| This study, grounded in disability studies, critical theory, and critical literacy, examines disability representations in 12 contemporary children's picture books published between 2000 and 2004, with two general goals in mind: (a) to ascertain whether or not written and visual representations of disabled characters support ableist discourses; and (b) to develop, as a practical guide for teachers, an analytical framework that scrutinizes disability representations. Two main research questions direct the study: How do visual and textual representations in a selection of 12 children's picture books published in the United States between 2000 and 2004 operate together to perpetuate and/or challenge pathologized ways of conceptualizing disability? How might educators use an analytical framework like the one developed for this study to examine disability representations in children's picture books in the classroom? Since novel ways of "reading" picture books are still emerging, this study challenges static representations. Instead, it attempts to discover the kinds of meanings about disability that surface from 12 picture books resulting from their critical analysis intertextually and intersectionally.;This study discusses what is depicted as disability, including how, when, and why the latter is represented in relationship to race/ethnicity, social class, and gender. Accordingly, the findings emphasize three conceptual themes: (a) race/ethnicity and disability; (b) social class and disability; and (c) gender and disability. Intertextual and intersectional approaches are utilized to uncover the ways in which oppressions and inequalities manifest themselves simultaneously upon disabled characters. Because this study treats picture books as political and interested texts, it encourages teachers to problematize them. It emphasizes critical teaching and asks that critical teachers, via the analysis of picture books, provide students with ample opportunities to question and challenge racist, classist, sexist, and ableist viewpoints and social structures. |
