Assignment 1: Book Project: Children Books and Diversity
For this assignment you are required to choose five (5) books and look for the following:
Describe each book using the following aspects, in other words each book must be described using the elements that Derman recommended to use in order to evaluate how biased they are. This paper must be from 3 to 5 pages, please provide as many details as you can. Use your own words to describe each of the books. Provide links of the books as well as pictures of the illustration when necessary.
1. Check both the illustrations and storylines. Is the book age appropriate and engaging.
Please explain.
2. Do you see stereotypes? Are people represented in a derogatory and generalized way (people with disabilities cannot be independent and should be pitied; all Muslims are Arab; nonathletic boys are effeminate; strong female characters are man-like). Remember that stereotypes are not always overt and that people in the same race may not look the same. Please explain.
3. Watch for tokenism. Are all people represented as genuine and distinctive individuals? Is there only one diverse character in the book? Please explain.
4. Look for who might be invisible in the books. Certain groups of people are often missing or underrepresented in books and media: including: families in rural areas, families with two moms or two dads, single parent families, homeless families, transgendered children and adults, families with incarcerated parents, and blue-collar workers. Please explain.
5. Are their power imbalances portrayed? Does a non-white or female character have to “exhibit extraordinary qualities or be the one to understand, forgive, or change?” Are “people of color, women, low-income families, or people with disabilities depicted as needing help or in passive roles, while whites, men, and “able-bodied” people are in leadership and action roles?” Please explain.
6. Examine what values and ideals the storyline promotes? Are the values only representative of a dominant culture? Who are the heroes and what qualities they are admired for? Who typically causes the problems and who usually resolves it? Please explain.
7. Look for how diverse people is represented? Are they portrayed as being different or less than? Is a culture depicted in an over-simplified way or inaccurately? Are there negative judgements of ways of life that differ from the dominant culture or socioeconomic class? Please explain.
8. Are the characters in the book that children can identify with support a positive self-identity? Please explain.
9. Is the author from the minority background she or he is writing about? If not, do you think that there is another way the author/s is/are connected to the culture they wrote about? Please explain.
10. What is the perspective, values, and goals of the author? Is cultural responsive messages and inclusion presented in any way? Please explain.
11. Watch for loaded words and terminology (lazy, primitive, savage, docile, etc.). What gender pronouns are used? Is gender neutral language used where possible? Please explain.
12. Look at when the book was written. Before the early 1970s most children’s books were written, edited, and published in ways that reflected the White culture and usually did not represent gender equality.
