Counter-Narratives:
Counter-Narratives from Childhood: Disney Princesses
Lesson Objectives
Students will be able to:
- Explain why counter-narratives are important for all of our growth and development
- Identify specific counter-narratives from childhood that have influenced their—and/or other young people’s—growth and aspirations
Learning Standards
- LfJ 5. Students will recognize traits of the dominant culture, their home culture and other cultures and understand how they negotiate their own identity in multiple spaces.
- LfJ 13. Students will analyze the harmful impact of bias and injustice on the world, historically and today.
- LfJ 14. Students will recognize that power and privilege influence relationships on interpersonal, intergroup and institutional levels and consider how they have been affected by those dynamics.
Learning Activities: If you have 15 minutes
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Greeting:
What historical figure would you like to meet?
Reading:
“What happens when historians leave out many of America’s peoples? What happens, to borrow the words of Adrienne Rich, ‘‘when someone with the authority of a teacher’’ describes our society, and ‘‘you are not in it’’? Such an experience can be disorienting—‘‘a moment of psychic disequilibrium, as if you looked into a mirror and saw nothing.’’ --Ronald Takaki
Ask Students:
- What does this quotation get you thinking about?
Initiative:
Walk students through definitions of dominant narratives and counter narratives.
Ask Students:
- Is there a dominant narrative about who is a Disney princess?
Initiative:
Share with students a YouTube video, TikTok, or news article (see links below) about Harvard senior, Julie Riew, who decided to create her own Disney movie about a Korean Disney princess, since there wasn’t one when she was growing up.
Learning Activities (continued): If you have 45 minutes
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Ask Students:
- Can you think of a counter-narrative that was important to you as a child, or is important to you now? (e.g. Doc McStuffins)
- Is there a counter-narrative that you wish existed, but doesn’t (as far as you know)?
Debrief:
- What did you like about today’s lesson?
- Did you learn anything new about yourself or anyone else?
- What could make it better?