Reading for diversity:
Picturebooks and
intercultural education
Anna Birketveit
HiB 26.09.2014
Intercultural competence
The ability to interact effectively with people
from cultures that we recognize as being
different from our own
(Routledge Encyclopedia of Lg Teaching and Learning)
Michael Byram: 5 savoirs
• Attitudes (savoir être): curiosity and openness, relativise
one’s own beliefs and values, ability to decentre
• Knowledge(savoirs): how social groups and social identities
and practices function
• Skills of interpreting and relating (savoir comphrendre):
meaning-making
• Skills of discovery and interaction (savoir apprendre/faire):
ability to ask questions, appropriate behaviour
• Critical cultural awareness (savoir s’engager):questioning
of your own modes of understanding
Multiculturalism
• Originated in the US Civil Rights (60s and 70s).
• Four historical stages in the USA:
-ethnic studies
-equality and equity
-including gay, lesbian, disabled, feminists
-theory, research, practice of
race, class and gender
(Banks and McGee Banks, 2009)
Shift towards diversity
• Earlier integration, assimilation
• Post-multicultural: everybody is entitled to
participate as an individual with a
multifaceted identity.
Intercultural education
Learners
• Explore their cultural identities and develop a conceptual
understanding of culture
• Value and respect different cultural perspectives and human
experience
• Learn about issues that have personal, local and global relevance
and significance
• show responsibility and commitment to making a difference
• Develop into caring human beings who take action to create a
better and more just world.
(Short, 2009)
Stories
• A mirror
• A window
Criteria for selection
• Plot, characterization, setting, theme,point of
view create a convincing story
• Age-appropriate
• Authentic and realistic illustrations (?)
• For all children
• Variety of genres and cultures
• Convey respect for diverse cultures
Strategies
• Venn Diagram: analytical skills
Charles
lonely
bored
Smudge
lower class
quiet
has a dog
likes to play
timid
lives in
a villa
needs
friends
upper
class
sense of
humor
poor
sees life in
colours
happy
outgoing
cheerful
Open-Mind Portrait
• The tallest, a red-haired boy, spat out a very mean word. The
other boys laughed and shouted the mean word again and
again. Desmond pedalled away as fast as he could. His heart
pounded and his chest ached.
Desmond felt terrified and angry.
• The boy stood up and moved towards him. Desmond froze. The boy
looked around to see if anyone was watching and then handed
Desmond a piece of chocolate. For just a moment, Desmond looked
into the other boy’s eyes and smiled.
Desmond felt good.
(delighted/on cloud nine)
Vocabulary Puzzle
around a theme,culture or concept
whole class or small groups
half of the group find words, other half illustrations/definitions
pairs of pupils read their word , put it in a sentence or share a custom
Alaska/Inuit
Bingo
•
•
•
•
Make a grid with 9 squares.
Fill in words from the new vocabulary below.
Draw words out of a hat, read and put in a sentence or explain.
The first to have 3 in a row shouts bingo.
Variation: two rows or the whole grid.
Vocabulary:
Somali, indoors, damp, playground, friendly, tiring, creature, lovely, roof, bullets, gun,
flames, sadness, paint, wet, hajab, translate, leave behind, noise, smell, soldiers, hide,
prayer mat, Qur’an, queue, stay behind, frightened, journey, grey, bright, colours
Situation card
• Brainstorm with the class various situations in which you
might show empathy, compassion, and respect. Examples:
when someone is sitting alone, when someone is not being
allowed to play, when someone is crying, when a new child
joins the class, when two children fight over a toy, when
someone yells a mean word at you, and so on.
• Discuss the compassionate ways one might respond to each
instance
• Write each situation on an index card. Call two or three
children at a time to the front of the room, hand them a
card, and ask them to act out the situation and a
compassionate response to it.
Resources on-line
• James Rumford (Silent Music)
http://www.jamesrumford.com/jamesrumford.com/Ab
out_Me.html
• Voices in the Park
http://research.kingston.ac.uk/booksalive/flash/book.h
tml
• Ziba Came on a Boat
http://www1.curriculum.edu.au/rel/history/book.php?
catrelid=1866
• Desmond and the Very Mean Word
http://www.candlewick.com/book_files/0763652296.btg.1.p
df
Picturebooks are wonderful material to
work with in EFL.
Try it!
THANK YOU!
Secondary sources
References
Arnove, R.F. and Torres, C.A. (2003) Comparative Education: The dialectic of the global and the local.
Lanham,MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Banks, J. A. and McGee Banks, C. A. (2009) Multicultural Education: Issues and perspectives. 7th edn.
Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Birketveit, A. (2013) Picturebooks. In Birketveit, A. Williams, G. (eds) Literature for the English
Classroom: theory into practice. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.
Byram, M. (1997)Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence. Clevedon:
Multilingual Matters.
Dolan, A. M. (2014) You, Me and Diversity: Picturebooks for teaching development and intercultural
education. London: Institute of Education Press.
Harper, L. J. & Brand, S. T. (2012) More alike than different: Promoting respect through multicultural
books and literacy strategies, Childhood Education, 84:4, 224-233, DOI:
10.1080/00094056.2010.10523153.
Lund, R. E. (2008)Intercultural Competence, Acta Didactica, Vol.2 No 1.
Short, K. G. (2009) «Critically reading the word and the world: Building intercultural understanding
through literature». Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature 47 (2), 1-10.
Globalcompetency http://globalcompetency.wikispaces.com/Iceberg+concept+of+culture
Primary sources
Jeannie Baker. (1987). Where the Forest Meets the Sea. London Walker Books Limited.
Anthony Browne. (1992). Zoo. London: Red Fox.
Anthony Browne. (1998). Voices in the Park. New York: DK Publishing.
Mary Hoffman & Karin Littlewood (illus). (1992). The Colour of Home. London: Frances
Lincoln Children’s Books.
Liz Lofthouse & Robert Ingpen (illus). (2007). Ziba Came on a Boat. La Jolla:
Kane/Miller Book Publishers.
Ben Morley & Carl Pearce (illus). (2009). The Silence Seeker. London: Tamarind Books.
Barack Obama & Loren Long (illus). (2010). Of Thee I Sing. A Letter to my Daughters.
New York: Random house Children’s Books.
Anthony Robinson, Annemarie Young & June Allan (illus).(2008). Gervelie’s Journey.A
Refugee Diary. London: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books.
James Rumford. (2008). Silent Music. A Story of Baghdad. New York: Roaring Book
Press.
Desmond Tutu, Douglas Carlton Abrams & A.G. Ford (illus).(2013). Desmond and the
Very Mean Word. London: Walker Books.