by Michelle Grace-Williams and Julia López-Robertson , University of South Carolina
Culturally relevant teaching refers to the use of “ cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them” (Gay, 2010, p.31). A culturally relevant approach to teaching includes careful book selection to avoid stereotypes that might distort the historical experiences of African Americans [we specify African American because of our blog content but recognize that all books must be carefully analyzed for misinterpretation and misinformation]. Continue reading
In Jeanette Winter’s 
After looking at the 11 picturebooks in this collection I came away with the realization that these books merely covered a few regions that Muslims occupy as well as a handful of situations. These limited portrayals provide only a window of restricted representations. For instance, the necessary voices of children living in the Western countries are represented in books that come across as didactic and may turn off the audience in western countries even if the content is culturally relevant. Amira’s Totally Chocolate World and Mobin-Uddin’s