Using Children's Trade Books for Multiple Perspectives:
Combating Ethnocentrism

Terry L. Lovelace
Northwest Missouri State University

   As the instructor of the social studies methods courses at a Missouri university, I help teacher candidates develop the skills they need to facilitate grade-school students’ participation in the study of human conditions and the exploration of social justice.  Teacher candidates enrolled in this course are typically white, middle-class girls from rural areas who are monolingual.  Most come from racially and economically homogenous towns, and their views of social studies are often ethnocentric, characterized by the attitude that their own group is superior. These college students have studied traditional social studies textbooks that ignored “the histories, roles, personalities, and contributions of individuals from diverse backgrounds” (Ukpokodu, 2003, p. 75), one reason why a vast majority of these teacher candidates lack multicultural literacy.

• rapidly increasing populations
• lack of tolerance and respect for others who are culturally and racially different
• uneven distribution of resources like water and oil
• ethnic conflict
• struggles for power leading to protracted armed conflicts and the resultant high military spending
• rapid urbanization
• incorporation into a global economy

   Social studies teachers are responsible for teaching grade-school students about these challenges; however, the teachers’ ethnocentric viewpoint can cause them to unconsciously teach from the perspective: “My own group is superior.”

   A major project required in the social studies methods course I teach is construction of an interdisciplinary thematic unit. However, ethnocentric perspectives often interfere with teacher candidates’ ability to connect social studies and multicultural points of view. Ukpokodu (2003) found preservice teachers rarely recognize that the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions depends on examining multiple perspectives of historical events.

   When teacher candidates integrate culturally-relevant tradebooks that provide different perspectives into thematic units, they can compare and contrast textbook perspectives with the perspectives presented in the tradebooks. A single textbook often provides a single version of events. “A single textbook, no matter how many perspectives offered or versions of the events presented, should not be the only resource utilized. Only the use of multiple resources can guarantee a variety of perspectives” (McKay, 1998, p. 36).

   Over time, people from diverse cultures have experienced events in unique ways that create diverse perspectives and versions of truths (Ukpokodu, 2003).  However, teacher candidates’ understanding of self and family ethnic background is often limited (Hyun, 1995) which interferes with their understanding of diverse perspectives.  When asked to write a cultural autobiography designed to help her explore her own ethnic background, one teacher candidate responded, “I cannot write this paper! I don’t have a culture.”  Her understanding of diversity was limited to a personal belief that only people of color have cultural and ethnic backgrounds. “I am white, so I don’t have an ethnicity.”

   Many teacher candidates do not recognize that “their pedagogical beliefs have been guided by single-ethnic perspective-taking” (Hyun, 1995). To develop a multiple/multiethnic perspective-taking ability, Hyun (1995) suggests teacher educators must first examine and come to understand their own monocultural experiences, then expand their understanding to include bicultural/cross-cultural and multicultural experiences. This process is particularly important for future educators with limited ethnic or cultural experiences.

   Social studies teachers can help students develop multiple/multiethnic perspective-taking abilities by modeling critical thinking skills using shared reading of trade books. The development of the following critical thinking skills, essential to students as they deal with social studies curricula, can be accelerated using culturally-sensitive trade books: 

• making judgments based on conflicting pieces of information
• detecting and analyzing bias, stereotyping and half truths
• considering the impact of new information on previous conclusions
• understanding that a history textbook is a version of events and people at a point in time (McKay, 1998, p. 36).

   In addition, sharing quality children’s trade books can help students develop historical empathy (Kohlmeier, 2005).  Citizens of a democratic society who have developed historical empathy are able to

• recognize multiple perspectives
• consider other points of view
• separate significant from insignificant information
• evaluate the validity of sources

   Initially, grade-school students base their actions on their personal beliefs about people, society, culture, and values.  For many students (and their teachers), beliefs are rooted in their own first-person/single-ethnic perspective-taking (Hyun and Marshall, 1997) which results in ethnocentrism.  However, ethnocentrism, a significant problem related directly to exclusivity, can be addressed by the power of story.

