ECOJUSTICE THROUGH ILLUSTRATION AND PLAY: YOUNG CHILDREN’S RESPONSES TO ECOLOGICAL CRISES IN PICTUREBOOKS

Abstract

This dissertation critically examined young children’s meaning-making of ecological crises through play in response to six picturebooks. The study analyzed the actions and discourses of young children, as well as conducted a critical textual analysis of picturebooks from an ecojustice lens at one elementary school in a large metropolitan school district in the southern United States.

Drawing from ecojustice literacies, critical literacy through play, and critical textual analysis frameworks, this qualitative inquiry study examined the embodied understandings that young children construct when navigating the social challenges of ecological injustices.

Using thematic analysis and critical textual analysis from an ecojustice lens, the embodied understandings were analyzed through both actions and discourse using video recordings of children’s multimodal play in pairs or groups of three. Data was analyzed using interpretive thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2022)

This study provides insights into young children’s meaning-making of ecological crises, and what they say and do as they construct understandings of ecojustice without adult mediation. The study also provides the framework for critical textual analysis from an ecojustice lens that can serve as an exemplar for future picturebook analysis when considering what texts to select for use in ecojustice education.

This study adds the voice of young children, often omitted, to the existing body of research. In addition, it adds to our understanding of what meanings children construct around ecojustice crises.