Classification of “Environmental Picture Books” and the Significance of the Processes of “Environmental Picture Books”

Abstract

  The early childhood period critically influences how children form their fundamental lifestyles. However, little is known about the pedagogical moment of Environmental Education or how children acquire early attitude towards the environment. Children often acquire knowledge about the world through images within picture books. These images affect children's attitudes toward the environment. Upon analyzing the contents of 358 children's picture books, three major thematic categories appeared:
  (A) Environmental-Education picture books, which discuss environmental topics overtly, with a call to action
  (B) Environmental-issues picture books, which present various environmental issues without calling for specific actions and charges.
  (C) Environmental-related picture books, which merely touch upon environmental issues.
  In this paper, types (A) and (B) are examined, and I found that there are three main characteristics. Such books have at least one or two of the following characteristics in common:
  1) The planet earth is shown from space
  2) Images of animals and plants suffering adversely from pollution are shown
  3) environmentally-friendly messages are featured in the form of, both directly and indirectly, slogans cartoons, pictures, etc.
  Since the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, researchers and environmental educators seem eager to construct the “ideal” environmental education. Such an approach could be described as “Politically-based environmental education”. “Politically-based environmental education” ignores the existence of “Unconsciously-continued environmental education”, which is often obscured by modern daily life. Even though this subtle folk knowledge is overlooked by many researchers, examining it is a good method to learn about alternative environmental education.
  I would like to emphasize the importance of “unconsciously-continued environmental education” by examining environmental picture books.