   Silver, Smith, and Nelson (1995) believe that "most children, even early adolescents, enjoy having someone read stories to them" (p. 42).  Storytelling captures children’s imagination and emotions (Hilder, 2005).  Effective teaching through the use of culturally-sensitive trade books and primary documents that tell engaging stories helps students make the connection between broad social processes and major events in their own lives (Dublin, 1997).  To quote Jenna, a high school student who participated in Kohlmeier’s (2005) study utilizing primary source documents to teach historical significance, historical empathy,  and historical knowledge:

You don't really see it from one point of view, you see it from a whole bunch of peoples' so you look at a document and you see one person's point of view and it's more interesting because they give you facts about what was going on and it kind of made me more interested in history because like when you read a textbook all the people are all the same and this showed me not everyone was the same and people were different because they experienced things differently. Jenna

   Reading accounts of three women made history come alive for Jenna.  Whitney, another high school student involved in this study, said during the post-semester discussion, "I might not remember all the facts about these time periods, but I'll never forget these women's stories" (Kohlmeier, 2005).  As Jenna and Whitney became personally connected to the characters in the story, they became actively engaged in learning history.

   Daisey and Jose-Kampfner (2002) used the power of story to teach critical thinking to their Hispanic-American students that resulted in mathematical exploration and explanation, discussions of gender and bilingual issues, and reflective and affirmative writing.  Telling biographical stories about successful Hispanic-Americans helped students develop self-esteem by providing additional role models.  

   Reporting on the efficacy of using children’s literature as a means of teaching critical thinking skills to college students, Young (1996) noted that, as an introduction to critical thinking, stories have two crucial advantages over traditional content:

• First, because they are entertaining, students' pervasive apprehension is reduced, and they learn from the beginning that critical thinking is natural, familiar, and sometimes even fun.
• Second, the stories put issues of critical thinking in an easily remembered context.

    McCarty (2004) reported that incorporating quality children’s literature in her fourth-grade class helped her students become critical thinkers who enjoyed taking roles of explorers, researchers, adventurers, tourists, and word sleuths. The students also became more culturally literate and more aware geographically of what an exciting place the world can be.

   The stories contained in quality children's literature allow teachers to provide students with examples of many different points of view so students formulate concepts and more expansive generalizations about people and places (Kim and Garcia, 1996).  An important source of quality trade books for social studies is the annual annotated book list “Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People” published in Social Education and on the National Council for the Social Studies website (2005).

   Children's trade books not only engage students in actively learning social studies, they help students gather information about and from multiple perspectives, combating ethnocentrism.  As a social studies methods instructor, I often read children’s trade books to teacher candidates in my classes to help them connect social studies and multicultural points of view.

   Participating in a read-aloud of Patricia Polacco’s Pink and Say (1994) exposes teacher candidates to multiple perspectives about a true incident from Polacco’s own family history set during the Civil War. Two 15-year-old boys, Say, poor and white, and Pink, poor and black, become friends when Say is badly wounded, then rescued by Pink who carries him home to the Georgia plantation where Pink and his family were slaves. Pink is eager to go back and fight against ``the sickness'' that is slavery, but Say is afraid to return to his unit. In fact, Say tearfully confesses that he was wounded when he deserted his post during a battle.

   Pink and his mother nurse Say back to health, but she is killed by marauders. When the boys attempt to return to their Union units, they are captured and taken to Andersonville, where Pink is hanged and Say, released months later, ill and undernourished, survives. Polacco tells this tale about her great-great-grandfather without melodrama, but teacher candidates are often in tears by the end of this powerful story.

   In the artwork portrayed on the cover of this picture book, Polacco depicts the two boys reading a book by firelight.  When teacher candidates are asked to predict what the book is about, they often say, “The white boy is teaching the black boy to read”, a prediction that reflects their ethnocentrism; obviously, white boys read and black boys do not.  However, it is Pink who reads aloud from the Bible to his mother and Say, and Say who shamefully confesses that he cannot read, one example of how Polacco upsets stereotypes in this picture book.

