Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Newbery Award Winning Books 1975-2009: How Do They Portray Disabilities?.

2010; Volume: 45; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

2154-1647

Melissa Leininger, Tina Taylor Dyches, Mary Anne Prater, Melissa Allen Heath,

Inclusion and Disability in Education and Sport

Newbery books represent quality literature that has a profound social-emotional impact on its readers, yet these books have not been systematically evaluated for their portrayal of characters with disabilities. Thirty-one Newbery Award and Honor books from 1975-2009 were identified and portrayed 41 main or supporting characters with disabilities. These books were evaluated using the Rating Scale for Quality Characterizations of Individuals with Disabilities in Children's Literature. Results indicate the representation of Newbery characters with disabilities is not proportionate to the current U.S. population of students with disabilities. Further, racial representation portrayed in these books is not representative of the diverse students receiving special education services. Trend analyses indicate that overall the portrayal of characters with disabilities is increasingly positive. School personnel are encouraged to select appropriate books for their instructional or bibliotherapeutic purposes. Authors are encouraged to include dynamic, exemplary, and memorable characters who are representative of today's school population of students with disabilities. The U.S. Department of Education reports students with disabilities are educated in gen that nearly seven million students with disabil- eral school buildings and more than half of ides attend public schools in the United these students are educated for most of the States, representing more than 13% of the school day in general education classrooms student population (Planty, et al., 2009). Al- (USDE, 2009). Students with speech or lan most half of all students identified with a dis- guage impairments are most likely to be edu ability receive special education services un- Cated with their nondisabled peers, while stu der the category of specific learning dents with mental retardation, multiple disabilities. Students with speech or language disabilities, and autism are least likely to be impairments, other health impairments, men- educated in general classes for most of the tal retardation, emotional disturbance, devel- school day (USDE). Students with disabilities opmental delay, and autism also make up a also interact with students without disabilities