Research in the Teaching of English May 2022

“It’s Our Job as People to Make Others Feel Valued”: Children Imagining More Caring and Just Worlds through Superhero Stories

Francisco Luis Torres

Abstract

This study explores the potential of fifth-grade children to take up, mold, and complicate the superhero genre to engage issues of social justice and equity in critical and dynamic ways. Using critical discourse and visual analysis, I explore the ideological and political work in the comics four students of color created as part of this study. I argue that, when given the opportunity to embody their full selves in the creation process to fight against issues of injustice that matter to them, children are more likely to imagine beyond conceptions of the child (e.g., being apolitical) and take on activist stances. Moreover, teachers have the power to encourage children to see themselves and their voices as important tools in the fight for social justice. This study pushes us to consider that we, as adults, can either help to expand the possibilities available to children or continue to perpetuate the inequities that children experience on a daily basis due to misconceptions of what it means to be a child and what children are capable of.

Journal
Research in the Teaching of English
Published
2022-05-15
DOI
10.58680/rte202231862
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
genre theory discourse analysis race and writing
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