1st Edition
Exploring Challenging Picturebooks in Education International Perspectives on Language and Literature Learning
What should children and students read? This volume explores challenging picturebooks as learning materials in early childhood education, primary and secondary school, and even universities. It addresses a wide range of thematic, cognitive, and aesthetic challenges and educational affordances of picturebooks in various languages and from different countries.
Written by leading and emerging scholars in the field of picturebook studies and literacy research, the book discusses the impact of challenging picturebooks in a comprehensive manner and combines theoretical considerations, picturebook analyses, and empirical studies with children and students. It introduces stimulating picturebooks from all continents and how they are used or may be used in educational settings and contexts. The chapters touch on subjects like reading promotion, second-language acquisition, art education, interdisciplinary learning, empathy development, minority issues, and intercultural competence. Moreover, they consider relevant aspects of the educational environments, such as the inclusion of picturebooks in the curriculum, the significance of school libraries, and the impact of publishers.
Exploring Challenging Picturebooks in Education sheds new light on the multiple dimensions relevant to investigating the impact of picturebooks on learning processes and the development of multimodal literacy competencies. It thus makes a significant contribution to the growing area of picturebook research and will be key reading for educators, researchers, and post-graduate students in the field of literacy studies, children’s literature, and education research.
Introduction: Challenging Picturebooks in Education
Åse Marie Ommundsen, Gunnar Haaland, and Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer
Part I
Theoretical Perspectives on Challenging Picturebooks in Education
1 Cognitive Challenges of Challenging Picturebooks
Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer and Jörg Meibauer
2 Challenging Picturebooks and Literacy Studies
Jennifer Farrar, Evelyn Arizpe, and Julie McAdam
Part II
Challenging Picturebooks in Early Childhood and Primary Education
3 Interpreting and Mediating a Wordless Picturebook in Pre-primary Early English Language Learning
Sandie Mourão
4 Picturebooks and Aesthetic Literacy in Early Childhood Education
Marnie Campagnaro
5 Cognitively Challenging Picturebooks and the Pleasures of Reading: Explorative Learning from Picturebooks in the Classroom
Åse Marie Ommundsen
6 Picturebooks that Challenge the Young English Language Learner
Janice Bland
7 Gender Diversity in Picturebooks: Challenges of a Taboo Topic in Portuguese Schools
Emanuel Madalena and Ana Margarida Ramos
Part III
Challenging Picturebooks in Secondary and Tertiary Education
8 Intercultural Learning through Peter Sís’ The Wall: Teenagers Reading a Challenging Picturebook
Sissil Lea Heggernes
9 Challenging Picturebooks in the School Library: An Untapped Resource?
Åse Kristine Tveit
10 Exploring a Challenging Picturebook Gospel in the Classroom
Gunnar Haaland, Eivind Karlsson, Anne Kristine Øgreid, and Åse Marie Ommundsen
11 The Challenge of Creativity: Using Picturebook Sequencing for Creative Writing
Björn Sundmark and Cecilia Olsson Jers
Part IV
Global Perspectives Pertaining to Challenging Picturebooks in Education
12 Crossing Boundaries of Age, Culture, and Time with Challenging Picturebooks
Sandra L. Beckett
13 Confronting the Trauma of the Child Evacuee: Picturebooks as Entrances to Visual Literacy
Mia Österlund
14 Challenging the Status Quo with Picturebook and App: A Canadian Case Study
Margaret Mackey
15 Publishing Challenging Picturebooks
Laura Little
Index
Biography
Åse Marie Ommundsen is Professor of Norwegian Literature at the Faculty of Education and International Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway, and Adjunct Professor at Nord University, Norway. She chairs the research project ‘Challenging Picturebooks in Education’.
Gunnar Haaland is Associate Professor of Religion and Ethics at the Faculty of Education and International Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway. He co-chairs the research project ‘Challenging Picturebooks in Education’.
Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer is Professor in the German Department at the University of Tübingen, Germany. She recently edited The Routledge Companion to Picturebooks (Routledge, 2018).
"[The] case studies illuminate professional practice and there are plenty of applicable ideas for how to promote empathy and to use challenging picture books in ways that engage and hold potential for reframing how books and reading might be considered by non traditional readers. An engaging book that offers potential for developing professional practice." - Jake Hope, The School Librarian
"On the wbole, Exploring Challenging Picture-books in Education offers an expansive, outward-looking evaluation of this exciting medium in varying contexts. Altbough many of us who study and teach children's literature have long celebrated the joy of reading picturebooks with our students, the triumph of this volume is its dedication to empirical research and to showing, in concrete terms, how picturebooks work to change readers' worldviews." - Lauren Rizzuto, Independent scholar, USA
