‘Cinderella did not speak up’: critical literacy approach using folk/fairy tales and their parodies in an early childhood classroom

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study examined a class of 20 five-year-old Korean children’s literary sessions that were composed of whole-group read-alouds of fairy/folk tales and their parodies, including discussion and follow-up activities based on critical literacy practices. Over a 15-week period, multiple sources of data including observations, open-ended interviews, written materials, and children’s artifacts were collected. We found that these literary sessions based on a critical literacy approach helped the children (1) perceive the stories from different/multiple perspectives, (2) challenge stereotypes, and (3) confront the dominant social ideology/norms. The findings of the study add several important implications for implementing critical literacy in early childhood classrooms, which apply to the teachers’ questions and selection of books, as well as the system and consistency of instruction.

KEYWORDS:

• Parody
• critical literacy
• stereotypes
• gender
• Korean

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr. Su-Jeong Wee is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Development in Human Development and Family Studies program, Department of Behavioral Sciences at Purdue University Northwest. Her primary research areas include diversity, children's literature, arts in early childhood, and early childhood teacher education.

Kyoung Jin Kim is an assistant professor in Early Childhood Education at Wheelock. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Early Childhood Education and supervises student teachers. Her scholarly interests include multicultural education (diversity), teacher education, professional development, quality of early childhood education, and working with family.

Dr. Youngmi Lee is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education in the department of Humanities and Social Development at Hanyang Women's University. Her primary research areas include children's literature, children's math, curriculum development in early childhood, and early childhood teacher education.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded in part by Hanyang Women's University in the second semester of 2016.