Using picturebook illustrations to help young children understand diversity

Abstract

The demographics of Aotearoa New Zealand have changed markedly over the past few decades in relation to increasing ethnic, cultural and religious diversity. These changes have resulted from immigration, refugee resettlement programmes, and globalisation. Early childhood education (ECE) settings are social, cultural and political spaces where children live with and alongside diverse others. They are ideal places for providing early learning experiences about diversity and difference which can be supported and reinforced using the picturebooks. Picturebooks can act as both mirrors and windows on the world. As mirrors they can reflect children’s own lives, and as windows they can give children a chance to learn about someone else’s life. More equitable outcomes for children and their families can be realised through deeper engagement with cultural diversity and issues of fairness. The illustrations in quality children’s picturebooks can be a vehicle for this type of engagement showing that art can be used as a form of dialogue, if they are critiqued and analysed with children.