{"id":39295,"date":"2021-11-12T15:29:02","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T15:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/?post_type=cu_story&p=39295"},"modified":"2025-02-03T11:30:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T16:30:16","slug":"students-write-childrens-books-that-focus-on-intersectional-childhood-experiences","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/story\/students-write-childrens-books-that-focus-on-intersectional-childhood-experiences\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Write Children\u2019s Books that Focus on Intersectional Childhood Experiences"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Students Write Children\u2019s Books that Focus on Intersectional Childhood Experiences\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n\n

By Nick Ward
Photos by Ainslie Coghill<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a Childhood and Youth Studies course, students took part in an experiential learning project which asked them to author creative non-normative children books for elementary and middle school-aged children.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The experience of childhood is not universal, and is often influenced by each child’s unique combination of intersectional identities.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, so many of the constructed representations of childhood created for children and teenagers present normative narratives and make generalized assumptions about all young people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Mayurika Chakravorty\u2019s<\/a> third-year Childhood and Youth Studies<\/a> course, Children\u2019s Knowledges, Cultures, and Representations<\/em>, critically assesses these standardized cultural products and political structures, while exploring the true diverse identities and knowledges of childhood in all contexts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe course is situated on the premise that not all children live within Western models of childhood,\u201d says Chakravorty, who taught the course for the first time in Fall 2020 and then again in the Winter 2021 term. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mayurika
Professor Mayurika Chakravorty<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI ask my students to focus on the intersectionality of childhood with race, caste, gender and sexuality, colonial experience, and migration, and to evaluate how structures of power, privilege, and oppression shape the identities of children and youth in different cultural contexts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fittingly, the capstone experiential learning project for her students asks them to create an original children\u2019s book which corresponds to distinctive, non-normative childhood experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students in the course have the option to create a picture book using both text and images for children ages five to eight, or they can write one chapter of a middle-school book aimed at eight to twelve-year-olds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn creating their book, I ask them to not only reflect on the course material, but to choose a topic they are passionate about, or one they would like to contribute to,\u201d explains Chakravorty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before beginning their book, Chakravorty\u2019s students must conduct a literature review of seven to eight publications relevant to their interests and ambitions. This exercise helps them determine which gaps in childhood expression and storytelling require filling and provides foresight on how they might accomplish this vital work with their own books. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone has been very enthusiastic, although we have faced some hindrances given that we all had to take this challenge on in a virtual setting,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chakravorty and her students were able to overcome this challenge thanks to the support of many people, including the enthusiastic staff at Carleton’s MacOdrum Library and local public libraries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had great help, and it led us to discover that no obstacle was insurmountable. Overall, the course has been an overwhelmingly positive venture, and my students have fully embraced the experiential learning opportunity afforded by the book writing project.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chakravorty explains that many of the students who take Children\u2019s Knowledges, Cultures, and Representations<\/a><\/em> see themselves as future educators with aspirations to contribute to educational curriculums with creative content. As a result, this hands-on learning experience has been transformative for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student of the Fall 2020 course, Serena Macri says the project will stick with her for a long time. \u201cIt was challenging, but at the same time, very fun and unique. I have not done an assignment as creative, informative, and educational as this one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis project made me realize how appreciative I am of the Childhood and Youth Studies program and how it allows for opportunities to learn in such creative ways. I hope that one day when I become a teacher, I will read them the book I created.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student Hikmet Mawi has similar sentiments about the course: \u201cIt has always been my dream to write a children\u2019s book. In fact, every time I am asked to say or write something about myself, I share that it is my dream to write a children\u2019s book. So, it comes as no surprise at the level of my enthusiasm when I read in the syllabus that this course has an experiential learning project involving writing a book. The way this experiential learning program has been designed has given me a realistic glimpse into the process of a writing project.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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I have never had the privilege of offering my students the opportunity to build something personal and pragmatic like this children\u2019s book. And they enacted so beautifully.<\/p>Dr. Chakravorty <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

While this project holds significant practical and experiential value for students interested in working with and creating content for children as a future career, the Children\u2019s Knowledges, Cultures, and Representations <\/em>course also served as a very personal challenge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student Anne-Chloe Dure says it enabled her to not only reconsider societal norms but to further examine her childhood and current place in the world. \u201cThe oppression that I faced as a child and the lack of representation that I had was something that I suppressed for many years,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI became so accustomed to living in a world where you are expected to try to mould to white standards that I never realized what my younger self needed. As much as I enjoyed the books that I read as a child, I very much wished that there existed more books I could relate with \u2013 someone to tell me that it was ok to be unique and that being different was beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNonetheless, now it is my turn to pass that message along to young black girls so that they may not feel the need to suppress their emotions as I had in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This course was the first time Chakravorty had her students create an artifact other than a traditional essay. \u201cI have never had the privilege of offering my students the opportunity to build something personal and pragmatic like this children\u2019s book. And they enacted so beautifully,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Examples of Children\u2019s Books created for Children\u2019s Knowledges, Cultures, and Representations<\/em><\/strong>:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Nick WardPhotos by Ainslie Coghill For a Childhood and Youth Studies course, students took part in an experiential learning project which asked them to author creative non-normative children books for elementary and middle school-aged children. The experience of childhood is not universal, and is often influenced by each child’s unique combination of intersectional identities.  […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[816],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-39295","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","hentry","cu_story_type-general"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/39295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/39295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39918,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/39295\/revisions\/39918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=39295"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=39295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}