Innocent Victims, Fighter Cells, and White Uncles: A Discourse Analysis of Children's Books about AIDS

Authors: Blumenreich, Megan; Siegel, Marjorie

Source: Children's Literature in Education, Volume 37, Number 1, March 2006 , pp. 81-110(30)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

In this article, we examine a set of 26 children's books on HIV/AIDS published between 1989–1999 to identify the ways in which these texts construct HIV/AIDS and people living with HIV/AIDS. We explore how this marginalized group is depicted in these books, and how well-meaning teachers may in fact be reproducing dominant discourses about HIV/AIDS in their curricula. In this article we focus, in particular, on how the discourses connected to public health, medicine, and secrecy (as a discourse across many institutions) are filtered to children and take part in constructing their beliefs and assumptions about HIV/AIDS. We illustrate our argument with examples from the books and show why teachers need to know how to analyze texts they select for their curricula so as to read books about HIV/AIDS critically in the classroom.

Keywords: AIDS; children's Books; discourses; curriculum

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10583-005-9456-0

Publication date: 2006-03-01