Sara Burton (ESCE Alumni, Joint Doctoral Student) will represent SFSU at the 37th Annual CSU Student Research Competition

Sara Burton (ESCE Alumni, Joint Doctoral Student) will represent SFSU at the 37th Annual CSU Student Research Competition on April 28-29 at San Diego State University.

This study investigated picturebooks in ECSE classrooms to develop understanding of how frequently read classroom stories depict characters with varying abilities. It used a purposive sampling technique to invite active ECSE teachers to complete a survey regarding classroom picturebooks. The survey generated a data corpus from 15 ECSE classroom teachers’ favorite classroom picturebooks, which culminated in 50 unique picturebooks. This study analyzed the 50 favorite stories using qualitative semiotic analysis to answer two research questions: 1) How are disabled characters represented in the corpus of favorite stories in ECSE classrooms? 2) How do the text and illustrations in inclusive stories show evidence of inclusive and anti-ableist values? Analysis found 7/50 (14%) books portrayed disability, and inclusive books were represented in 5/15 samples.