Browsing by Subject "http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p29580"

The purpose of this study was to find out how diversity is presented in contemporary chil-dren’s picturebooks. The theoretical background of the study was based on feminist peda-gogy, gender studies and cultural studies. The aim of the study was to describe, analyze and interpret the discourses of diversity in children's picturebooks written in 2012–2021. The main interest was in the means of making diversity a part of everyday life’s representa-tion. The phenomena were examined intersectionally. Previous studies (see e.g., Pesonen 2015a, 2015b, 2017; Heikkilä-Halttunen 2013; Rastas 2013, Beezmohun 2013; Kokkola & Österlund 2014; Österlund 2008) have found that diversity is often presented in an exotic and ethnocentric way – through differences – but discourse is changing to describe diversity as a normal part of society. Representations of socially constructed categories such as citi-zenship, “race,” and gender are changing. The research material was produced by selecting picturebooks that presented diversity in some way as a principle. The purpose in studying discourses was to increase understand-ing of how hegemonic and dominant discourses were challenged in the selected picture-books. Poststructuralist feminist discourse analysis was used to analyze the material. Es-pecially power positions and agencies were examined. The study showed that in the ten children's picturebooks examined, diversity is mostly pre-sented as a normal, everyday and pervasive phenomenon. Three main discourses could be distinguished from the material, which were 1) children challenging the hegemonic norma-tive, 2) diversity as a normal part of society, and 3) requirement of equality: everyone has the right to be their own self. Modern children’s literature actively challenged dominant con-cepts of gender, “race,” ethnicity, language, age, and health status, but at the same time might have produced binary gender dichotomy. Nevertheless, all the books studied also created a new kind of diversity discourse and, in other words, actively reproduced concept of diversity.

The aim of this thesis was to explore teachers' perceptions and experiences of normative whiteness and white power. This is important because whiteness is built into the education system, and it is a way of maintaining racist perceptions and values. It also allows for the maintenance of ableist values and perceptions, as whiteness has historically been associated with notions of intelligence, efficiency, and ability, for example, thus justifying racism through categories associated with disability. The thesis therefore drew on an intersectional framework identifying "race" and disability to identify the ways in which ideologies of whiteness are manifested in the education system, producing multiple, overlapping forms of oppression. The examination of the issue from the perspective of teachers is essential, as teachers are in a position of significant power in producing and maintaining categories of "normal" and "non-normal". The study was conducted as a systematic literature review. Through narrative synthesis, 7 themes describing teachers' perceptions and experiences emerged from the data. Themes were divided into two groups (perceptions and experiences of white teachers and perceptions and experiences of PoC teachers) to find the widest possible range of findings about the ways in which ideologies of whiteness manifest in teachers' perceptions and experiences. The division was made in line with the anti-racist agenda of the study and the Disability Critical Race Theory framework. The findings of the study confirmed previous research findings on epistemologies of white innocence, which manifested in white teachers as fear and avoidance of talking about "race", downplaying racism, exploiting ignorance, defensiveness, focusing on whiteness, and emphasizing their own white goodness, among others. PoC teachers' perceptions and experiences were related to multiple experiences of racism. PoC teachers also described several ways in which normative whiteness and white power were implemented in the education system, manifested in eurocentric and whiteness-centered examination structures and materials. The groups' findings complemented each other in that while white teachers described their ignorance of racism, PoC teachers described their experiences of white teachers not taking responsibility or recognizing oppression in the education system. The findings also mirrored each other in that as white teachers used trendy words ("woke") to elevate their own social status, PoC teachers expressed concern that challenging racism would be a trend for the privileged, rather than a sustainable, anti-racist activity. The findings of this study reflect the multiple ways in which normative whiteness and white power are manifested in the education system. To be truly equal, we need to look critically at the power structures in the education system and challenge what are perceived as "normal" perceptions and values.