Mirrors and Windows: Teaching and Research Reflections on Canadian Aboriginal Children’s Literature

Abstract

In this reflective paper, an expanded version of my LLRC pre-conference paper, I draw on thirty or so years of teaching and research experience, augmented by the occasional foray into my childhood, to consider issues of resonance and representation in children’s literature. In doing so, I draw on Patsy Aldana’s speech, Books that are Windows. Books that are Mirrors. How Can we Make Sure that Children see Themselves in Their Books? Aldana, then President of the Canadian Coalition for School Libraries, delivered her speech to the IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) Congress in Malaysia, 2008.[i]As a teacher and now as a teacher educator, I am reminded by Aldana’s speech to pay close attention to the children and youth who cannot take for granted, as I was able to, “hear(ing) one’s own words, see(ing) one’s own face…in a book” (Aldana, 2008).[i] In her speech, Aldana uses this metaphor as presented by Elisa Bonilla, former director of educational materials at the Mexican Ministry of Education (SEP) of Mexico, in her address to the IBBY congress in Macau, 2006.