular demand (Kisiara, 2015; Strekalova-Hughes & Wang, 2017). The findings also call on picture book authors to engage in counter-storytelling where refugee children can go beyond their “statused” identities (Strekalova-Hughes, Erdemir, & Nash, 2017; Strekalova-Hughes, Bakar, & Erdemir, Nash, in progress).

Authors

• Ekaterina Strekalova-Hughes, University of Missouri - Kansas City

• X. Christine Wang, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Kylee Lewman, University of Missouri - Kansas City