Visualizing Hope Through Black Children’s Multimodal Messages Reflecting the Multiple Pandemics

Abstract

We are still dealing with multiple pandemics including COVID-19, which disproportionately affects minoritized people, as well as significant incidents of police brutality directed toward Black people. The purposes of this study are to visually document these multiple pandemics from our Black children’s perspectives as well as elevate their visual texts to advocate for hope and change. This article highlights the ways 13 Black elementary school children drew out their ideas to depict this critical time. We believe studying how children witness crises is essential for documenting history, especially when Black children’s voices do not rise above white mainstream messaging. The research question guiding our study asks, how do elementary-aged Black children visually represent this critical time in history? Findings suggest that our Black elementary-aged students not only were successful at creating visual texts that document this historical time but also that their drawings reflected hope and social change.