"Boys Don't Wear Dresses!" Deconstructing gender representations in an elementary school classroom

Authors

  • Alexis Nicole Birner The University of British Columbia

Keywords:

critical literacy, picturebooks, gender, identity, language

Abstract

Critical literacy pedagogy suggests that by developing skills of questioning, critiquing and inquiring, students are able to apply a critical perspective in order to recognize and actively deconstruct socially-developed norms present in the world around them. A critical literacy perspective provides a lens to address social justice issues, such as those pertaining to gender, gender representation, gendered norms, and identity.

This paper presents action research conducted in my all-girls elementary school classroom and my students’ interactions with identity and the gender representations presented in the picturebook 10,000 Dresses (Ewert, 2008), in which a transgendered boy dreams about wearing beautiful dresses. The pedagogy of critical literacy was applied during the discussions and activities documented.

 

 

Author Biography

Alexis Nicole Birner, The University of British Columbia

M.Ed, The Department of Language and Literacy

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Published

2016-11-08

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 1 (2016)

Section

Research Study/Recherche

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