Why Is This Teacher Smiling? Portrayals of Teachers in Picture Books for Young Children.

For the past several years I have been interested in images of teachers presented through the arts and the popular media. It was my idea initially that as educators our ideas of ourselves are formed largely through the profession itself, through teacher education courses, textbooks, and through the influence of other educators. It would be helpful and healthy step back for a moment and consider the ways others see us take advantage of the giftie Robert Burns speaks of, to see oursels as ithers see us. Most recently I have focused on images of teachers in fictional picture books for young children, and what I have found there has taken me beyond detached interest flashes of recognition as well as moments of discomfort and disquiet. One might think of picture books written for young children as fresh and innocent. I have analyzed 46 picture books published between 1960 and 1990, and what I have discovered is a much more complex phenomenon than I would have imagined. Some of these books are gentle and reassuring; others are humorous in tone. Others are more serious. Still others suggest that the author has an axe grind with a teacher or two from the past. There is no one predominant image of the teacher among the books, but a wide array of images, from flat almost stereotypical characters more complex ones. Taken on an individual basis these books do indeed provide the giftie I was seeking, if a sometimes sobering one. But it is particularly in considering them as a whole, as a body of literature, that disturbing patterns emerge. I did not study informational books or biographies, but works of fiction only. The 46 books represent, simply, all the books on the subject I could find.