{"id":19891,"date":"2023-09-19T12:18:13","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T19:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/?p=19891"},"modified":"2023-09-19T13:42:08","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T20:42:08","slug":"racial-representation-in-school-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/racial-representation-in-school-books\/","title":{"rendered":"In the publishing world, diversity depends not only on who is portrayed but also on how"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Selen \u00d6zt\u00fcrk. Etnic Media Services<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n
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(Photo by Suad Kamardeen, via Unsplash \u2013 Ethnic Media Services)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Changing the unequal representation of people of color means changing not just how many are portrayed, but also how they are portrayed, according to a new study of racial representation in U.S. schoolbooks by The Education Trust.<\/em><\/div>\n
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A new study of racial representation in US textbooks by The Education Trust argues that numbers alone are not enough: changing the unequal representation of people of colour means changing not just how many are portrayed, but also how they are portrayed.<\/p>\n

It is a purely qualitative approach. Racial diversity in books can and should increase over time, but if characters of color are depicted in simplistic, stereotypical, or negative ways, these books do not benefit America's undergraduate students, more than half of whom are now nonwhite.<\/p>\n

Representation gaps<\/h2>\n

The study<\/a>, published on Thursday, September 14 and written by Drs.\u00a0Tanji Reed Marshall<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0William Rodick<\/a>\u00a0report figures that support this disservice: between 300\u00a0School books<\/a>\u00a0In the U.S. (chosen randomly, evenly across all grade levels, from publishers commonly used in English language arts curricula, such as Scholastic and Penguin Random House), nearly half of people of color are portrayed negatively.<\/p>\n

This representation takes many forms: Individually, people of color are often portrayed as \u201cone-dimensional\u201d or lacking agency, the study said; groups or cultures of color are often portrayed with associated stereotypes or as inferior to others; and historical or social issues are \u201calmost always sanitized, told from a singular perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has always been representation in the curriculum, and that representation is predominantly white,\u201d he said.\u00a0Dr Marshall<\/a>\u00a0. Those who want to fill representation gaps \u201cmust also push for the inclusion of books with fully realized and positively represented characters of color.\u201d<\/p>\n

This imbalance extends to the books' creators themselves: 232 of the 300 books had at least one white author or illustrator (77.3%), 6.8 times more than the next highest category: black creators, who were involved in 34 books (11.3%).<\/p>\n

Determining the complex representation<\/h2>\n

The study divides the criteria it uses to determine complex, partial or limited representation into three categories: historically marginalized individuals, groups or cultures, and historical or social issues.<\/p>\n

At the level of individuals, questions are suggested about their multidimensionality, agency, and influence (positive or negative); those of groups or cultures include stereotypes, positive values, and values in relation to other groups; those of historical and social issues include sanitization or oversimplification, inclusion of historically marginalized perspectives, and relationship of the issue to students' experiences.<\/p>\n

280 of the 300 books had central characters, essential to the story or information. Of these, 124 had people of color (44%). However, only 53% of these people were portrayed with complexity, while another 44% had limited representation.<\/p>\n

Dr. Rodick said, \u201cAt first, we were pleasantly surprised that half of the characters of color were represented with complexity. And then we were surprised that we were surprised, because that\u2019s a very low bar. We want so much more than half. We were also surprised by how rare the overlaps of identity were, including different family structures, genders, disabilities, relationships to the prison system \u2014 those stories were still very much hidden on the page.\u201d<\/p>\n

118 of the books featured groups of color (39%), and less than a third of them (31%) did so with complexity \u201cavoiding stereotypes, immersing people in the culture, and portraying groups of color in a positive and equally valuable way for other groups,\u201d according to the study. More than half did not (54%).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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73 of the 300 books in the EdTrust study feature at least one white person. (Source: EdTrust via Ethnic Media Services)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the socio-historical front, 137 books addressed historical or social themes (46%), and few did so with complexity (16%) \u201cavoiding sanitization, including a marginalized perspective and connecting the topic with student realities.\u201d The vast majority did not (80%).<\/p>\n

