Decolonizing Children\u27s Literature: Diversity & Representation in Six Scholarly Journals

Research on children\u27s publishing shows that children\u27s literature remains an overwhelmingly White, cisgender, heterosexual, and abled field. The same can be said about the scholarship of children\u27s literature, but little research has been done to measure representation and diversity within the discipline. Our collaborative research team (five undergraduate research assistants and one faculty member) analyzes data from six children\u27s literature journals over a 10-year period; using criteria from Lee & Low\u27s Diversity Baseline Survey and the Cooperative Children\u27s Book Center at UW-Madison, we measure how much of the published scholarship in recent children\u27s literature journals can be considered diverse. Finally, we tie our findings to a new journal in the field, Research on Diversity in Youth Literature, which was founded in 2016 as a dedicated space for diverse scholars and their work. In sum, this information helps us determine whether children\u27s literature is a field that is progressing in its stated goals of increased diversity and representation