Developing and sustaining critical intercultural competence through confronting hidden bias in children s literature in efl preservice teacher educati

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Developing and sustaining critical interculturalcompetence through confronting hidden biasin children’s literature in EFL preservice teachereducation

Lina Sun

To cite this article: Lina Sun (28 Dec 2023): Developing and sustaining critical intercultural

competence through confronting hidden bias in children’s literature in EFL preservice teacher education, Language and Intercultural Communication, DOI: 10.1080/14708477.2023.2291476

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2023.2291476

Published online: 28 Dec 2023.

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Developing and sustaining critical intercultural competence through confronting hidden bias in children’s literature in EFL preservice teacher education

Lina Sun

Department of English, School of Foreign Languages, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, People’s Republic of China

ABSTRACT

This study explored the gains of pedagogical practices of using critical multicultural analysis to confront hidden bias in children’s literature in

EFL preservice teacher education Participants (N = 15) experienced a

variety of instructional activities throughout the semester Using a qualitative case study design, data showed that preservice teachers gained essential knowledge, theoretical and practical, and were, therefore, prepared to promote critical intercultural competence in their future classrooms As a result, this study calls for institutional and curricular policies that support explicit teaching of critical intercultural competence through children’s literature in EFL teacher preparation

In an age of rapid change, marked by rising tides of immigration and globalization, it becomes crucial to equip prospective language educators with intercultural knowledge and skills essential to meeting the needs of changing local and global contexts (Byram, 2012) Language and culture are inextricably interwoven, and as such, language teaching entails acculturation where learners adopt new cultural frames of reference and sustain an awareness of cultural difference (Alptekin,

2002; Holmes, 2014; Hyde, 2005) toward bias, and stereotypes in professional lives Regardless of this reality, critical intercultural competence, which refers to ‘the acknowledgement of complexity, the recognition of a plurality of perspectives and the promotion of an ecology of knowledge’ (Matos & Melo-Pfeifer, 2020, p 10), still remains under-explored in the context of language teaching.

The overarching principle guiding this study is that scholarship in second/foreign language education in the last two decades has emphasized the transformative role language pedagogies could play in developing global awareness, international understanding, and intercultural citizen-ship (Byram, 2012; Kumaravadivelu, 2016; Risager, 2007) In the Chinese educational landscape, intercultural competence has recently been established as one of the core objectives of the

CONTACT Lina Sun sunlinano.1@163.comDepartment of English, School of Foreign Languages, Nankai University, Weijin Road 191, Nankai District, Tianjin 300071, People’s Republic of China

https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2023.2291476

national foreign language curricula (Ministry of Education of the PRC, 2018), bringing about sig-nificant challenges and implications for pedagogical practices (Qian & Garner, 2019) One of the biggest challenges facing Chinese EFL instructors is the development of critical intercultural com-petence through utilizing the currently available resources when intercultural encounters are scarce.

Previous studies have examined various attempts to equip students with critical intercultural competences by adopting EFL pedagogical strategies such as different media of instruction, different forms of teaching materials, and different pedagogical activities (e.g Gilmore, 2019; Holmes, 2014; Ribeiro, 2016) While these studies provide valuable insight into the teaching of critical intercultural competence, the number of empirical studies relating to pedagogical appli-cations is still small (Qian & Garner, 2019) Additionally, issues specific to the Chinese edu-cational context also need to be taken into account For example, reviews of Chinese intercultural competence studies show that current intercultural teaching in China is still domi-nated by linguistic instrumentalism where mechanical drills, rote memorization, and exam- oriented competence are highly valued The concept of culture is often vaguely defined and lar-gely essentialized (Xiong & Yuan, 2018) Equally lacking are studies on perspectives and experi-ences of preservice teachers about the value of literary practices in language teaching, focusing primarily on a critical analysis of curricular materials, especially children’s books, for hidden bias (Botelho & Rudman, 2009) Therefore, this study experiments with a critical intercultural pedagogy of engaging in children’s literature as anti-bias instructional materials to develop and sustain critical intercultural competence (Nganga, 2015).

