Abstract of

Guiding Principles for Teaching Multicultural Literature

Belinda Y. Louie

When using multicultural literature in the classroom, teachers should

• Check the text's authenticity

• Help learners understand the characters' world

• Encouage children to see the world through the characters' perspectives

• Identify values underlying the characters' conflict resolution strategies

• Relate self to the text and critique the portrayal of characters in the text and in popular media

• Use variants of the same story or collection of stories to help students to build schema

• Encouage students to talk, write, and respond throughout reading the multicultural texts

The author reports a study in a fourth-grade classroom in which these principles were applied in teaching four variants of the Mulan story and watching Walt Disney's Mulan video. Data included videotaped records of instructional sessions, transcripts of the sessions, field notes, teacher journals, student journals, and student projects. After a three-week instructional unit, students demonstrated critical understanding, empathetic understanding, and conceptual understanding of the texts. Teachers of children and young adolescents can apply these principles to teaching other multicultural literature selections.

Abstract from Louie, B.Y. (2006, February). Guiding Principles for Teaching Multicultural Literature. The Reading Teacher, 59(5), 438–448. doi: 10.1598/RT.59.5.3