Painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris
About the Project
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This resource guide was created in 2021 by Emilie Menzel as an assignment for a children's librarianship and literature course through University of North Carolina's School of Information and Library Science (SILS) Masters of Science in Library Science program.
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The project is inspired by the research on historical master narratives and counter narratives in picture books by Sara B. Demoiny and Jessica Ferraras-Stone (2018). Per the definition given in their article "Critical Literacy in Elementary Social Studies: Juxtaposing Historical Master and Counter Narratives in Picture Books," a counter narrative will accomplish the following when recounting historical events:
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“Explore differences rather than making them invisible,
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Enrich understandings of history and life by giving voice to those traditionally silenced or marginalized,
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Show how people can begin to take action on important social issues,
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Explore dominant systems of meaning that operate in our society to position people and groups of people as ‘others,’
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Don’t provide ‘happily ever after’ endings for complex social problems.” (Richardson and Hatch 2009, cited in Demoiny and Ferraras-Stone 2018, 5)
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