Young Voices Against Censorship: Exploring How Elementary Students Communicated Their Emotional Responses to Book Banning Through Multimodal Composition

• In Event: Advocating for Agentive Literacy Practices

Abstract

This qualitative study examined how elementary students (grades 2-5) engaged with book banning and censorship during a six-week summer literacy program. Students interacted with texts focused on book banning and then created multimodal compositions in response. We used multimodal content analysis strategies to analyze students’ emotional responses, perspectives on censorship, and critiques of power through multimodal storytelling. Our findings show students navigated censorship as a personal and systemic issue, depicting collective resistance and power dynamics.

Authors

• Mengying Xue, University of Missouri

• Stephanie F Reid, University of Cincinnati