Literature review

Re-conceptualizing EFL teacher education for critical intercultural competence

Culture entails the values, traditions, worldviews, and socio-political relationships It has been defined differently throughout history and is currently conceived of as dynamic and heterogeneous (Canagarajah, 2006) In the language classroom, the concept of culture has numerous connotations such as cultural competence (Byram & Risager, 1999) and intercultural competence (Byram, 2012), to name a few Several scholars have highlighted the importance of integrating culture in the language classroom via surpassing stereotypical attributes and acknowledging its complexity (e.g Nganga, 2015; Risager, 2007) Intercultural language teaching and learning is defined as ‘a set of shared assumptions about the nature of language, culture, and learning that shapes an understand-ing of what it means to teach language and to do this in an intercultural way’ (Liddicoat, 2011, p 840) From this perspective, intercultural competence, dialogical and co-constructed in nature, is primarily focused on a stance on the intersection between language and culture.

Critical intercultural competence has its foundations in the decolonial turn and focuses on the analysis of how power relations have systematically kept underserved communities and their languages and cultures in unprivileged conditions (Mignolo, 2010) At its core, decoloniality denounces hegemony/coloniality as a pattern of colonial, racial, and structural power in which different cultures, knowledge, and peoples have been hierarchized through relations of domina-tion Thus, critical intercultural competence becomes a pedagogical lens for social critique which is meant to promote the ways of life and knowledge that have systematically been annihilated through coloniality In addition, critical intercultural competence disrupts the role educational settings continue to play in a colonial society in which only Western knowledge, cultures, and values possess a dominant place (Mignolo, 2010) A critical examination of EFL teacher education for intercultural competence encapsulates an understanding of the entanglement between the hegemonic forces embroiled in the various dimensions of EFL education (e.g curricular materials, instructional methods, professional identities) (Kumaravadivelu, 2016) Specifically, the transformative goals in EFL teaching are interconnected with the critique of English as a

hegemonic language embedded in linguistic imperialism (Phillipson, 1992, 2012) Therefore, it is important to interrogate how EFL teacher education is enacted at non-hegemonic levels in the midst of the oppressive processes of the globalization of English Against this backdrop, I argue that there is a need to re-conceptualize the alternative role that transformative EFL peda-gogies could ethically play in re-shaping local and global education programs in terms of teaching diverse cultural values and promoting social justice.

The power of children’s literature as an intercultural agent

In this study, multicultural children’s literature is defined as literature written by and about under- represented minority cultures (Botelho & Rudman, 2009) The benefits of incorporating multicul-tural children’s literature in the curriculum are enormous Research from different fields indicates that literary texts help learners develop critical awareness by stimulating readers’ cognitive and affective faculties, thus enhancing their intercultural awareness and the ability to appreciate and reflect on cultural differences (e.g Husband, 2019; Vasquez, 2014) For example, studies from experimental psychology have shown that areas of the brain related to empathy are stimulated by reading challenging fiction, something which may diminish prejudice in fostering intercultural competence (Hoff, 2017) As a multitude of perspectives may be represented in a work of fiction, these texts also offer opportunities for enhancing perspective-taking skills and dialogic negotiation of meaning (Enciso, 2011).

At the heart of multicultural literature lies the crucial issue of (mis)representation: whose stories are told, whose perspectives are missing, how characters are portrayed, what kind of problems are posed, and how problems are resolved By teaching students to question and critique the underlying ideologies in literature through critical lens, it applies a new perspective to interpret dominant ideologies, and how varied cultures are positioned among those complex ideologies For example, Johnson (2018) utilized critical race theory in a literacy unit on To Kill A Mocking Bird (Lee, 2002) to help students disrupt Eurocentric White savior mentality, racial subjugation, and the omission of voices of Color (Borsheim-Black & Sarigianides, 2019) Dyches’ (2018) and Dyches and Thomas’ (2020) studies similarly problematized racist narratives in British literary canons to consolidate stu-dents’ critical understandings of the tenets of Whiteness (Nayak, 2007).

