Introducing a critical perspective into a graduate course in children\u27s literature

In a nation in which our schools are increasingly populated with children from diverse ethnic, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds, we know little about the multicultural knowledge and practices of the predominantly White, European-American, middle-class female teachers who teach them. This descriptive, naturalistic study in a graduate college classroom investigated the multicultural frameworks and stances of five White, European-American middle-class women and one White, European-American middle-class man as they studied in a graduate course in multicultural children\u27s literature taught from a critical perspective. The White, European-American middle-class teacher educator\u27s experience was also documented. Over six months, data, field notes, student writing, transcribed interviews, and anonymous course evaluations, were gathered and analyzed according to the methods of portraiture and grounded theory. Students exhibited a wide range of responses to taking a critical approach to multicultural children\u27s literature that spanned from resistance to acceptance. A grounded theory of multicultural journeying was developed based on the three milestones of initial understanding, dissonance, and evolved understanding that emerged from the conceptual categories of the study. Six developmental constructs of multicultural teacher wayfarers were identified, including: novice-in-stasis, novice-in-movement, apprentice-in-stasis, apprentice-in-movement, expert-in-stasis, and expert-in-movement. It was determined that in order for teachers to adopt a multicultural philosophy, they required: (1) access to multicultural picture books and peritextual resources; (2) a discourse community in which they felt secure co-constructing knowledge and taking risks; (3) reflection/action based assignments which enabled them to contemplate their beliefs and act upon their developing understandings; and (4) an engaged teacher educator to guide them