\u201cLike the\u00a0increase in bans<\/a>\u00a0\u201cOf books that can expose students to diverse representation, imbalances in this representation are not new,\u201d Rodick said.<\/p>\n

PEN America<\/a> reports 1,477 individual book bans in the U.S. during the first half of the 2022-2023 school year, up 28% from the previous six months.\u00a0The 40% of banned books<\/a>\u00a0between July 2021 and June 2022 had prominent protagonists or supporting characters of color; 21% had titles that indicated racial issues.<\/p>\n

Examples of banned books include \u201cI Am Rosa Parks,\u201d \u201cI Am Martin Luther King, Jr.,\u201d \u201cThe Bluest Eye,\u201d and \u201cThe Hill We Climb.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although greater representation is an uphill battle on the legislative front, some states such as\u00a0Illinois<\/a>\u00a0(which, in June 2023, became the first to pass a book ban) and\u00a0California<\/a>\u00a0, which passed a similar bill in September, are making historic progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we work toward greater freedom across the country,\u201d Rodick said, \u201cwe will use our report as a basis for working closely with publishers, teachers, and curriculum advocates to create guidelines for reviewing what children read, understanding the boundaries of how people, groups, and themes are portrayed in these books, and deciding how to present these books for a fuller understanding of what is portrayed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balancing limited representation<\/h2>\n

\u201cAn increase in Black characters in children\u2019s books is fantastic,\u201d Rodick said, \u201cbut we want to go beyond counting \u2014 not just whether they are portrayed, but how often they are portrayed negatively.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want anyone to eliminate or censor any book based on its representation, or to consider it good or bad; many of the limited ones are of indispensable value,\u201d she continued. \u201cWe want to recognize the value of these limited books by adding more perspectives to them in order to engage students with them more deeply. If a book presents a topic in a very problematic way, it\u2019s not a question of whether the reader should engage with it, but how best to engage with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the books examined, for example, is the autobiography \u201cRuby Bridges Goes to School.\u201d In it, Bridges frames racial segregation as a personal issue, with some white people feeling that they should not befriend black people.<\/p>\n

According to the study, a more complex take on an adjacent topic is presented in the picture book \u201cNasreen\u2019s Secret School,\u201d set in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. In the story, the eponymous girl\u2019s parents disappear and the regime forbids her to attend school and leave home without a male chaperone or burka. In defiance, Nasreen\u2019s grandmother enrolls her in a secret school, where the girl finds solace in an outlawed world of art and literature with the support of her teacher.<\/p>\n

That Ruby Bridges' personal perspective conveys a more limited representation of educational segregation than Nasreen's does not mean it is not an invaluable way to learn about it, Rodick stressed. However, it does mean that readers would learn more about it if the book were taught alongside others that present segregation in its social, economic or legal dimensions, beyond this personal limitation.<\/p>\n

In short, the performance does not stop in front of a mirror.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe engage students not only when they can see themselves come to life on the page, but also when they can see others come to life on the page, when they can step into each other\u2019s worlds through their experiences,\u201d Rodick said. \u201cBut you can\u2019t get a full understanding of people who have these experiences through a single story \u2014 or from anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This publication was supported\u00a0<\/em>in whole or\u00a0<\/em>part by funding provided by the State of California,<\/em>\u00a0a<\/em>you administered<\/em>red by the\u00a0Cali<\/a><\/em>Fornia State Library.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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You may be interested in:<\/strong> Hate crimes in California increase more than 20 percent in 2022<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Por Selen \u00d6zt\u00fcrk. Etnic Media Services Cambiar la representaci\u00f3n desigual de las personas de color es cambiar no s\u00f3lo cu\u00e1ntos son retratados, sino tambi\u00e9n c\u00f3mo son retratados, seg\u00fan un nuevo estudio sobre la representaci\u00f3n racial en libros escolares de EE. UU. realizado por The Education Trust. Un nuevo estudio sobre la representaci\u00f3n racial en libros […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":19892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,11,8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cover","8":"category-culture","9":"category-usworld"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19891"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19898,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19891\/revisions\/19898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}