Can a picture book teach history? An investigation into the authority and relevance of informational history picture books for Australian, upper primary, school students

ABSTRACT

Learning History in upper primary requires the development of at least two key skills: historical perspective and historical empathy. Picture books might offer one approach to supporting the development of these skills with these children. Informational Picture Books (IPB) indicate positive results linking the use of the IPB with improved critical literacies. Analysis of the multimodal dynamics of the IPB reveals the necessity for students to be visually literate to realise the history learning potential of this resource. Recommendations developed from this review include requests by teachers for clarification of the Australian History curriculum and improved access to relevant IPB history resources. Professional development in teaching visual literacy may be required. Robust student historical literacies are more likely to develop from a carefully curated collection of resources which endeavour to provide a balanced view of the historical content.

KEYWORDS:

• History
• teaching
• picture books
• elementary students

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).