Whiteness and Racism in Post Colonial British Children's Literature in England

Abstract

The issues of whiteness is absent from most contemporary debates in England. There is the claim by many leaders, that England has a diverse society. This paper seeks to explore issues of racism and whiteness in post colonial British texts, used within school and the home. Taxel (1992, p.8) suggest that, ‘…there is a selective tradition in children’s literature favoring the perspectives and world view of the dominant social group’. This paper utilizes the ‘Critical Race Theory’ and incorporates the tenets of ‘Critical Literacy’ to explore a child’s reading materials within the home and incorporates the Case Study research approach. In order to employ the critical literacy approach, three mini lessons were used to explore reading texts selected by a class teacher. Bourdieu’s (1992, p.18), work is also cited in this paper, as his theory of ‘habitus’ underpins the historical issues and ongoing social issues that can influence the readers and writers in the coding and decoding of texts. The findings revealed that critical literacy can be used to highlight issue of whiteness and racism; however, there are specific issues that need to be considered before using this approach within the home.