Picturebooks: A Looking Glass for Examing Gender With Children
Date
2015-07-27
Authors
Deichmann, Ceilidh
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Abstract
This project focuses on the need for raising gender awareness in primary classrooms through critical literacy in order to counteract the long-term effects of repeated gender bias or stereotypical messages. In the literature review I consider gender, feminist and pedagogical theories; discuss the importance of a poststructuralist/dialogic approach to deconstruct gender bias and stereotypes encountered in primary classrooms; and reviews four decades of research that examine the gendered nature of Caldecott Award winning picturebooks. I created a tool, A Guide to Expose Gendered Messages in Picturebooks, to help teachers discover gendered messages in picturebooks and to prepare teachers for addressing gender issues with children in primary classrooms. Following a description of the tool is the analyses of three Canadian picturebooks, that have been recognised as Governor General Award finalists in the category of Children’s Literature – Illustrations, for gendered messages: Julia, Child (Maclear & Morstad, 2014), Miss Mousie’s Blind Date (Beiser & Berman, 2012) and Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin (Uegaki & Leng, 2014). The analyses of the gendered messages in the three picturebooks provide examples for how teachers can guide classroom discussions towards discovering gender stereotypes and gender bias with children. Finally, in the reflection section I discuss how theories, concepts and personal experiences contributed to the production of this resource.
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Keywords
gender, children, picturebook, critical literacy, Caldecott Award, Governor General's Award, primary, gender awareness, gender bias, gender stereotypes, feminism, masculinities, dialogic talk, teachers