EDCT 5823 - The Importance of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging in Children’s Literature

Course Description

All children deserve to see themselves represented in the pages of the books they read. Diversity representation in books is crucial for children to accept themselves and others around them. This course will examine how using inclusive literature helps to engender a sense of pride in children, while affirming their identity, their families, and their communities. Discover resources to help you find books that depict diverse characters including, but not limited to, people from different cultures, race and ethnicities, people with disabilities, and LGBTQIA+ youth. Build a bibliography for your classroom as you go along. Learn to foster inclusion and belonging in the classroom with books that expose children to new ways of thinking, perspectives, and knowledge different than their own.

Learner Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will:

1. Recognize the importance of representation in textbooks and why they are a powerful means of helping children to understand themselves and others around them.
2. Understand why textbooks act as both a mirror of personal identity and experiences as well as a window into the diversity of the world.
3. Learn how to use inclusive literature that helps to engender a sense of pride in children and affirms their identity, their families and their communities
4. Discover authors and illustrators from culturally and racially diverse backgrounds
5. Explore a variety of books depicting characters from diverse backgrounds including people with disabilities, members of non-dominant populations, LGBTQIA youth, and indigenous peoples.
6. Build a bibliography for immediate use in the classroom.