2025/08/08 by Melissa Rojas Williams, Cinthia Salinas · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Health Professions · #Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy #Literacy and Educational Practices #Digital Storytelling and Education
paper · doi:10.1080/00933104.2025.2528699
openalex publication_date 2025/08/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
At the center of a marginalizing curriculum are deliberate attempts to diminish narratives that reflect diverse communities and the intrinsic relationship between culture and citizenship. Diverse children’s literature provides opportunities to conceptualize civic counternarratives that affirm student experiences and heighten an understanding of how Latina bilingual teachers reconceptualize citizenship. This critical case study contends that using diverse children’s literature and teaching social studies provides optimal space for multifaceted counternarratives that center issues vital in bilingual Latine civic spaces. Drawing from LatCrit, this study highlights the use of diverse children’s literature to present culturally authentic narratives for Latina elementary bilingual preservice teachers and their students. Findings show that the participants’ book selection aligned with their resolve to bring civic counternarratives that honored their bilingual/bicultural students’ cultural wealth; diverse children’s literature and quality pedagogy provided space for the students to strengthen their civic voice as a community; and language was important as a means to understand civic identity for the Latine community. This study offers implications for the field of social studies education by illustrating the need to include greater attention to diverse children’s literature as a platform to conceptualize and consequently access and affirm civic experiences, knowledge, and practices prevalent in the Latine community.