Multimodal Analysis of Children’s Literature Featuring Asian Refugee Stories

• In Event: Toward Critical Multimodal Methodologies: Analytical Tools for Disrupting Hegemonic Structures in Educational Research

Abstract

Children’s literature helps children explore diversity (Ramsey, 2004), see themselves (Brummelman & Thomaes, 2017), “consider experiences outside of their own” (Karam et al., 2019, p. 32), and build a “deeper understanding of differences” (Bennett et al., 2021, p. 5). While a limited number of children’s books have featured refugee stories (Hope, 2008; Karam et al., 2019; Strekalova-Hughes, 2019), exploring children’s books featuring resettled Asian refugee characters is still largely undiscussed. Asians moving to the United States were originally from different countries and spoke various languages at home, but they were usually characterized as a “monolithic racial group” (Iftikar & Museus, 2018, p.936). Additionally, based on the model minority lens, Asian students are usually viewed as “hardworking, high achievers'' who “do not deserve assistance” (Ngo & Lee, 2007, p. 416). This stereotypical view has misrepresented Asian students’ culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and also muted the voices of Asian refugee families.

To help address the stereotypical view and contribute to the diversity of children’s literature and education, the purpose of this study is to examine the representation of Asian refugee stories in children’s literature. The theoretical perspectives on intersectionality (Crenshaw, 2017) and multimodality (Jewitt & Oyama, 2001; Kress, 2010) are used to support our analysis. In particular, we focused on how various modes interacted in the children’s picture books to represent Asian refugee stories related to race, ethnicity, and gender. The data included 50 award-winning children’s picture books that have been nominated for childhood readers. The data analysis included multiple steps, such as coding text-image relations (Martinec & Salway, 2005), examining the ways that multiple modes (Jewitt & Oyama, 2001) interacted for representation in each book, and identifying patterns across the books. During the process, we engaged in regular monthly or bi-weekly meetings to compare notes and discuss the analytic memos to ensure the study’s trustworthiness (Glesne, 2011).

The findings show that various modes (e.g., visual, linguistic, spatial) are composed to represent three themes: (1) like previous studies, the theme of looking for refuge was shown in the books, (2) the theme linked to the cultural practices of protagonists was also portrayed in the children’s books, and (3) only two protagonists were positioned as women, community leaders, and activists, but the stories were atypical cases as not many Southeast Asian women with agency and power have been represented in children’s literature. The findings suggest that more representation of Southeast Asian girls and women needs to be included in children’s literature. This research area is needed, especially for Southeast Asian girls who are attending U.S. schools and looking for role models. Another recommendation is to include diverse home languages in children’s literature. Additionally, all the books reviewed were written in English. Considering young readers from diverse cultural backgrounds and speak different home languages, we urge future children’s book publishers and designers to provide bilingual versions of children’s books, which can help young readers feel pride in their home languages and culture.

Authors

• Aijuan Cun, University of New Mexico

• Ting Huang, College of William & Mary