USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications
Exploring names and identity through multicultural literature in K-8 classrooms.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
ISSN
1521-0960
Abstract
Children's names reflect their gender, culture, religion, language, and family history. Use of students' personal names has the power to positively affirm identity and signal belonging within the classroom and school community. However, naming practices also have the power to exclude, stereotype, or disadvantage students. For many students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, their names can be a source of cultural conflict and a watershed for issues of identity and belonging within the school setting. Through multicultural explorations of students' names, educators can affirm students' cultures and identities, and draw upon these as resources to support learning and development from early childhood through the adolescent years. The purpose of this article is to (a) discuss the importance of a person's name to cultural identity, (b) describe strategies to build multicultural communities in K-8 classrooms through exploration of students' names, and (c) suggest multicultural children's literature and curricular activities to teach about the importance of personal names, and develop cross-cultural understandings.
Language
en_US
Publisher
Routledge
Recommended Citation
Peterson, B., Gunn, A., Brice, A. & Alley, K. (2015). Exploring names and identity through multicultural literature in K-8 classrooms. Multicultural Perspectives, 17(1), 39-45. doi: 10.1080/15210960.2015.994434.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
Abstract only. Full-text article is available through licensed access provided by the publisher. Published in Multicultural Perspectives, 17(1), 39-45. doi: 10.1080/15210960.2015.994434. Members of the USF System may access the full-text of the article through the authenticated link.