Seeking Diversity in Children's Literature Utilized in Elementary Classrooms

Utilizing literature in classrooms that is representative of all provides opportunities for students to find within a book the truth of their own experiences. Literature provides the windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors that afford opportunities to consider multiple perspectives and lenses in life. This chapter discusses different representations of diverse literature in classrooms and explores what educators might consider for their teaching and learning. Specifically, the chapter describes books student teachers identify using in their classrooms and considers how the books aligned with the different categories of a rubric used to assess them. Of the 113 books sampled, only nine books distinctly represented diversity. Implications of these findings and how they can support and challenge the children's literature utilized in today's classrooms are discussed.