Learning from Sesame Street: A Qualitative Analysis of Acceptance, Inclusion, and Cultural Diversity

Sesame Street first aired on public television in 1968. Sesame Street was developed by television producer Joan Ganz Cooney in partnership with educational and developmental psychologists to bridge the achievement gap in school readiness, specifically in underserved and underrepresented urban communities. This achievement gap was credited to societal racism and a lack of acculturation and racial diversity. Sesame Street was one of the first television programs, and the first children’s program, to feature an urban setting and a culturally diverse cast. During the 1940s, television programming was an almost exclusively white, Caucasian medium. The roles written for minority characters were based primarily on negative racial and cultural stereotypes. Significant research has been conducted examining the influence of Sesame Street on school readiness and Sesame Street’s contribution to cultural inclusion in society, but little research exists examining the lived experiences and changes in the perceptions of children exposed to cultural diversity through Sesame Street. A thematic analysis of participant interview responses revealed consistent, recurring themes, including the normalization of cultural diversity, empathy for others, and a sense of community connectedness. These themes reinforce the tenants of multicultural theory and social learning theory and highlight how Sesame Street normalized diversity and inclusion, which was integrated into the participant’s social understanding. The inclusive and prosocial behaviors modeled by Sesame Street’s cast had a lasting, positive effect on the participant’s social behaviors and attitudes, which they carried into adulthood.