Growing up with 'difference': inclusive education and the portrayal of characters who experience disability in children's literature

The use of children's literature incorporating characters who experience disability is widely recommended for raising awareness, increasing acceptance and understanding and facilitating inclusion in education. Examining such representations in light of the social and medical models of disability, in this paper I explore the ways in which people who experience disability are, and have been historically, portrayed in children's literature. Drawing on research examining the impact of higher education on attitudes and beliefs about inclusive education, I discuss the responses of early childhood teacher education students engaging with current examples of children's literature.