Furthermore, multicultural literature may cultivate intellectual humility through a complex affective process of identification with the Other and assimilation into their life situations, thereby providing the opportunity for readers to experience unfamiliar cultures and lived realities (Falk- Peretz, 2016) As a result, effective use of multicultural children’s literature requires a higher level of intercultural sensitivity in accentuating the juxtaposition between the hegemonic and the non-hegemonic Other, and diminishing distinction and mutual exclusion (Rodin, 2015) Teachers, therefore, must learn how to select and critically evaluate anti-bias culturally responsive children’s books as appropriate for use in the classroom (Botelho & Rudman, 2009; Johnson et al., 2017) Thus, it is vital that teacher education programs purposefully enact ‘principled material selection and task design’ (Gilmore, 2019, p 309) that support integrating multicultural literature into critical intercultural education in practice.

Critical multicultural analysis of children’s literature for hidden bias

Scholarship rooted in a critical paradigm shares common ground in interrogating systemic oppres-sion, ruthless exploitation, and dominant ideologies, and its critique of power is closely related to sociocultural, political, and historical rhizomes (Warren & Coles, 2020) Critical multicultural analysis is defined in a procedural sense as a theoretical framework that involves exploring how different cultural groups are represented and marginalized in society, and critically analyzing the underlying power dynamics and structures that perpetuate these inequalities (Jones, 2012) It entails examining the interplay of power, privilege, and inequality within diverse cultural contexts (Smith,

2015) This approach emphasizes the need to challenge dominant narratives and ideologies that reinforce cultural stereotypes and hierarchies, and instead promotes the recognition and validation of diverse perspectives and experiences (Nguyen, 2018) By engaging in critical multicultural analy-sis, scholars and researchers aim to uncover hidden biases and prejudices, and work toward creating more inclusive and equitable societies (Chen, 2019).

Intertwined in these critical paradigms are concerns about language, culture, discourse, and rep-resentation that are entangled with the analysis of children’s literature Critically analyzing chil-dren’s literature is important because books influence educators, whose perceptions and interpretations, in turn, shape the educational experiences of their students in a consequential way (Smith-D’Arezzo & Musgrove, 2011; Sun, 2023) As it is noted that children’s literature is a sociocultural product as well as manifestation of power relations, it is an economic transcript of power relations of class, race, and gender, which necessarily impacts who is represented and in what ways (Dyches & Thomas, 2020) Critical multicultural analysis thus problematizes children’s literature in that it offers a way of reading power, explores the complex web of socio-political relations, and deconstructs taken-for-granted assumptions about language, meaning, reading, and literature (Botelho & Rudman, 2009) Botelho and Rudman (2009) further conducted critical multicultural analysis of children’s literature and identified power politics as playing an undeniable part in determining whose stories are told, how and why stories are written, illustrated, published, and circulated They demonstrated that dominant ideologies, power relations, and institutional practices are interwoven and reified in the language, discourse, and representation manifested in children’s literature Critical multicultural analysis is thus an effective way to make sense of these overlapping complexities and ambiguities in that it offers ‘tools for uncovering dominant messages in children’s books by locating how the power relations of class, race, gender are exercised in text and images’ (Botelho & Rudman, 2009, p 108).

Additionally, critical multicultural analysis is an approach for examining both the content of lit-erary texts and the complicated literacy practices, allowing researchers to explore children’s books for thematic significance This approach provides a solid grounding for critically analyzing themes of sociocultural, political, and historical significance at the intersection of culture and power This approach also challenges readers to construct meaning of the context of a book, framing books as artifacts that contain multiple layers of meaning The language and illustrations, the identities of the authors and publishers, and the readership all constitute complex dimensions of books as vehicles

for storytelling The scholarship of reader response to multicultural stories accentuates the

situat-edness of literacy practices of reading and writing that offer insights into the socio-political context

of readers as much as writers (Braden & Rodriguez, 2016; Enciso, 2011).

