Abstract
American publishers have published numerous children’s books about Barack Obama over the past several years; most take the form of informational biographies. This article reports on a research project aimed at how these books incorporate sociohistorical narratives, particularly those related to the civil rights movement. Though the features of the books might cause the reader to presume political neutrality, the books link readers to distinct Discourses (Gee, 1996), suggesting particular ideologies. In this article, we identified the following differences: (1) specific happenings from Obama’s life were included in some texts while omitted in others; (2) when the events were included, how they were framed differed; and (3) the narrative constructions of the events varied. We use the differences amongst these texts to argue for the importance of critical literacy in elementary classrooms.
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Laura A. May, Assistant Professor at Georgia State University, researches the texts teachers use in classroom literacy instruction, the classroom interactions that surround them, and how these two areas relate to teacher preparation.
Teri Holbrook, Assistant Professor at Georgia State University, studies multiple literacies, technology, writing pedagogy, and the socio-cultural construction of learning disabilities.
Laura E. Meyers, Assistant Professor at Georgia State University, studies social studies education, teacher development practices, cross-cultural immersion experiences, and children’s literature as it relates to literacy and social studies instruction.
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May, L.A., Holbrook, T. & Meyers, L.E. (Re)Storying Obama: An Examination of Recently Published Informational Texts. Child Lit Educ 41, 273–290 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-010-9107-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-010-9107-y