Multicultural Children's Literature as a Tool for Hearing All Voices in the Classroom

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 4:20 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Building Cultural Competence Through Curriculum (Table 11)

Abstract

This research stems from an ongoing community engagement initiative at an afterschool childcare center that serves families in a local, underserved community. We wanted to determine if read-alouds, integrating social-emotional learning (SEL) content, could impact children’s acquisition of SEL vocabulary and development. Guided by Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework, we describe key features and methodological approach for the selection of multicultural literature. Then, we developed a vocabulary assessment and administered assessment tools to measure age-appropriate social-emotional skills. A convergent parallel mixed methods design was employed. The intervention did significantly impact students’ knowledge of targeted SEL vocabulary, and several students showed increases in performance levels for specific constructs.

Authors

• AnnMarie A. Gunn, University of South Florida - St. Petersburg

• Susan V. Bennett, University of South Florida - St. Petersburg

• Barbara J. Peterson, University of South Florida

• Aarti P. Bellara, Western Carolina University