This study explores the way Chinese EFL preservice teachers addressed critical intercultural com-petence in a university teacher preparation program, the pedagogical benefits of using a critical multicultural lens while interrogating children’s literature for hidden bias (hidden bias in this study denotes partiality based on all human differences both natural and socially constructed) The research adopted a constructivist perspective, which aligns with a fundamental principle of intercultural education, that is, experience and reflection are indispensible components of critical intercultural competencies (Holliday, 2016) Similarly, realities consist of mental constructions of phenomena socially perceived by individuals in interaction with the outside world (Liddicoat,

2013) To resonate with this epistemology, a qualitative case study method was used, drawing on a rich repertoire of empirical evidence Qualitative case study is useful for studying multifaceted and contemporary social phenomena embedded in the context in which the phenomenon takes place (Yin, 2018) Meanwhile, this approach allowed researchers to examine the perceptions and experiences of the participating preservice teachers more thoroughly and to interpret their subjec-tive meanings precisely (Stake, 2010) Research questions are:

. What are the perceptions and experiences of preservice teachers about the value of engaging in activities that critically analyze learning resources, especially children’s books, for hidden bias?

. What are the implications for teaching, teacher preparation program improvements, and research with regard to enhancing critical intercultural competence?

Research context and participants

The teaching-intensive university which participated in this study is located in the suburban district

of Tianjin in North China Participants were enrolled in a course named Critical Intercultural

Peda-gogy in English Language Education All of them had undertaken a four-year teacher education

pro-gram The cause was taught by the author I invited all the students to participate in this study All of

them agreed and signed informed consent forms (N = 15) This study was approved by the

univer-sity’s ethics committee To ensure student anonymity, pseudonyms were used Following Yin (2018), the validity and reliability of this case study were ensured through triangulation of the data sources, an explanation of the context in which the study was located, the researcher’s position-ality, member checks, and whether there was sufficient evidence to engage with the research ques-tions, theories, and practical implications.

All of the participants are mandarin-speaking Chinese (12 women and 3 men as identified from university records) The EFL teaching methods course that the participants were enrolled in was designed to ‘introduce students to second/foreign language acquisition in compulsory education and to provide them with knowledge, resources, and instructional strategies to use when planning and implementing culturally sustaining language curricula’ (course syllabus in English).

Study design

The weekly curriculum in a workshop format featured a consistent sequence of whole-group, small- group, and individual engagements, strung together occasions of situated practice, explicit instruc-tion, critical framing, and personal reflection The class was conducted in English The discussion- based literature study began with students investigating multicultural texts, their role of instruction in classroom settings, and students reflecting on past multicultural texts they had read Next, I introduced students to multicultural literature arranged in thematic units and fostered multiple opportunities for them to engage in practices of critical multicultural analysis For example, one assignment of note was the inquiry-based literature study on poverty and racism from Worlds of Words project designed by Kathy Short (see wowlit.org/on-line-publications/stories/3/18) The strategy involves encouraging students to consider how texts are historically, socially, politically, and discursively constructed, whose ideologies are dominant and why (see Appendix 1 for a matrix of analyzing children’s books for bias).

In the subsequent class sessions, students drew on their lifeworlds to explore sociopolitical issues represented in the texts through engaging in authentic literacy practices such as Socratic discussion, critical literature circle, and restorying, with prompts or guided questions Restorying is a powerful approach of inviting critical interpretations of assigned texts in terms of allowing students to deconstruct the dominant narratives; the written response to reading emphasizes stu-dents’ own stories and pushes students to assume new identities and consider how their interpretations of literature may change with a new lens (Phillips, 2010) Critical framing was embedded across the curriculum when participants and I discussed the design elements of the texts they were analyzing The overt curricular instances cultivated a critical consciousness of how the literate tools and means through which they were made influence meaning-making in their lived experiences (Skerrett, 2013).

Given that researchers’ identity, values, ideologies, and lived experiences greatly influence the way they analyze and interpret data, it seems necessary to reflect how the researcher positions herself as a language and literacy teacher educator This is oriented toward integrating critical intercultural competence into teacher training programs through critical reflection of oneself, pedagogical beliefs and practices, the socio-political systems, both local and global, and asymmetrical power relations in which we are all inherently embroiled.

