Reading Erasure: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Latino/x Male Representation in Children’s Literature and Its Role in Early Childhood Education

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Sunday 7:45 am
  In Poster Session: Childhoods, Materials, and Critical Learning Encounters

Abstract

This study examines how children’s literature used in early childhood education (ECE) has historically erased or misrepresented Latino/x boys and men. Using critical discourse analysis of 25–30 picture books from 1920 to the present, the study explores how language, imagery, and narrative structure contribute to educational imaginaries that frame Latino/x males as unintelligible within ECE spaces. Grounded in Critical Race Theory, LatCrit, and frameworks on mattering, masculinities, and culturally sustaining pedagogy, the analysis reveals how children's books have helped construct the ideological conditions of exclusion. In alignment with the 2026 AERA theme, this study calls for reimagining ECE as a space of justice and affirmation where Latino/x male presence is not anomalous, but essential.

Author

• Ryan C. Miller, University of Texas at Austin