Children as readers of the world”: Using postmodern picture books to talk about rights, equity, and differences in a 2nd grade
Submitted by:
Carolina Gonçalves
Abstract:
Postmodern picture books enable the development to explore different skills and perspectives with children. When used with a pedagogical intention, valuing children's voices, and their role as social actors, books can allow children to construct alternative points of view and develop their own sense of justice and equity (Strouse, Nyhout & Ganea, 2018). Through postmodern picture books, children reflect on different realities, diversities, and experiences (Costa, 2012; Wild, 2023).
In the context of the project SMOOTH - Educational Common Spaces, Passing through enclosures and reversing Inequalities (Horizon 2020, EU), a qualitative research was carried out with 20 children attending the 2nd grade in a public primary school in Lisbon, using picture books to discuss about rights, equity, and differences.
The aim of this communication is to analyse, from a dialogue between Sociology of Childhood and Educational Studies (in Languages and Literature), children’s conceptions about the topics above mentioned, and their lived/attributed subjective meanings using picture books for this purpose. Through a qualitative methodology, an intervention program of read-aloud (from December 2022 to June 2023) was implemented with a group of children with diverse backgrounds (language and social origin), and we analysed the data collected with them by focus group and observation. This study and the qualitative content analysis allows us to understand the impact of picture books to promote the discussion about these topics. The critical use of picture books has become an essential tool for understanding the social construction of the recognition of differences by children regarding differences, diversity, and participation.
Keywords: children in primary school, postmodern picture books, read-aloud, rights-equity-differences
References
Costa, R. (2012). Choreographies of Emotion: Sociological Stories behind Bedtime, Fairy Tales and Children's Books. Global Studies of Childhood, 2 (2), 117–128. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/gsch.2012.2.2.117
Davis, P. (2007). Storytelling as a democratic approach to data collection: interviewing children about reading. Educational Research, (49) 2, 169–184, https://doi.org/10.1080/00131880701369693
Strouse, G.A., Nyhout A. & Ganea, P.A. (2018). The Role of Book Features in Young Children’s Transfer of Information from Picture Books to Real-World Contexts. Front. Psychol. 9:50. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00050
Wild, N.R. (2023). Picturebooks for Social Justice: Creating a Classroom Community Grounded in Identity, Diversity, Justice, and Action. Early Childhood Educ J 51, 733–741. https://doi-org.ezproxy.usherbrooke.ca/10.1007/s10643-022-01342-1