Korean-Origin Kindergarten Children’s Response to African-American Characters in Race-Themed Picture Books

Abstract EN

In spite of the contributions of previous studies about multicultural education, children’s literature, and teaching for social justice, no study had investigated their intersection.

This qualitative case study explores how kindergarten-age Korean children respond to African-American characters in picture books during read-alouds.

The data were collected by audio-recordings, open-ended interviews, children’s artifacts, and observational field notes.

One of the findings was that the children exhibited resistance to black characters, and their resistance was shaped within their larger social and cultural surroundings such as the parents’ racial views towards black people and the dominant racial discourse of Korean community.

Findings suggest that the goal of a literacy program in bilingual children’s classrooms has to be that students learn not only about biliteracy skills but also about the value and meaning of the human experience in our pluralistic society.