More Than Mirrors: Using Stories to Explore Identity
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Stories are one of the most powerful tools teachers have for exploring identity in the classroom. They create a shared space where students can explore who they are, how they relate to others, and how identity is shaped by context – without the pressure of speaking only from personal experience.
Drawing on Dr Rudine Sims Bishop’s idea of books as mirrors, windows and sliding doors, literature supports students to move between the familiar and the less familiar. Some texts affirm students’ own experiences; others open up perspectives on lives different from their own. The most powerful do both, inviting students to see connection as well as difference.
In this brief video Dr Bishop introduces this idea: books as mirrors, windows and sliding doors.
Used thoughtfully, books help students see that identity is not fixed. Through characters and narrative, students encounter identity as something shaped by relationships, place and time. They see how people experience the same situation differently, and how belonging, exclusion and change are lived in complex ways.
Importantly, stories also create distance. They allow students to explore sensitive issues – racism, bias, cultural misunderstanding – through characters first.
At the same time, the texts we choose matter. Research continues to show gaps in representation, particularly in whose stories are told and valued. This highlights the need for deliberate, critical text selection.
Used intentionally, literature shifts learning from ‘about others’ to a more relational process: understanding self in relation to others, with attention to perspective, voice and power.
There are many rich texts that can support this work. The selections below offer a starting point for exploring identity across year levels. Download the list.
Books for young readers
These texts support students to explore identity through story, connection and perspective.
Questions to explore identity through texts
- What is important to this character about who they are? What is important to you?
- What is the same between your life and this character’s? What is different?
- How does where someone lives or the language they speak shape who they are?
Picture books
The Truck Cat by Deborah Frenkel (2024)
A contemporary Australian story of migration and belonging that explores how identity is shaped by place, memory and language, offering a gentle entry point into conversations about change and continuity.
Words That Taste Like Home by Sandhya Parappukkaran (2024)
A celebration of the connection between language, food and culture, supporting students to reflect on how identity is carried through everyday practices and shared experiences.
Chapter books (Primary)
The Kindness Project by Deborah Abela (2024)
A verse novel that explores belonging, empathy and difference, helping students consider how identity is shaped through relationships and acts of inclusion.
Front Desk by Kelly Yang (2018)
A story of migration and resilience that invites students to examine perspective, inequality and how identity is experienced differently across contexts. This is the first of six books in the series published from 2018 to 2025.
Books for older readers
These texts invite deeper engagement with identity, voice and lived experience.
Questions to explore identity through texts
- How does this text show that identity can change across time, place or relationships?
- Whose perspective is centred in this story? Whose is missing?
- How might this story be experienced differently by different people? Why?
Middle school (Years 7–9)
Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia edited by Anita Heiss (2018)
A collection of diverse First Nations voices that foreground lived experience, supporting students to explore identity, perspective and representation in nuanced ways. See also Growing Up Wiradjuri (2024) for a contemporary companion text.
When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller (2021)
Interweaves culture, storytelling and family history to show how identity is shaped across generations and through connection to story.
Senior secondary (Years 10–12)
The Yield by Tara June Winch (2021)
A richly layered novel exploring language, loss and cultural reclamation, inviting deep reflection on identity, history and power.
We Could Be Something by Will Kostakis (2023)
A contemporary Australian YA novel that explores masculinity, family and belonging through the perspective of a teenage boy, offering opportunities to examine how identity is shaped by relationships, expectations and change.
Books for teachers
These texts support educators to select and use literature in ways that deepen intercultural understanding.
For reflection
- How well do the texts we use reflect the identities in our classroom—and those beyond it?
- Where might there be gaps in whose stories are represented?
- How can we use texts not just to include diversity, but to explore perspective and power?
Transforming Lives through Diverse Children’s Literature (2022) by Helen Adam provides research-informed, practical strategies to help teachers select and use diverse literature to support the Australian Curriculum. It combines evidence-based approaches with practical tools and examples enabling teachers to foster students’ identity, equity and social justice without adding unnecessary complexity to their workload. Published by PETAA, this book is supported by a range of additional resources. You can also explore Helen Adam’s research in her article on diverse literature and equity in education.
The Age of Identity (2024) by Dennis Shirley and Andy Hargreaves explores how educators can engage with the complexity of students’ identities to foster belonging and navigate contemporary tensions around identity in schools. Drawing on research, theory and practical examples, it offers strategies to help educators move beyond simplistic views of identity and create inclusive learning environments where all students feel seen and valued. Read a short Q&A with the authors.
Cultivating Genius (2021) and Unearthing Joy (2023) by Gholdy Muhammad present a culturally and historically responsive framework for literacy that centres identity, skills, intellect, criticality and joy. Together, they guide educators to use texts not only to build literacy, but to affirm students’ identities, deepen critical understanding, and create more just and engaging classroom learning environments. Download Muhammad’s article illustrating her ideas using five sample texts
Over to you
Have you read any of these books, or used them in the classroom?
Do you have other example texts that you have found useful either in the classroom or for your professional learning?
We’d love to hear your ideas – share them below in the comments.
Additional Resources
Student Activities
- Explore our Bat Story activity. Available as an online learning module on our free online learning portal, or with a full lesson plan and resources through our partnership with cool.org
- From our previous blog post by Mariana, “So What’s Australia Like?”: An International Student’s Perspective: Read-Aloud Books on themes of identity, family, and migration
Professional Learning
- Also on our free online learning portal, our professional learning module Cohesion in Diversity: Exploring Identity & Resilience discusses how we can encourage identity development to create a sense of belonging.
Further Exploration
- Read the article by the International Literacy Association ‘Disrupting Your Texts: Why Simply Including Diverse Voices Is Not Enough’
About the Author
Andrea (she/her) is a former secondary business education teacher. She was born on Kabi Kabi and Butchulla country in Maryborough and now lives and works on the land of the Jagera, Yuggera and Ugarapul people in Ipswich, Queensland.
Copyright
Metadata © Together for Humanity (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Together for Humanity (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Together for Humanity (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Together for Humanity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Copyright
Metadata © Together for Humanity (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Together for Humanity (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Together for Humanity (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Together for Humanity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Stage: All
- Curriculum: English
- Topics: Reading; Identity