Children’s literature as a bridge for social justice education: building understanding, acceptance, and kindness in diverse primary classrooms
Subject
Abstract
While the literature is clear that teaching issues of social justice to young children leads to deeper understanding of self, others, and the world, social justice instruction is not happening enough in primary grades. Studies show that educators value the importance of teaching empathy and compassion-building for positive classroom environments and reducing bullying behaviours, but barriers to instruction, including lack of professional development, opportunities for collaboration, and the complex nature of some social justice topics for young children, make it difficult to teach. Despite this, issues of social justice can be taught to children, and this instruction needs to start earlier. Children’s literature is one way to teach young learners about appreciation and understanding of others, leading to greater awareness of the diversity found in our classrooms, schools, and communities. This collaborative action research study investigated the research questions: How can we improve our attention to social justice, belonging, and acceptance through children’s literature in the primary classroom? How can collaboration build confidence and competence in primary educators to integrate social justice education in their teaching practice? Results of this study and participant feedback indicated that collaboration helped to build teachers’ confidence and competence in shifting their practice to include topics of social justice. There was a positive affect to participants’ pedagogy and curriculum offerings to students. This study has demonstrated that educators would like more professional development and authentic collaboration opportunities to equip them with the knowledge and skills to address controversial issues and resolve conflict as well as better address issues of diversity and social justice in the primary classroom. The findings from this study may be transferable to other contexts, including primary educators wishing to implement social justice through children’s literature to support empathy and compassion-building among students and to promote safe and caring schools.