Intercultural and citizenship objectives through picturebooks in early language learning

Abstract

This chapter describes a continuing professional development course (the ICEPro Course) which aimed to empower teachers and learners to become democratic citizens and proffers a case for intercultural citizenship education (ICE) through picturebooks. The main pedagogical frameworks and models developed for the ICEPro Course – the Picturebook Selection Guide and a template for the teacher made resources (ICEKits) – are presented to establish whether they support practitioners in developing intercultural and citizenship objectives. Using data from the ICEKits, participant evaluation surveys, recordings of teacher presentations and teacher reflections suggest that the pedagogical frameworks, models and modelling are successful. However, implications for teacher education stress the need to provide additional support in the form of mentoring within a sustained professional development experience.