Beth

Montick 1
C&T 807: Multicultural Education
Media Analysis Project

1. Purpose:

The Media Analysis Project was completed for the course C&T 807:

Multicultural Education. The purpose of this assignment was to analyze a hidden

aspect of the media, such as gender, ethnicity, and class. The goal was to question

and analyze stereotypical media representations and to discuss the implications of

these stereotypes. The assignment consisted of selecting a focus, reviewing

research literature on the topic, developing a methodology to analyze the topic, and

to discuss the findings and the significance of those findings.

2. Approach to assignment and revisions:

For this assignment, I choose to focus on gender representation in childrens

books. I choose this topic because it allowed me to connect this project to my current

role as a behavior consultant associated with a preschool classroom. These projects

always mean so much more when I can make the topics relevant to my every day

professional life. For my media analysis, I analyzed books that are used in our

classroom daily. It was not the best or largest sample to analyze but it gave me a

good understanding of the issue and allowed me to connect the information from my

literature review to the real world around me.

This project was recently completed and the professor did not identify any

areas in need of revision. I did not make changes to this assignment.

3. How the assignment contributed to my development as a special educator:

Overall, this course connected more to me as an educator than I thought that

it would. I did not truly understand multicultural education for what it truly is.
Beth Montick 2
C&T 807: Multicultural Education
Media Analysis Project

When I started the course, I was under the belief that multicultural education was

reading literature from diverse cultures in English class or having a day where

everyone shares a food dish from a different culture. But it is much more than that.

Multicultural education is an on-going process that deals with race, class, ability,

religion, culture, gender, etc., and how all these variables interact with each other.

For this project, it was interesting to learn how gender representation has

changed in childrens books since this issue came to the forefront in the 1970s. Now,

it is quite common to see girls having adventures and serving as the main character

in childrens books. Females are frequently portrayed in nontraditional roles, such

as fire chief or mail carrier. As I analyzed the books, I found it more alarming that

boys are not being depicted in as varied roles as girls are. This point was mirrored in

the research I found. It is important to be aware of the books you are choosing for

use in your classroom and ensuring that there is a variety to the roles you are

displaying in your chosen books. These portrayals can impact the identity of the

children who read these books.