Seventeenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

In the United States, numerous topics are being labeled as “controversial” in the K-12 education system, and thus are either difficult to teach, or can even be banned. One such topic under scrutiny is the refugee crisis and immigration as represented in literature. Unless students have the chance to explore narratives of marginalized people (especially migrant and refugee children) while also explicitly challenging and reflecting upon their own biases, negative stereotypes might ensue. This study investigates how engaging in reading children’s literature may have altered future teachers’ perceptions of the global refugee and immigration policies to become better global citizens and future educators. Our university (in midwestern United States) invites our preservice teachers to challenge themselves through reading diverse literature and using diverse literacies, such as object photography, in their classrooms and with their students. The objectives of the session are to showcase award-winning children’s literature titles featuring refugee protagonists that preservice teachers read for their engagement in the topic as well as share an innovative way preservice teachers conceptualized their thinking, paying particular attention to symbolism and metaphor, via object photography. Preservice teachers used their creations to voice their pre- and post-reading thinking of migration as well as how the project creation and their title choice helped them better understand what it means to be a refugee and how to engage in critical conversations with their future students regarding assumptions and initial generalizing of the refugee experience as one/the same, which they now realize is not the case.