A Classroom Case Study of First Graders' Perceptions of Asian Americans in Children's Literature

• In Event: 61.018 - The Power in the Word: Critical and Conscious Examinations of Text

Abstract

This qualitative classroom case study investigates children’s engagement with and responses to Asian American children’s literature in a public school classroom. 17 participants were included in this study, which describes the verbal, written, and constructed child responses to selections of Asian American children’s literature. Findings indicate that children are rarely read books that feature Asian American protagonists or issues and respond to such books in ways that draw on cultural stereotypes and value dominant forms; in particular, children frequently position the Asian American characters, settings, and plots as foreign despite their U.S. contexts.

Author

• Joanne Yi, Indiana University