Graphic Novels as Curricular Counter-Narratives for English Language Learners and Emergent Bilinguals

Abstract

In this article, we advocate for integrating select graphic novels into curricula for English language learners and emergent bilinguals to push against the dominant and harmful narratives that tend to be found in traditional history texts and curricula. We use Vietnamerica by Tran and Escape from Syria by Kullab et al. as examples of counter-narratives that challenge these dominant and oppressive forces. Finally, we offer three teaching practices that support the goals of our social justice theoretical framework to (1) help students develop a critical awareness of how different materials—traditional and alternative—represent different ideologies, (2) engage students in analyzing how ideologies are discursively constructed in texts, and (3) call students to develop their own narratives, thus disrupting the grand narratives of traditional texts. Although our text examples and historical contexts are set in the United States, we argue that educators in other contexts, with other students, can generalize our practices to their own situations.

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