Children’s Books About Immigrants and Refugees: Impact on Reading Attitudes

Abstract

Forty-nine preservice teachers (PTs) from a religious-affiliated private university in the U.S. and 124 children attending a reading clinic at the university participated in a study to determine if books about immigrants and refugees had any effect on children's academic and recreational reading attitudes and whether the development and teaching of lessons by Interventionists PTs using books about immigrants and refugees influenced their attitudes toward immigrants and refugees. Fifth-grade children showed significant pre-post changes in academic and recreational reading attitudes. Preservice teachers showed significant pre-post-beliefs about immigrants and refugees in comparison to control group PTs.