Using Picture Books To Expand Adolescents' Imaginings Of Themselves And Others

By Author: Ellen
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Multicultural education and a multicultural curriculum are vital components of contemporary education. Today's students are living in a "flat" world, a world in which infinite possibilities exist for transacting across cultures (Friedman). Unfortunately, as evidenced too frequently on the nightly news, not all of these transactions are positive, and "for all the trumpeted diversity in this nation, few interact across cultures with regularity, with grace, or with significance" (Fecho 26). While most educators recognize the value of multicultural education in Tag Heuer Replica attempting to create a more just world, some lament that they do not have time to incorporate multiculturalism into their classrooms in light of all the content that must be covered to prepare students for high-stakes standardized tests, and others admit that they do not know enough about how to incorporate multicultural lessons into their classrooms (Gay).

As a high school English teacher, I have struggled—and continue to struggle—with those same issues. ...
... The concerns expressed by educators trying to enact a multicultural curriculum are intimately linked to the concept of imagination, which Vygotsky considered to be "a process directly connected with meaning-making, a higher psychological function that has connections not only with emotions but also with intellectual functions" (Gajdamaschko 16). Literature contains the power to help us recognize the commonalities that human beings share while at the same time highlighting the particular differences that make us individuals. It can help us better understand one another and ourselves, and it can awaken us to possibilities that we never thought existed. But we must be able to imagine the content of books and the possibilities that books suggest, and for some students, this act of imagination can be difficult (Glazier and Seo). As Kathy G. Short states, "Children's engagements with literature have the potential to transform their world views as they come to understand their current lives and imagine worlds beyond themselves. Students do need to find their lives reflected in books, but if what they read in school only mirrors their own view of the world, they cannot envision alternative ways of thinking and being".

When students can imagine themselves in the world of a novel, when they can understand the worldviews that inform characters' attitudes and beliefs, then it becomes possible for them to develop empathy for characters whose lives are different from their own. For this empathetic response to occur, though, students need to have some knowledge of the particular circumstances of the characters' lives. To understand why characters respond and behave in particular ways, students need to understand how society and culture shaped the identities of the characters whose lives they are exploring. They can then begin to turn their reflections inward, imagining Tag Heuer Replica Watches themselves responding to circumstances never before encountered or adopting different solutions to problems that they currently face. How can we, as teachers, help students understand and empathize with characters whose lives are far removed from their own, a process that can often be uncomfortable and that is at times hindered by students' preconceived notions of others?

I tried to address these issues when I implemented a novel study of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart in a predominantly middle-class ninth-grade classroom. In the unit I used African picture books to help students imagine alternative views of Africa and of themselves-new views that led several of them to take their first steps in advocating for a more just world.