Early Elementary Educators Tending to Nostalgia: A Discourse Analysis of Educators' Perspectives

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 11:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Labor of Love, Weight of Care: Emotional Realities in Early Childhood Classrooms

Abstract

Drawing on critical whiteness and emotionality (Jordan, et al., 2024) and transactional theory (Rosenblatt, 1978), this discourse analysis uses Wortham and Reyes’ approach (2021) to analyze a specific data set from a focus group discussion held by early elementary educators regarding nostalgia and children’s literature. The analysis focuses on how participants discuss nostalgic children’s literature and how actors are positioned. Findings suggest the participating teachers’ voicing towards nostalgic children’s literature is negative, a correlation to imperialistic nostalgia (Rosado, 1989), while also positioning themselves away from such literature. Implications are in line with the ability of educators to be critical curators (Zapata, 2022) of picturebooks and engage in reflexivity on their selection and use of nostalgic children’s literature.

Author

• Katherine Davenport, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign