RM Winter 2016 FLIP

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Reading Matters
Looking Ahead
Reading Matters | Volume 16 • Winter 2016 | |81|
Moving Beyond a Pedestrian Approach:
Rethinking HowWe Use Social Justice-Themed
Children’s Literature in Our Classrooms
Jill Shumaker, Duquesne University
Sandra Quiñones, Duquesne University
Abstract — In this article, we share our experiences and perspectives
about the use of social justice-themed children’s literature in both
early childhood and university classrooms. Specifically, we describe
a pedagogical challenge regarding the meaningful use of picture
books about poverty and homelessness with young learners. This
challenge unearthed issues for both of us to contend with—namely,
the need to go beyond a pedestrian approach to read-alouds. A
pedestrian approach denotes a lack of depth and engagement with
the text and the complex issues that it raises. Thus, there is a need to
create authentic learning experiences grounded in children’s literature
and social action; particularly in regards to the Common Core State
Standards. In the implications section, we provide recommendations
to early childhood practitioners and teacher educators. In doing
so, we contribute to the growing scholarship about how to critically
use children’s literature as a vehicle to address social justice issues.
The purpose of education in an unjust society
is to bring about equality and justice.
Students must play an active part
in the learning process.
Teachers and students are both simultaneously
learners and producers of knowledge.
—Paulo Freire, as cited in Mary Cowhey’s
1st Grade Classroom (2006)
Part of our role as educators is to expose students—both early
childhood and university students—to a variety of classroom
materials that reflect our increasingly diverse and global society
(Nieto, 2013; Silvers & Shorey, 2012; Souto-Manning, 2013).
In this collaborative narrative, we share our experiences and
perspectives about the use of social-justice themed children’s
literature, specifically realistic fiction picture books centered
on issues of poverty and homelessness. We approach this topic
from the perspective of an early childhood classroom teacher
(Jill) and a teacher educator in literacy education (Sandra).
For the purposes of this paper, we describe a pedagogical
challenge posed to us during the 2014 Barbara A. Sizemore
Urban Education Conference at Duquesne University. This
pedagogical challenge pointed to an area of development for
both of us to contend with—namely, the need to go beyond what
we call a pedestrian approach to social justice-themed realistic
fiction picture books. A pedestrian approach is one that merely
raises awareness about biases and inequities, but does little to
interrogate and respond to biases and inequities. In other words,
a pedestrian approach denotes a lack of depth and engagement
with the text and the complex issues that the text raises.
We ground our conceptual thinking in Nieto’s (2013) definition
of social justice in education. Nieto defines social justice as having
four components, two of which inform our thinking. Teaching
within a social justice framework “challenges, confronts, and
disrupts misconceptions, untruths, and stereotypes that lead
to or exacerbate structural inequality and discrimination” (p.
21). Moreover, “social justice in education is about creating a
learning environment that promotes critical thinking and supports
agency for social change, in effect providing students with an
apprenticeship in their role in a democratic society” (p. 21). This
lens complements the use of realistic fiction picture books about
poverty and homelessness as tools for critical thinking that
spurs action at the individual, community and systemic levels.
In this article, we emphasize the need to go beyond a pedestrian
approach to social justice-themed children’s picture books in our
classrooms. In so doing, our work contributes to the literature in
two ways. First, we pursue this challenge from the perspective of
a classroom teacher and a literacy teacher educator. Second, we
provide the reader with a discussion of the relevant literature and
A Sneak Peak from our Winter 2016 Issue
Our next issue of Reading Matters will focus on the issues of social justice education
and issues of equity in classrooms. This article by Jill Shumaker and Sandra Quiñones
was selected as both a preview and an inspiration for themed articles to be included
in our next issue. We challenge you, our readers, to explore the ways that you can
research and practice equity education in our schools, and how we can empower
students from pre-K to university to challenge the status quo in order to create a
more just society. We look forward to what you will have to share!
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