As a student in the First-Year Research Experience (FYRE) program, I had the opportunity to work with Drs. Sableski and Arnold on their research examining diversity in children’s literature. During this time, I read research articles, collected and analyzed data, and conducted a small research project. Utilizing a rubric created by my research mentors, Drs. Sableski and Arnold, I scored how well diversity is represented in children’s books on a scale of 0-3, with 0 being no diversity represented and 3 meaning diversity was an integral part of the book and the main theme of the story. In addition to this, I collaborated with other undergraduate students an my mentors to discuss possible ways to better the research, as well as other areas we could explore. I suggested that we look at the books children are reading on their own and examine how well diversity is represented in these choices. We sent a brief survey to a few teachers at a local elementary school asking about how children react to the books teachers are choosing to read in the classroom, as well as any other popular books among the students. Through scoring these books using the rubric mentioned above, we found that children tend to enjoy books that score a 0 or 1 over books that score a 2 or 3. However, since our data was limited, it was difficult to form a conclusion.
Through my participation in this research, I learned several things. It was very interesting to learn how few children’s books have diversity as the central theme, and how much diversity is really lacking in popular children’s books. This was an eye-opening experience for me, a psychology major, to dive into the world of education and go beyond my comfort zone to learn something new. I think it’s important for people to go beyond their academic discipline and discover other fields of research to gain more knowledge of the world around them. Through this research, I was introduced to the research process and was able to gain hands-on experience that I believe will be beneficial to me as I continue my education, and eventually, in my career.