The Illusion of Inclusion: Disempowered “Diversity” in 2018 Australian Children’s Picture Books

ABSTRACT

Research into diverse representation in children’s literature has predominantly focused on highlighting positive representations of marginalized communities, or critiquing overtly negative stereotypes. While important, this has resulted in the more innocuous representations of marginalized characters being overlooked in scholarship. This study discusses 35 2018 Australian children’s picture books in which marginalized characters were depicted; yet their identities were not engaged with as part of an enjoyable narrative. These findings provide new insights for scholars, librarians, educators, readers, and publishers, that can support the identification of truly inclusive children’s picture books.

KEYWORDS:

• Picture books
• children’s fiction
• Australian fiction
• diversity
• ownvoices

Acknowledgments

Emily Booth is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship, and the UTS Doctoral Scholarship. This research was supported by the 2019 University of Technology Sydney Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion Social Impact Grant. The authors acknowledge and thank Dr Ambelin Kwaymullina for her contributions to this article’s development. Many thanks also to Dr Bhuva Narayan, Emily Booth’s doctoral supervisor, for endorsing this project to the grant committee.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Technology Sydney: Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion [Social Impact Grant, 2019].