Abstract
Enacting a class-sensitive pedagogy means disrupting negative discourses about social class and affirming the lives and experiences of children and families from poverty and the working class. One step that educators can take toward embracing a class-sensitive pedagogy is the inclusion of books with poor and working-class perspectives in the curriculum. This chapter describes a framework that educators can use to analyze and evaluate depictions of poor and working-class characters in books for children. This framework can support educators with selecting books that are respectful of and affirming to children from low-income families. In addition, the chapter offers book recommendations and approaches for integrating children's literature in elementary and middle grades classrooms.
TopIntroduction
As income inequality in the United States continues to rise (Horowitz et al., 2020; Shuster, 2015), it becomes increasingly important for educators to be responsive to the needs of children and families experiencing poverty and economic challenges. According to Gorski (2013, 2018), some of the most effective instructional strategies for supporting students in poverty include making the curriculum relevant to students’ lives and experiences, teaching students about income inequality, and analyzing curricular materials to avoid reinforcing negative stereotypes about social class, poverty in particular. In the literacy classroom, these strategies may be implemented by sharing children’s literature about characters experiencing poverty and providing students with opportunities to respond to this literature. Indeed, Jones and Vagle (2013) recommended critical examination of children’s books featuring the lives of poor and working-class characters as one way that educators can strive toward a class-sensitive pedagogy.
Given the potential of children’s literature to make poverty visible in the curriculum, this chapter presents a framework that teachers and teacher educators can utilize to analyze and evaluate children’s books about characters in poverty and the working-class. Applying this framework can support educators with 1) selecting literature that is respectful and affirming to children who are experiencing economic struggles and 2) avoiding literature that devalues class diversity. The goals of this chapter align to Hunt and Seiver’s (2018) call to provide professional learning “that helps educators recognize and resist deficit views of economically disadvantaged students and families and to support teachers in identifying and changing elements of school culture and curriculum that may marginalize and pathologize class differences” (p. 353). The next section of this chapter addresses why books featuring respectful portrayals of poverty and the working-class are imperative in today’s classrooms, how children’s books have typically depicted poor and working-class lives, and the role of educators in selecting literature that validates the lives and experiences of people in poverty and the working-class. Then, a framework for evaluating characters from poverty and the working-class within the context of the United States is described, and this is followed by recommendations for using children’s literature about poverty in elementary and middle grade classrooms.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Working-Class: A class location in which income is derived from jobs that do not require specialized education, training, or skills and may pay low wages. Like poverty, the working-class is often positioned undesirably in social and cultural discourse.
Class-Sensitive Pedagogy: An orientation toward pedagogy that involves unpacking bias and assumptions about class and affirming the perspectives of children from historically marginalized class groups such as the poor and working-class. Class-sensitive pedagogy was first described by educational researchers Stephanie Jones and Mark Vagle.
Discourse: Assumptions, stereotypes, or popular narratives about a phenomenon such as poverty or class. Discourses are reinforced throughout a culture such as in media and literature.
Poverty: A socioeconomic condition in which individuals may not have access to the resources required to meet fundamental needs such as food, housing, and healthcare. In the context of the United States, people experiencing poverty are often framed in negative and stereotypical ways.
Critical Literacy: A questioning perspective that involves challenging assumptions, noticing instances of inequality or oppression, and participating in social action in the pursuit of justice and equity.
Social Class: A social construct that sorts people and families according to their financial resources and means of income. Within the United States, the poor, the working-class, the middle class, and the upper class are commonly noted as class locations. Most U.S. residents tend to identify as middle class.
Children’s Literature: Books intended for young people from birth through the middle grade years (approximately ages 12-14).