Purpose The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how picturebooks (and other texts) can serve as invitations to critical conversations about the impact of social class, and race, on young people’s experiences inside, and outside of, school spaces. Design/methodology/approach The authors engage in a critical content analysis of Antwan Eady’s Nigel and the Moon focused on the following research question: In what ways are Nigel’s senses of self and his futurity shaped by class, race, and space? Findings The findings point to 1) the ways in which some children’s dreams become “unutterable” due to class, and 2) how spatial conditions (in classroom contexts) can both confirm and disrupt children’s class-based realities and their misconceptions about what is (ir)relevant to them. The authors include suggestions for how educators might use Nigel and the Moon to facilitate conversations that will ignite class-, race- and space-based criticality. Originality/value This study is one of few that address class (as intersected with race) and its effects on young people’s futurities, as depicted in children’s literature.
Sciurba et al. (Thu,) studied this question.