Engaging Children in Discussions of Disfigurement and Disability: The Wonder of Palacio’s Wonder

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: This study examined children's engagement with Wonder by RJ Palacio and explored the ways in which the children's literature could be used to promote critical, reflective and broad discussions of complex themes, such as disfigurement and disability, among young children. Eight students between the ages of 9 and 12 were assigned the reading of Wonder. They participated in an individual interview followed by a group interview. Interviews were coded with the objective of classifying each participant by type of engagement and examining references to specific themes of appearance, bullying, disability and disfigurement. Results indicated that children differentially engage with Wonder: four were engaged with both the novel and discussion, two were engaged with only the novel, one was engaged with only the discussion, and one was engaged with neither. Some children are capable of using Wonder to inform their own real-life experiences of and encounters with bullying, disfigurement and disability and/or discuss these social issues beyond the scope of the novel. Furthermore, some children are not only capable of discussing Wonder through critical lenses such as disfigurement and disability studies, but doing so adds crucial nuance to their simplistic initial interpretations of the novel and its themes.

Type of resource	text
Date created	May 2015

Author	Casalme, Anna Gabriella
Primary advisor	Padilla, Amado
Advisor	Willinsky, John
Advisor	Moorhead, Laura
Degree granting institution	Stanford University, Program in Human Biology

Subject	Graduate School of Education
Subject	disfigurement
Subject	disability
Subject	children's literature
Genre	Thesis

Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/vv625zc6125

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License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY).

Preferred Citation: Casalme, Anna Gabriella. (2015). Engaging Children in Discussions of Disfigurement and Disability: The Wonder of Palacio’s Wonder. Stanford University, Stanford CA.

Undergraduate Honors Theses, Graduate School of Education

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