The Use of African American Children’s Literature in the Classroom

Abstract

The purpose of this study is threefold beginning with determining if teachers are using African American children's literature in their classrooms. The second purpose is to determine if the books that teachers are using reflect a wide range of experiences of African Americans. The third purpose is to determine why some teachers are not using African American children's literature. One hundred surveys were distributed in two urban elementary schools and two suburban elementary schools in Monroe County. The subjects were the forty-seven teachers who responded to the surveys. The survey was designed to obtain information about the use of African American children's literature by teachers in urban and suburban schools. A descriptive analysis of the data from the surveys indicates that all the subjects in the study are using African American children's literature in their classrooms. The fiction books which they are using reflect a wide range of experiences by African Americans. The overwhelming number of nonfiction books were about famous African American entertainers or civil rights leaders.