Where is Everybody in the Everybody Books?: Representation in K-5 Picture Books

• In Event: Unplugged CT as Essential Learning Practices: Examples from Elementary Contexts

Abstract

This paper shares my journey designing and implementing a 5th grade mathematics lesson that was part of a broader unplugged computational thinking (CT) project. I wanted to explore how CT—particularly pattern recognition—could be applied to questions of representation in our school library. The question that guided our inquiry was simple but powerful: Who is the protagonist in the picture books we have in our library?
In order to explore how representation in media is geared towards children, students worked in small groups analyzing over 550 books from our school library, recording information about protagonists’ gender, race, and the publication year. Students learned how to enter data directly into a spreadsheet, continually refining their process for encoding characters’ identities. They worked on different shelves throughout the library, including some that had been updated by the librarian with more contemporary books.
Students quickly recognized patterns in representation associated with the publication year of the books. Girls were indignant when they discovered a 2:1 ratio of boys to girls in picture books in the shelves with an average publication date around 1994. However, this ratio decreased in shelves with an average publication date of 2004. In addition, protagonists of color and with more diverse narratives became more common in these contemporary works.
Two questions emerged: How do we know the race or ethnicity of the character? Why is representation so imbalanced? This opened up conversations about visual and textual cues, implicit bias, power and society, and the complexities of making claims about identity—conversations that are often missing in classrooms but should belong there (Gutiérrez, 2018). Students were strongly emotionally engaged with these questions. For example, students of color were excited to discover those rare examples of their own identities within their school library. Students of the majority also felt compelled to rectify the imbalance they observed in children’s literature.
Writing this paper was itself part of my learning. I used a self-study methodology (LaBoskey, 2004; Samaras, 2011) to reflect on my intentions, the tensions I experienced, and the impact of the lesson. I drew on journals, classroom notes, and student work samples to piece together the process and outcomes. This methodology allowed me to examine not just what I taught, but how my participation in this CT project helped me grow as an educator. I came to see mathematics as not only a discipline of numbers and procedures, but also a language for noticing, questioning, and understanding the patterns that shape our lives.
In designing this CT lesson, I had to consider how I support student inquiry and how I navigate difficult but essential conversations about identity and representation. This experience reaffirmed for me that students—especially those from historically marginalized communities—have the right to grapple with complex ideas, just as many cultures have long used mathematics to make sense of the world (D’Ambrosio, 2001). This lesson was a first step in reimagining what is possible in a classroom grounded in justice, inquiry, and joy.

Author

• Trish Yoshiko Dorr, Ashland School District