WhoNeedsDiverseBooks

Preservice Teachers and Religious Neutrality with Children’s Literature

Datos Bibliográficos

ID13683094
AutoresDenise Dávila (0000-0003-4899-8036, autor de correspondencia)
Año2015
Volumen50
Número1
Páginas60-83
Fecha de publicación2015-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaResearch in the Teaching of English (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0034-527X • E-ISSN: 1943-2348
EditorialRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.58680/rte201527426
OpenAlexW2606928483
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas15

The social media campaign #WeNeedDiverseBooks has called for more varied works of literature. However, one of the arguments for increasing the visibility of diverse books has not received much attention: using #WNDB to cultivate religiously pluralistic thinkers. Currently, there is a conflict between the evasion of religious neutrality in English language arts (ELA) instruction and the need to prepare young people to become pluralistic thinkers in a global society. This article examines three lines of inquiry: How likely are preservice teachers to (a) include children’s books with religious diversity in their future classrooms, (b) discuss the religious content of the books with their future students, and/or (c) employ dominant social discourses in interpreting the religious content? Grounded in theories of religious neutrality, social discourses, and cultural superiority,the study analyzes 79 preservice teachers’ responses to the cultural-religious milieu of the renowned picture book memoir In My Family/En Mi Familia (Garza, 1996). The corpus of data, which includes the preservice teachers’ written reflections and responses to a set of open-ended questions,indicates that privileging a nonreligious reading lens and excluding relevant religious perspectives from discussions about diverse works of children’s literature can inadvertently contribute to the defamation of other cultures and religious traditions. The study underscores the responsibility of teacher educators to help preservice teachers take a religiously neutral approach to ELA instruction

Mathematics education · Neutrality · Pedagogy · Political science · Sociology · Education and Islamic Studies · Psychology · Religious Education and Schools