Learn how picturebooks use a combination of images and text to depict social issues and reflect attitudes to languages. Discover how picturebooks reflect societal values. Picturebooks are powerful pedagogical resources in educational and home settings.
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On this four-week course from The University of Waikato, you’ll be introduced to the history and characteristics of the picturebook format and how they depict societal values.
Develop your textual and visual analysis skills
You’ll explore the powerful combination of text and image, delving into the role that visual language can play in meaning-making.
Then, this course will guide you through the learning potential of the picturebook, specifically focusing on raising awareness of social issues, cultivating empathy, and working toward social justice.
Explore the importance of language hierarchies in bilingual picturebooks
Bilingual picturebooks reflect the status of languages in society and can be used to support awareness of languages and language learning. On this course, you’ll learn to analyse picturebooks by considering their purpose and audience.
Learn from education experts at The University of Waikato
Sitting among the top 3% of universities worldwide, The University of Waikato is committed to delivering a world-class education and research portfolio.
The two educators that will guide you through this course are both award-winning tertiary teachers who bring a strong background in both content and online pedagogy.
What topics will you cover?
- An introduction to picturebooks and their history.
- Picturebook illustrations and visual analysis.
- Investigating languages in bilingual picturebooks.
- Exploring social issues depicted in picturebooks
Learning on this course
You can take this self-guided course and learn at your own pace. On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...
- Describe key features of picturebooks and their historical development
- Identify and apply visual analysis techniques in picturebook illustrations
- Investigate and discuss the presentation of languages in bilingual picturebooks
- Reflect upon a range of social issues which are depicted in picturebooks
Who is the course for?
This course is designed for teachers working across all levels of education. It may also be of interest to parents as well as authors and publishers working in children’s literature.
