ABSTRACT
This study is based on the perspective that picture books about forests can facilitate children’s knowledge and emotions about the forests, functioning as a triggering source to make children act sustainably toward forests. This study used content analysis to explore the presence and association between environmental themes and forest ecosystem services (FES) categories in 169 picture books about forests. The analysis revealed that behavioral themes (e.g. daily environmentally friendly behaviors) and the regulating services (e.g. local climate and air quality control) were less frequently presented in the picture books than other environmental themes and FES. Furthermore, several associations were identified between environmental themes and FES categories. We discuss some implications of the findings for research and practice in using picture books about forests for sustainability education.
Acknowledgments
This work was developed based on the report (NFR- 2020S1A5B5-A17089435). We thank the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea for their support.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13416979.2022.2087667
Notes
1. Fantasy: Deliver an imaginary world through fictionalization.
2. Realistic: Fictional stories in nature but can happen in our everyday lives.
3. Informative: Contain realistic illustrations (images) and descriptions of accurate information to communicate knowledge and concepts about a particular topic.
4. Traditional: Folk tales and reflect the unique culture in which the story emerged