The Role of Critical Literacy in Troubling Cultural Myths

Abstract

This chapter outlines a qualitative study in which the researchers critically analyzed a collection of books and stories for children in early elementary school that depict the landing of Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean. Though educators are required to teach this material to their students, they often do so in a one-sided way. Noting the outsized effect that the books and stories that students encounter in schools shape and solidify young children's thinking, the authors feel called to help educators raise their consciousness of the voices and perspectives that have been left out. By not interrogating the myths of Christopher Columbus, we are committing a double genocide. The Arawak, the people who Columbus ‘discovered', have already been destroyed by the violence and diseases of Columbus and his men. By refusing to allow their voices to be a part of the way we educate children today, we continue to disavow their history and their culture.