Climate Change Education and the Role of Picturebooks A Design-Based Study

Climate change education (CCE) is a new but expanding area of educational research, characterised by science and geography education with increasing calls for cross-curricular, integrated, and critical approaches. This doctoral study explores how picturebooks can support inquiry-based climate change education. Picturebooks are recognised as a rich resource for teaching a range of complex issues across the curriculum. While their use in inquiry-based teaching is documented, it is little theorised outside of philosophy for children contexts.
This study begins by systematically capturing existing empirical research relating to the use of picturebooks in inquiry-based teaching. It then takes a design-based research approach which involves the progressive refinement of an inquiry-based CCE programme using picturebooks. Three iterations of the programme, each 11 to 12 lessons, were delivered with children aged 10 to 12 years in three primary schools in the greater Dublin area. Data was collected and analysed on an ongoing basis both to inform the programme development and to generate research findings and theoretical insight.
The study proposes the value of using picturebooks, and picturebook writing, in cross-curricular inquiry contexts. Key features of the refined programme include the integration of ethical, scientific, and creative learning in tasks and discussion; the playful oscillation between fiction and real-life contexts; and the explicit teaching of disciplinary methods including nature of science, nature of philosophy and picturebook dynamics. A key finding is that picturebooks can support positive emotional experiences for children in CCE by providing creative and cathartic encounters as well as meaningful learning. Furthermore, by critically examining children’s expressions of emotion in the data, as they relate to both climate change content and picturebooks, the study proposes a framework for better understanding topic emotions in education. This analysis differentiates between varied experiences that are each expressed using the language of emotion, those which are immersive, those which attach to ethical judgement and those which relate to the communication of feeling. The core concept of ‘empathy’ is discussed as a hybrid of these emotional experiences. The study identifies how picturebook use influences students’ emotional responses to learning about climate change which in turn supports their critical, creative, and holistic engagement.