   Say then volunteers that he has done something important: he once shook Abraham Lincoln's hand. This central image in the story is what ties the boys together for a final time when Confederate soldiers wrench them apart, Pink to be hanged and Say to be incarcerated in Andersonville, the hellhole of prisoner of war camps. Polacco’s picture of the boys’ clasped hands, with the hands of the soldiers wrenching them apart, is exceptionally moving. History comes to life in this remarkable picture book that helps readers understand the perspectives of these 15-year-old boys.

   Once grade-school students have heard the story about Pink and Say, teachers can help them develop critical thinking skills such as detecting and analyzing stereotyping. Reviewers of Pink and Say commented that the portrayal of Pink’s mother is stereotyped. Teachers can help students locate the wording in the story as well as the illustrations that led the reviewers to this conclusion. Teachers can also lead students in a discussion of the accuracy of their predictions prior to hearing the story to help children consider the impact of new information on previous conclusions.  Pink and Say is an appropriate trade book to use to help students develop historical empathy as they recognize multiple perspectives and consider other points of view. The book is a very effective anticipatory set for teaching upper elementary and middle school students about research using I-Charts (Hoffman, 1992) as a framework for their investigations.

   Inclusion of high quality, culturally-sensitive children’s books like Pink and Say can help teacher candidates broaden their awareness of other culturesand reduce ethnocentrism. Modeling read-alouds utilizing quality children’s books increases the likelihood that teacher candidates will, in turn, use the power of story to help their own social studies students learn to view historical events from more than one perspective.

References

Ayers, W. (1998). Popular education: Teaching for social justice. In W. Ayers (Ed.) Teaching for social justice. New York: Teachers College Press.

Daisey, P., & Jose-Kampfner, C. (2002). The power of story to expand possible selves for Latina middle school students. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 5(7), 578-587.

Dublin, T. (1997). Drawing on the personal: "roots" papers in the teaching of American history. The Social Studies, 88, 61-64.

Hilder, M.B. (2005). The enemy's gospel: Deconstructing exclusivity and inventing inclusivity through the power of story. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 20(2), 158-181.

Hoffman, J.V. (1992). Critical reading/thinking across the curriculum: Using I-Charts to support learning. Language Arts, 69, 121-127.

Hyun, E. (1995). Preservice teachers' sense-making of developmentally and culturally appropriate practice (DCAP) in early childhood education. (Doctoral dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, 1985).

Hyun, E., & Marshall, J.D. (1997). Theory of multiple/multiethnic perspective-taking ability for teachers' developmentally and culturally appropriate practice (DCAP). Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 11, 188-198.

Kim, C. Y, & Garcia, J. (1996). Diversity and trade books: Promoting conceptual learning in studies.Social Education, 60(4), 208-211.

Kohlmeier, J. (2005). The power of a woman's story: A three-step approach to historical significance in high school world history.International Journal of Social Education, 20(1), 64-80.

McCarty, D.M. (2004). The power of a good book in fourth grade social studies. The Social Studies, 94(4), 177-180.

McKay, R. (1998). Lessons from the history books. Canadian Social Studies, 32, 36.

Polacco, P. (1994). Pink and Say. New York: Philomel.

Silver, E., Smith, M., & Nelson, B. (1995). The QUASAR Project: Equity concerns meet mathematics education reform in the middle school. In W.G. Secada, E. Fennema, & L.B. Adajian (Eds.), New directions for equity in mathematics education (pp. 9-56). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Ukpokodu, O.N. (2003). The challenges of teaching a social studies methods course from a transformative and social reconstructionist framework. The Social Studies, 94(2), 75-80.  Retrieved October 1, 2005, from Education Full Text.

Young, A. (1996). Introducing critical thinking at the college level with children's stories. College Teaching, 44, 90-93.