Hacking for Social Justice

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Youth Media, Culture, and Texts: Studying Critical Reading Practices

Abstract

In this paper, we share findings from a content analysis of six children’s literature picturebooks (print and digital) that were “hacked” to focus on issues of social justice. Our content analysis examines the ways in which educators’ hack picturebooks from a variety of genres and across modalities to take up issues of race, class, gender expressions, sexual identity, linguistic diversity, and cultural norms. This qualitative study applied a social justice framework to analyze six hacked picturebooks. Findings from our study revealed the participants addressed three themes through their hacking: (a) changing of characters/setting to reflect diversity; (b) disrupting normative gender and family roles; and (c) including activism as part of the plot.

Authors

• Detra Price-Dennis, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Dahlia Hamza

• Aura Yarenis Perez, Teachers College, Columbia University