At the time of the study, I (Lina) am a full-time EFL teacher educator at a university I believe in the power of slow and deep reading demanding texts in eliciting ethical responses, building refer-ences, and developing empathy Foreign language education as a meeting place and as a dialogue with alterity should mediate the learners’ understandings of our societies’ multiple facets, political, economic, and ecological, and provide for the (re)construction of imaginary possibilities, solidarity, and alignment through languages Having worked in teacher education programs for more than ten years, I have gained insights into preservice teachers’ intellectual, academic, and professional devel-opment in Chinese sociocultural and educational contexts Although a Chinese female with an advanced degree and years of study-abroad experiences in the US, my upbringing as a member of an extended impoverished family in rural China helps me to identify with some of the critical social justice issues related to poverty, refugee crisis, racism, white supremacy, media manipulation, etc As a social activist, I advocate that art forms such as literary texts can help us find ways to see through the complexities and ambiguities of current issues and problems and build a sustainable future.

Data collection

Data collection for the study lasted throughout the semester as preservice teachers engaged in course work during the spring/summer of 2021 I used different strategies to realize the goal of tri-angulation so as to ensure the validity of the data Guided by Cohen et al (2014), I focused on time triangulation (changes in students’ acquisition of critical intercultural competence across different stages and course evaluation), space triangulation (students’ perspectives and performance during and after the course and their inquiry into different spaces through learning from critical multicul-tural analysis of children’s literature), and methodological triangulation (using different data collec-tion methods).

With the student participants’ consent, I first accessed their documents, such as term papers, class presentations, discussion records for a close examination These data reported student partici-pants’ progress regarding inquiry into socio-political issues represented in multicultural literature, critical evaluation of curricular materials, reflective thinking, understanding of critical intercultural competence in English language education To gain a deeper understanding of participants’ thoughts on their acquisition of critical intercultural competence through multicultural literature, I designed 15 semi-structured questions These questions were created after scrutinizing the course learning materials to examine the preservice teachers’ experiences accurately The aim was to keep track of emerging themes and gather insights into their challenges and desired pedagogical and pro-fessional development support (Richards, 2009) One month after the course ended, I sent an inter-view invitation to all the students through email Eight students responded voluntarily and were subsequently interviewed Each interview lasted approximately 50 minutes The interview questions were closely related to the study’s research questions Permission to record the conversation was granted by all interviewees The interviews were conducted in Chinese, I translated and transcribed all the data into English I also made corrections to grammar and spelling to eliminate any potential misunderstandings or confusion that may arise due to grammatical errors or misspellings Additionally, it ensures that the transcriptions are presented in a professional manner, making it easier for readers and researchers to analyze and interpret the data.

Data analysis

I completed the translation and interpretation of respondent information and question responses to specific categories for the purpose of analysis (Cohen et al., 2014) Using NVivo 12, I coded all the data sets (e.g students’ learning records, documents, and interview excerpts), interpreted them, and assigned and related category labels to different pieces of data This was followed by thematic analy-sis (Braun & Clarke, 2021), which is a method for systematically identifying, organizing, and offer-ing insight into patterns of meanoffer-ing across a data set The codes were then mapped onto the framework to analyze prominent themes based on the data and literature Through a constant com-parison of different sources of data and emerging themes, core categories and themes were ident-ified (see Table 1 for the coding process) To ensure their experiences and perceptions would be accurately represented, member-checking was also conducted by inviting the participants through WeChat to avoid any discrepancies in the data interpretations and form a consensus Categories, patterns, and salient themes were constructed in reference to relevant theoretical frameworks, EFL pedagogy, and language policies in nationally imposed economic, cultural or political agendas Overall, credibility, dependability, and transferability contributed to the trustworthiness of this study.

In the following sections, the findings were reported under three major thematic headings: (1) Instrumentalist-oriented perspective of critical intercultural competence in English language teach-ing, (2) Development and sustainment of critical intercultural competence in analyzing children’s books for hidden bias; (3) Need for continued professional development/training and support at various levels Each theme is expounded by examples from the empirical data set and is discussed in relation to critical intercultural competence and EFL pedagogy Selected quotes (pseudonym used) that accentuate the essence of each theme are included.

