"Children Have the Fairest Things to Say": Young Children's Engagement with Anti-Bias Picture Books. 2022

Alisha Nguyen
Department of Teaching, Curriculum, and Society, Lynch School of Education & Human Development, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA.

This qualitative case study investigated how an early childhood teacher and young children in a public White-predominant kindergarten classroom engaged in critical discussions of anti-bias issues including racism, White privilege, gender stereotypes, gender nonconformity, sexism, and homophobia. Through the use of interactive read-alouds using anti-bias picture books, the study's findings revealed that (a) the children could participate in thoughtful interactions during anti-bias read-aloud sessions and showed their complex understanding of race and gender issues; (b) the children needed substantial support to engage in activism against social injustices; (c) the children displayed a variety of responses to the discussion questions and activities related to gender-themed picture books as most children had difficulties resisting gender binary conceptions and stereotypes while some children, especially boys, were strongly empowered to embrace gender-nonconforming practices; and finally (d) some children internalized and enacted anti-immigrant, anti-Blackness, and racial/gender discriminatory actions to which the early childhood teacher often failed to either disrupt or intervene.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries

Related Publications

Alisha Nguyen
March 2003, Tobacco control,
Alisha Nguyen
January 2022, International journal of developmental disabilities,
Alisha Nguyen
July 1988, Josanpu zasshi = The Japanese journal for midwife,
Alisha Nguyen
December 2014, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,
Alisha Nguyen
July 2022, Public understanding of science (Bristol, England),
Alisha Nguyen
January 2011, American annals of the deaf,
Copied contents to your clipboard!