Multiracial Identity in Children’s Literature

Posted in Books, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Media Archive, Monographs, Teaching Resources, United States on 2017-03-07 19:03Z by Steven

Multiracial Identity in Children’s Literature

Routledge
2017-02-10
154 pages
Hardback ISBN: 9781138860179
eBook (VitalSource) ISBN: 9781315716725

Amina Chaudhri, Assistant Professor of Teacher Education
Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago

Racially mixed children make up the fastest growing youth demographic in the U.S., and teachers of diverse populations need to be mindful in selecting literature that their students can identify with. This volume explores how books for elementary school students depict and reflect multiracial experiences through text and images. Chaudhri examines contemporary children’s literature to demonstrate the role these books play in perpetuating and resisting stereotypes and the ways in which they might influence their readers. Through critical analysis of contemporary children’s fiction, Chaudhri highlights the connections between context, literature, and personal experience to deepen our understanding of how children’s books treat multiracial identity.

Contents

  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Multiracial Identity in the United States: Historical and Current Discourse
  • 3. Multiracial Picturebooks
  • 4. In/Visibility: The Legacy of Pathology in Contemporary Fiction
  • 5. Multiracial Blending: The Post-Racial Myth in Contemporary Fiction
  • 6. Multiracial Awareness: Power and Visibility In Contemporary Fiction
  • 7. Voices of the Past: Multiracial Identity in Historical Fiction
  • 8. Hidden Identities: Whiteness and Passing
  • 9. Teaching and Learning with Multiracial Fiction
  • Appendices
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Stories of Multiracial Experiences in Literature for Children, Ages 9–14

Posted in Articles, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Media Archive, Teaching Resources, United States on 2013-01-19 00:56Z by Steven

Stories of Multiracial Experiences in Literature for Children, Ages 9–14

Children’s Literature in Education
December 2013, Volume 44, Issue 4
pages 359-376
DOI: 10.1007/s10583-013-9196-5

Amina Chaudhri, Assistant Professor of Teacher Education
Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago

William H. Teale, Professor of Literacy, Language and Culture
University of Illinois, Chicago

This study analyzed 90 realistic novels written and published in the United States between the years 2000 and 2010 and featuring mixed race characters. The researchers examined specific textual features of these works of contemporary and historical fiction and employed Critical Race Theory to contextualize the books within paradigms about multiracial identity. Findings indicated three broad trends in representations of mixed race identity with an almost equal number of novels falling among three descriptive categories. Books in the Mixed Race In/Visibility category depicted stereotypical experiences and provided little or no opportunity for critique of racism. Mixed Race Blending books featured characters whose mixed race identity was descriptive but not functional in their lives. Mixed Race Awareness books represented a range of possible life experiences for biracial characters who responded to social discomfort about their racial identity in complex and credible ways. This study has implications for research and pedagogy in the fields of education and children’s literature as they expand to become more inclusive of this type of diversity.

Introduction

There has long been, and continues to be, debate about what literature “is” and the roles it plays in people’s lives (Garber, 2011; Kant, 1892): Does it serve social ends? Moral ends? Is it fundamentally an aesthetic experience? But no matter what one’s beliefs about literature’s purposes, theory and research in children’s literature make one thing clear: literature can serve as a tool for growth, a significant factor in children’s identity formation (Gee, 2001; Heath, 2011). Thus, the content of what is available for children to read and what teachers select for use in their classrooms can influence the direction of children’s growth.

Over the past two decades in the United States, as issues of multiculturalism and civil and human rights have become more prominent on the cultural landscape, identity-based movements have received increasing attention. One issue in this realm that is currently taking on increased significance is mixed race/multiracial identity. In the 1990s, pressure from groups such as Project RACE and The Association for MultiEthnic Americans forced Congress to urge a change in the U.S. Census standards. Accordingly, the 2000 Census allowed Americans to “mark one or more” racial categories, and 6.8 million people identified as multiracial. In 2010 that number increased to 9 million. These figures suggest a significant shift in the ways Americans view themselves racially.

Parallel to the ways that feminist, civil rights, and LGBTQ movements have impacted the creation of various bodies of literature, the multiracial movement can be viewed as influencing the work being published as children’s literature. Whether young readers are actively seeking racial affirmation or looking for insights into others not like themselves, representation in bcx)ks can explicitly or subliminally influence understanding of racial identity. Accordingly, we examined all the children’s books we were able to identify using various processes (described below) featuring multiracial characters that were deemed appropriate for 9-14 year-olds and were published between 2000 and 2010 in order to get a sense of what young readers might understand about multiracial identity as imagined by the authors of these works.

Stones of Multiracial Experiences

Novels featuring mixed race characters are generally folded into the larger category of multicultural literature and frequently are classified according to the non-white element in the story. In some respects, in the U.S. context, creators are ahead of researchers in addressing the role of mixed race for readers in the 9-14 age group. Authors such as Jacqueline Woodson, Mildred Taylor, Jamie Adoff, Sharon Flake, and Richard Peck, for example, have been including characters of mixed racial heritage and addressing this heritage as a central feature of their stories.

