Literature Representing Diverse Perspectives Aoife O’Leary, Sarah Manning,
Diverse Perspectives in the United States★“The best defense against allowing racist views to take hold of our children is to surround them with rice, Realistic information about children from many other backgrounds.” ○Some critics worry that emphasizing multicultural education in the U.S may fragment our loyalties and loosen our civic ties to each other.○Others argue that multicultural education is fully American and that recognizing the culture and potential of different groups is necessary to their pursuit of happiness and justice.
★Schools in the United States are experiencing a tremendous increase in the cultural and ethnic diversity of the children they serve.
★Despite decades of calling for diversity in literature, the books being published today still do not reflect the depth and diversity of our diversity.
Diverse Perspectives in U.S (cont’d)
★Multicultural education theorists define pluralism as diversity in “ethnic” racial, Linguistic, religious, economic and gender among others.
★The goal of multicultural education is freedom-helping students develop the knowledge, attitudes, and skills that will allow them to participate in a democratic and free society.
★Educators must know their own culture, assumptions, and biases before they can be ready to scaffold how their students learn about their cultures and understand those of others.
★The enormous differences in urban/rural/suburban lifestyles need to be reflected in the literature to get richer, more nuanced ways of knowing our worlds.
Ask the Author: Alma Flor Ada
★Alma Flor Ada discusses the argument about whether or not one has to be a member of culture to write about it.○If you possess enough knowledge and understanding, you should be able to write about something with a degree of authenticity.○However, if you are not actually a part of that culture, it can be difficult to gain the intrinsic expression of the cultural values.★Children deserve the truth at its best
★Schools face many demands when it comes to shaping the curriculum. Some of these demands include having the curriculum based on one single perspective.○Imagine how that would work? If only white, able-bodied characters are presented in a curriculum, how would female students and people of Ethnic diversity feel?
★Although strides have been made in creating anti-bias curriculums that promote social justice, more work is needed
. ★Schools are instrumental in providing opportunities for students to read and discuss material from multiple viewpoints. ○These discussions are important in developing attitudes of open-Mindedness about diversity.
Literature’s Potential for Influencing the Reader’s Perspective
★Question: How can children resolve their misunderstanding, lack of understanding, or fear when presented with an opportunity to interact with someone who is different from them?
★Answer: Literature that portrays diversity in natural ways can provide realistic images as well as inspire discussion.
★Fiction and informational books can enhance children’s understanding of cultures by involving them emotionally. ○The narrower the focus of such books allows for deeper exploration of the thoughts, feelings and experiences of people from diverse groups.
★“We need to share our stories because in so doing, we hope to be understood, and being understood we are no longer so alone.” Julius Lester
What is Multicultural Literature?
★What definition would you use for multicultural literature?○There is mainstream agreement that multicultural literature is about people who are not in the mainstream however, there is no consensus as to what constitutes non-mainstream populations.
★Website related to multicultural literature- www.oyate.orgMulticultural literature in our book is defined as, “Works that reflect the multitude of cultural groups within the United States. These books reflect ethnic and regional groups whose cultures historically have been less represented than European cultures. “ Temple, C., Martinez M., Yokota J. (2019) Children’s Books in Children’s Hands.Pearson
