Book situation alarming says MCC scholarship recipient

The North American educational system needs to make a greater effort to use children’s books that accurately portray East Asian people, said an MCC Canada scholarship recipient who recently completed her research on multicultural books.

Akane Nishimoto (pictured left), recipient of the 2006 Canadian Japanese–Mennonite Scholarship and student at York University, examined the collection of East Asian children’s literature in a Toronto public school library from the perspective of anti-racist pedagogy.

The school has a collection of 1,183 picture books – only three per cent feature East Asian people. About 38 per cent of the school’s student population are children of East Asian descent.

“It’s alarming that this is the situation in one of the most culturally diverse school boards in North America which publicly displays attention to multicultural issues,” said Nishimoto in a report summarizing the major findings of her research project.

“The accuracy and authenticity levels of many of the books are inadequate, acceptable source notes are lacking from many of the folktales, and having any books that feature characters which ridicule or stereotype the physical features of a particular ethnicity is perhaps one book too many in a school library collection of today.”

The $2,000 Canadian Japanese–Mennonite Scholarship is available to a Canadian student enrolled in a graduate degree program in Canada and doing research that will assist the protection of minority or human rights.

The scholarship, co-sponsored by the National Association of Japanese Canadians and MCC Canada, was created in 1985 as a tangible symbol of co-operation between Canadian Japanese and Canadian Mennonites.

—Gladys Terichow for MCC