Instrumentalist-oriented perspective of critical intercultural competence in English language teaching

When asked to enunciate their understanding of critical intercultural competence in English language education, a majority of participants indicated that they had some vague understanding of the essence of critical intercultural competence For example, they associated it with equipping students with knowledge, skills, and dispositions students will need to succeed economically in the global marketplace While knowledge of English as an economically useful language is an indispen-sable component of interculturality, the participants indicated that it is possible to achieve social and economic progress only through pedagogies that focus on meeting the needs of market-based liberal economy dominated by capitalism, neocolonialism, and technology Intercultural competence is regarded as being able to speak English, having an enhanced understanding of different cultures,

Table 1 Overview of coding process.

Instrumentalist-oriented perspective of critical intercultural competence

lack of understanding of the nature of critical intercultural education

Embrace diverse viewpoints by examining different ways of thinking

Reflection Journal

Students read and analyzed texts on immigration and forced relocationNeed for continued professional

development and training

Challenges in learning and program improvement suggestions

Interview

Accessing relevant analysis and high quality research articles

and promoting cooperative partnerships with different countries These participants did not describe intercultural competence as an educational approach to actively encourage students to take concrete actions and critically reflect on complexities related to controversial international issues The following excerpts demonstrate the overt general lack of understanding of the nature of critical intercultural education:

Critical interculturality to me is an effective tool for increasing students’ general knowledge of cultural diver-sity and the people within it Experience of studying abroad is extremely valuable for students to function effectively on the international market Knowledge and values of foreign culture and language cannot be accessed through classroom learning experiences alone Spending time living and working abroad, Chinese students would have more nuanced understandings of cultural touchstones and also develop a respect for differences I think these experiences establish an optimal framework for intercultural competence and help students with their career development (William, Group Discussion, March 2021)

I believe that interculturality entails learning a foreign language and being able to converse in multiple languages It is imperative to establish a competitive edge in the global market As the central means of com-munication in science, technology, and business, English is effectively the lingua franca for securing employ-ment opportunities To me, English learning is both an economic and personal pursuit A good English speaker is more employable in multinational corporations Even some Chinese companies recognize that they need to hire people with good English skills and intercultural competence This in turn has tremendously stimulated the demand for high-quality English language educators in Chinese schools (Sunny, Reflection Journal, 1 April 2021)

Although William and Sunny emphasized the importance of increasing students’ general knowl-edge of cultural diversity, studying abroad, and developing a respect for differences, they do not manifest an interest in facilitating student engagement in sustainable activities or an interest in criti-cal values such as equity, social justice, and decolonialism These preservice teachers seem more interested in how English language skills and intercultural competence can help students meet the needs of the corporate environment and further their career outlooks This may be problematic in that the exclusive focus on knowledge and skills transforms English language education into preparation of human capital for a global marketplace This instrumentalist-oriented perspective reinforces the hegemony of English in perpetuating global injustices and inequalities (Andreotti,

2011; Giroux, 2020) It further exacerbates globalization’s tendencies for cultural homogenization as uncritical learning of cultural diversity reproduces stereotypes and misconceptions about unfa-miliar cultures, which could be harmful to students (Andreotti, 2011).

In addition, some preservice teachers said that they would adopt a neutral stance or avoid asking students to make moral or ethical judgments related to politics when classroom discussions move toward (inter)national issues of critical values On the one hand, they indicated feeling perplexed or ill-prepared to engage students in dialogues of the complex socio-political issues For example, one preservice teacher, Lydia, acknowledged that she ‘was nervous as students might have questions that I wouldn’t be able to answer.’ On the other hand, some reflected that within the Chinese context, ‘it is impossible not to take into account the local impact of language policies, the institutional con-straints, and political power when making pedagogical decisions’ (class discussion) Overall, it appeared that intercultural competence has become inextricably linked with possessing English language and skills to maintain a competitive foothold in the international market The finding was rather daunting given that participants had previously been exposed to intercultural

commu-nicative education through other relevant courses, such as Critical Reading of Western Philosophical

