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Abstract
This article offers an autoethnographic reconsideration of a primary school teacher’s practice and children’s interpretation of picturebooks in multicultural primary schools in England. It considers the balance teachers strike between respecting children’s rights to freedom of thought and expression, and wielding their own power as directors of learning. It links key aspects of international human rights law on children to concepts from literacy studies and multicultural children’s literature: representation of minority groups, pictorial interpretation, critical literacy and teacher power. It brings out nuanced interpretations of the picturebook The Arrival as a ‘mirror’ for learners from migrant backgrounds. This mirror may reflect children’s experiences but also offer a frosted, distorted or blank view where young learners do not empathise with characters. We argue that children’s rights within education should include freedom of thought and expression and freedom to interpret literature; teachers should reflect on their intentions when using literature, and not pose barriers to this freedom.
Highlights
It was Professor Emeritus of Children’s Literature, Rudine Sims Bishop, who first described so eloquently the potential of a children’s book to be a ‘mirror’ for children, reflecting their world and themselves back to them (Sims Bishop, 1990)
It considers the balance teachers strike between respecting children’s rights to freedom of thought and expression, and wielding their own power as directors of learning. It links key aspects of international human rights law on children to concepts from literacy studies and multicultural children’s literature: representation of minority groups, pictorial interpretation, critical literacy and teacher power. It brings out nuanced interpretations of the picturebook The Arrival as a ‘mirror’ for learners from migrant backgrounds
Power, freedom and children’s rights when using literature It was suggested earlier that a picturebook such as The Arrival might be regarded as a pedagogical tool both to enhance representation and to address the power differential between pupil and teacher in terms of freeing up interpretation, an aspect of critical literacy, among marginalised groups
Summary
It was Professor Emeritus of Children’s Literature, Rudine Sims Bishop, who first described so eloquently the potential of a children’s book to be a ‘mirror’ for children, reflecting their world and themselves back to them (Sims Bishop, 1990). This article will offer autoethnographic reconsiderations by a teacher on his practice with primary school learners in a number of culturally diverse schools in England, using the metaphor of the ‘mirror’ in the context of working with the book The Arrival The framework of these reflections is that of children’s rights, and conceptual understandings of representation, pictorial interpretation, critical literacy and power. There were differences in the children’s interpretations and understandings of the circumstances of the central family, in particular the main protagonist – the man Their reactions offer an insight into how children might use a book like this as a particular type of mirror, reflecting their world back to them in unforeseen ways, and this is a challenge to the power of the teacher in directing their learning. These authors feel that this is a sad indictment of a narrow and perhaps unhelpful view of attainment
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