In general, the hotly of research in multicultural literature makes only sporadic or tangential mention of mixed race issues. Yokota and Frost (2002/2003), Smith (2001a), Sands-O’Connor (2001), and Reynolds (2009) have written specifically about multiracial characters in literature, but this work has not comprehensively examined novels written for the intermediate/middle school student. The relative lack…

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The Skin We’re In: A Literary Analysis of Representations Of Mixed Race Identity in Children’s Literature

Posted in Dissertations, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Media Archive, United States on 2012-11-19 01:11Z by Steven

The Skin We’re In: A Literary Analysis of Representations Of Mixed Race Identity in Children’s Literature

University of Illinois, Chicago
2012
232 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3530952
ISBN: 9781267715739

Amina Chaudhri, Assistant Professor of Teacher Education
Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago

A Thesis Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum and Instruction in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Chicago

This study systematically analyzed novels of contemporary and historical fiction with mixed race content intended for readers age 9-14. In the context of an increasingly multiracial and multicultural society, this study was primarily concerned with the question of identity representation: What is contemporary children’s literature saying about the experience of being racially mixed? This question was investigated along three strands: 1) How can literature about multiracial identity be usefully described and define? 2) What historical perspectives inform books about multiracial people? and 3) To what degree are contemporary authors maintaining or challenging racial paradigms?

A content analysis of ninety novels with mixed race content was undertaken to determine specific features such as gender, age, racial mix, family situation, socio-economic situation, racial makeup of environment, and setting. Three categories were created based historical paradigms about mixed race identity, and themes that emerged from the novels: 1) Mixed Race In/Visibility, 2) Mixed Race Blending, and 3) Mixed Race Awareness. All ninety novels were evaluated with respect to the criteria of the categories. Thirty-three novels were selected for deep literary analysis, demonstrating the ways historical perspectives about mixed race identity inform contemporary children’s literature.

Findings indicated three broad trends in representations of mixed race identity in children’s literature with novels falling almost equally between the three categories. Books in the Mixed Race In/Visibility category depicted stereotypically traumatic experiences for mixed race characters and provide little or no opportunity for critique of racism. Books in the Mixed Race Blending category featured characters whose mixed race identity was descriptive but not functional in their lives. Mixed Race Awareness books represented a range of possible life experiences for biracial characters who respond to social discomfort to their racial identity in complex and credible ways.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • I. INTRODUCTION
    • Background
    • Rationale
    • Overview of the Study
    • Research Questions
  • II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
    • Literary Criticism
      • Literary Criticism in Children’s Literature
    • Critical Race Theory
      • Critical Race Theory in Children’s Literature
    • Mixed Race Perspectives
      • Theorizing Mixed Race Identity
      • Mixed Race Research in Children’s Literature
      • Setting the Stage
  • III. METHODOLOGY
    • Text Identification
    • Search Parameters
      • Publication Date
      • Genre
      • Age of Intended Readership
    • Text Selection for Literary Analysis
    • Text Analysis – Content Analysis
    • Text Analysis – Literary Analysis
    • Terminology
  • IV. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS OF REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS
    • The Big Picture
    • Mixed Race Identity in the Categories
      • Mixed Race In/Visibility (MRIV)
      • Mixed Race Blending (MRB)
      • Mixed Race Awareness (MRA)
    • Trends in Contemporary Realistic Fiction
    • Trends in Historical Fiction
    • Literary Analysis of Representative Books in Each Category
      • MRI/V in Contemporary Realistic Fiction
      • MRI/V in Historical Fiction
      • MRB in Contemporary Realistic Fiction
      • MRB in Historical Fiction
      • MRA in Contemporary Realistic Fiction
      • MRA in Historical Fiction
  • V. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
    • Themes in the Categories
      • Mixed Race In/Visibility
        • Wounded by Words
        • Inferior Vitality
        • Incomplete Amalgamation
        • Conclusion: Mixed Race In/Visibility
      • Mixed Race Blending
        • One Drop Still Rules
        • Revelations
        • All-American Biracials
        • Conclusion: Mixed Race Blending
      • Mixed Race Awareness
        • Conclusion: Mixed Race Awareness
    • Talking About Mixed Race Identity
    • Contributions
    • Limitations
    • Future Research
    • Conclusion
  • VI. APPENDICES
    • APPENDIX A: Books Identified for this Study
    • APPENDIX B: Books Listed by Genre
    • APPENDIX C: Books Listed by Category
    • APPENDIX D: Books Listed by Racial Mix
    • APPENDIX E: Instrument for Collecting Individual Text Data
  • VII. REFERENCES
    • CHILDREN’S LITERATURE CITED
  • VIII. CURRICULUM VITAE

LIST OF TABLES

  • TABLE III–1. Categories for Content Analysis
  • TABLE IV–1. Author Race
  • TABLE IV–2. Features of Books With Mixed Race Characters
  • TABLE IV–3. Mixed Race Representation Across Genre and Category

Read the entire dissertation here.

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