Classics and Global English Literature In effect, the participants’ Anglocentric perspective can

con-tribute to cultural imperialism, which imposes western modes of thinking, doing, and acting on other civilizations (Marginson, 1999) Marginson (1999) also suggests that as intercultural edu-cation is dominated exclusively by neoliberal approaches and Anglocentricity, it will generally be adopted as a labor market tactic, excluding questioning, critiquing, critical reflection or active socio-political engagement for transformation Therefore, neoliberal/Anglocentric stance of inter-cultural competence must be confronted with alternative conceptions more oriented toward critical

pedagogy if, in the future, we are to foster global citizens who care for individuals, human rights, creation of peace, and sustainable development of the planet.

Development and sustainment of critical intercultural competence in analyzing children’s books for hidden bias

Data showed that participants initially had limited knowledge of the existing societal power hier-archy, intersecting human differences based on race, gender, class and sexuality, as well as unfavor-able consequences of Anglocentric globalization As a result, they had misunderstandings of mounting global economic inequalities, linguistic imperialism, and cultural hegemony They were less receptive to the idea that curriculum is not a neutral universal subjectivity (Andreotti,

2011), but rather value-laden and shaped in alignment with the interests and ideologies of privi-leged groups In fact, data from this study demonstrated that exposing learners to cultural diversity, human differences, critical issues and topics, and hidden bias embroiled in children’s literature helped participants enculturate into existing social politics and develop interest in education for sustainability and social justice.

At first, most participants were perplexed about social justice education due to a lack of essential critical consciousness They were reluctant to interrogate, disrupt, and critique educational materials/practices that empower Eurocentric paradigms and hinder students in learning about other countries and cultures Nevertheless, most participants manifested essential change, as is evi-dent in Emma’s interview below:

The English textbooks and children’s books are all about Western cultures or Global North such as the U.S or the U.K., their political systems, historical events, cultural values, and religious traditions Nothing is about Africa, South America, Indigenous ethnic movements or other non-Western places Therefore, students are inculcated into believing in the superiority of the Euro-American culture They might think other countries such as Africa or Southeast Asia are poor, barbaric, conflict-ridden, and effete as they are ignorant about them It’s not in the curricular materials and they never learned (Interview, May 2021)

In addition to imbalanced representation of the historical development of Western countries, pre-service teachers also critically analyzed Euro-American civilized meta-narratives in children’s books that fail to include the history of colonialism and the voices of the colonized, marginalized, and oppressed while oftentimes eulogizing technological progress and Western enlightenment Partici-pants found the narrative of children’s books to be too Anglocentric as if the universal way of understanding global history is equivalent to socio-economic advancement of Euro-America For example, Heather noted how children’s books served as devices for naturalizing, legitimizing, and reinforcing Western colonialist/imperialist discourse as a prevailing worldview:

A typical example I conjure up is the prevalence of English children’s books on Christopher Columbus cir-culating in China All the stories, in various forms and genres, portray Columbus as a heroic and adventure-some figure who first voyaged to America, explored, and discovered a new continent It is a colonialist interpretation of the early history of the U.S., because the violence and pillage endured by the Natives are totally excluded, erased, and devalued It’s the same with the case of New Zealand or Australia, which is writ-ten by only Western perspectives, not aboriginal/indigenous perspectives This kind of imperialist viewpoints are pervasive in children’s books Students learned colonialist histories imbued with the logic of ‘backwardness justifies thrashing’ and a longing to be conquered by the superpowers (Reflection Journal, 1 April 2021)

As illuminated in the quotes above, many participants articulated concerns about lack of under-standing and charitable views of the Third World countries, caused in large part by China’s existing Anglocentric colonialist English education curriculum They indicated that simplistic and superfi-cial approaches and even stereotypes in world history in children’s literature and textbooks confined student understanding to modern and developed countries and a problematic awareness of underdeveloped countries Similarly, Steve described his learning experience of analyzing chil-dren’s books as enlightening and empowering, illustrating the thoughts of other preservice teachers involved in such training quite well: