Poster #37 - The Nature and Representation of African Americans in Early Literacy Research

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

Purpose: Early childhood professionals have long recognized the importance of language and literacy in preparing children to succeed in elementary school and beyond (Strickland et al., 2006). However, it is unclear whether early literacy research prepares a reliable evidence base for developing culturally relevant teaching practices for African American teachers and children. Only recently have scholars suggested ways to center race as an analytical tool to account for the glaring inequities that permeate our social institutions, including the community of early literacy scholars and researchers. Using a critical race lens, this study will explore whether existing empirical early literacy research publications recognize and acknowledge the necessity of including African American representation in the use of theoretical framework (e.g., considering cultural factors) in the process of conducting research (e.g., including African American participants, and including African American researchers in the research team), and in the discussion of findings (e.g., discussing the cultural relevances of the findings). This study interrogates the validity and applicability of current early literacy research with consideration of researchers’ cultural backgrounds, the limitations of research design, and the appropriateness of research result interpretation which may dismiss the uniqueness of African American community (Washington, 2001).
Method: Thorough literature review is currently being conducted in research datasets in educational research: APA PsycINFO and ERIC (EBSCO). The criteria of the search include 1. Empirical research about early childhood teachers and/or children in the U.S., 2. Data-driven research involves human subjects (e.g., teachers, children, or parents). 3. Research conducted within an educational context (e.g., teachers’ classroom teaching or children’s learning in the classroom). Several keywords are used in the search: early literacy, teacher instruction, preschool, head start, African American, and early literacy instruction.
Up to date, a total of 52 early literacy research articles that were published between the years 2002 to the year 2022 were identified in the search. A set of codes were developed to capture the cultural identity of research team members (e.g., Caucasian researchers vs. African American researchers vs. other minority researchers), the location where the research was conducted (e.g., rural vs. urban), the cultural backgrounds of participants (e.g., diverse backgrounds or predominantly Caucasian), the SES backgrounds of the participants (e.g., diverse SES background or predominantly low-income).
Conclusion: The search for early literacy research articles and coding is still ongoing. The final meta-analysis results will be presented at the SRCD conference. However, the preliminary analysis of the 52 articles showed that most of the corresponding authors or first authors in existing early literacy studies are Caucasian (82%), and only 2% of the research team included an African American researcher. There was only one first author of the research that was African American. While 72% of research includes African American children as participants, the African American children were over-sampled from low-income communities. The preliminary findings raise concerns about the potential bias of early literacy research findings that may inform professional standards and the development of early literacy assessment. More findings related to the representation in research data analysis and interpretation of research findings will be presented at the conference.

Authors

• Corey Evans, Georgia State University
  Presenting Author

• Chenyi Zhang, Georgia State University