The Missouri Reader Vol. 36, Issue 1 | Page 8

USING CHILDREN’S LITERATURE TO EXPLORE SOCIAL
CLASS AND POVERTY IN TIMES OF ECONOMIC CRISIS
Rebecca Rogers with Barbara Reese
Introduction
n economic recession in the U.S. and
strains on the global economy offer a particularly
ripe moment for teachers to raise questions about
the kinds of literacy practices that prepare students
for participation in dialogue about living in a new
world order (Rogers, Mosley & Folkes, 2009;
Yunus, 2009). In Missouri alone, the poverty rates
for young people are staggering with over 23% of
children under the age of five and 16% of children
ages 5-17 living in poverty (National Center for
Children in Poverty, 2008). And yet there is often
a silenced dialogue around matters of social class
and poverty in society and schools. When poverty
is discussed it is often misrepresented as a deficit
or pathological in mainstream society (for a
critique see Bomer, Dworin, May & Semingson,
2008; Jones, 2009). Indeed, children living in
poverty may not have adequate opportunity to see
themselves represented positively in the media,
the curriculum and in literature. All children need
opportunities to learn about socio-economic
diversity from their peers, teachers and in the
pages of children‘s literature.
In this article, we demonstrate the ways in
which social class and poverty are articulated
through a selection of children‘s literature.
Children‘s literature, an artifact of cultural, social
and economic values, provides a window into the
ways in which children are socialized to think
about social class (e.g. Botelho & Rudman, 2009;
Cai, 2006; Davies & Saltmarsh, 2007). Social class
relations are constructed, in part, through
language, talk and texts. Children‘s literature is an
important site in the construction of identities
because it is through narratives that children start
to understand themselves.

A Note about
Methods
We analyzed
contemporary and
historical realistic
fiction picture
books that dealt
with matters of
poverty and social
Rebecca Rogers is an Associate Professor of
Literacy and Discourse Studies in the College of
Education at the University of Missouri-St.
Louis. She has published several books including
"Designing Socially Just Learning Communities:
Critical Literacy Education across the Lifespan"
(with M. Mosley, M.A. Kramer & LSJTRG)
(Routledge, 2009); "Adult Education Teachers
Teaching Critical Literacy Education"
(Routledge, 2007); "Critical Literacy/Critical
Teaching" (with C. Dozier & P. Johnston)
(Teachers College Press, 2006) and "A Critical
Discourse Analysis of Family Literacy Practices"
(Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003). Her
articles have appeared in Reading Research
Quarterly, The Journal of Literacy Research,
Language Arts, Critical Discourse Studies,
Linguistics & Education, Teaching Education,
among others. Rogers serves as the Director of
the Burnett Literacy Clinic at UMSL.
Barbara Reese is a doctoral student at the
University of Missouri-St. Louis.
The research was partially supported by the Burnett
Literacy Clinic at the University of Missouri-St.
Louis. Thank you to Aleshea Ingram for her
assistance in analyzing the children's literature.

©The Missouri Reader, 36 (1) p. 8