Children’s literature as coupling point between global sustainability concerns and children’s local agency

This article is about how educators’ dialogical–creative presentation of children’s picture books has the potential to make global sustainability concerns accessible to young children. Thematization around climate change and the biodiversity crisis are global phenomena that are difficult to transla...

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Main Authors: Marie Kolmos, Anna Karlskov Skyggebjerg, Anne Maj Nielsen
Format: Article
Language:Danish
Published: Cappelen Damm Akademisk NOASP 2025-02-01
Series:Nordisk Barnehageforskning
Subjects:
Online Access:https://nordiskbarnehageforskning.no/index.php/nbf/article/view/594
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author Marie Kolmos
Anna Karlskov Skyggebjerg
Anne Maj Nielsen
author_facet Marie Kolmos
Anna Karlskov Skyggebjerg
Anne Maj Nielsen
author_sort Marie Kolmos
collection DOAJ
description This article is about how educators’ dialogical–creative presentation of children’s picture books has the potential to make global sustainability concerns accessible to young children. Thematization around climate change and the biodiversity crisis are global phenomena that are difficult to translate to the local settings where children spend part of their lives. This article argues that various dialogical and creative reading activities based on relevant children’s literature may serve as gateways to developing young children’s agency and understanding related to some of the sustainability concerns that they may have to address when they grow up. This article’s analysis is based on two literature courses at a Danish early childhood education and care centre, where educators invited children to creatively explore literary narratives in various ways, through visits to the surrounding area and the creative processing of the stories’ message. The analyses show how children’s potential agency is developed through a dialectical process of becoming based on a sociocultural and phenomenological understanding of artefacts, mediating means and place as an event. 
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publisher Cappelen Damm Akademisk NOASP
record_format Article
series Nordisk Barnehageforskning
spelling doaj-art-f60bffa455d94e4fafbc1519a568ceb62025-02-11T10:07:12ZdanCappelen Damm Akademisk NOASPNordisk Barnehageforskning1890-91672025-02-0122110.23865/nbf.v22.594Children’s literature as coupling point between global sustainability concerns and children’s local agencyMarie Kolmos0Anna Karlskov Skyggebjerg1Anne Maj Nielsen2Aarhus University, DenmarkAarhus University, DenmarkAarhus University, Denmark This article is about how educators’ dialogical–creative presentation of children’s picture books has the potential to make global sustainability concerns accessible to young children. Thematization around climate change and the biodiversity crisis are global phenomena that are difficult to translate to the local settings where children spend part of their lives. This article argues that various dialogical and creative reading activities based on relevant children’s literature may serve as gateways to developing young children’s agency and understanding related to some of the sustainability concerns that they may have to address when they grow up. This article’s analysis is based on two literature courses at a Danish early childhood education and care centre, where educators invited children to creatively explore literary narratives in various ways, through visits to the surrounding area and the creative processing of the stories’ message. The analyses show how children’s potential agency is developed through a dialectical process of becoming based on a sociocultural and phenomenological understanding of artefacts, mediating means and place as an event.  https://nordiskbarnehageforskning.no/index.php/nbf/article/view/594children's literaturekindergartenplacesustainability
spellingShingle Marie Kolmos
Anna Karlskov Skyggebjerg
Anne Maj Nielsen
Children’s literature as coupling point between global sustainability concerns and children’s local agency
Nordisk Barnehageforskning
children's literature
kindergarten
place
sustainability
title Children’s literature as coupling point between global sustainability concerns and children’s local agency
title_full Children’s literature as coupling point between global sustainability concerns and children’s local agency
title_fullStr Children’s literature as coupling point between global sustainability concerns and children’s local agency
title_full_unstemmed Children’s literature as coupling point between global sustainability concerns and children’s local agency
title_short Children’s literature as coupling point between global sustainability concerns and children’s local agency
title_sort children s literature as coupling point between global sustainability concerns and children s local agency
topic children's literature
kindergarten
place
sustainability
url https://nordiskbarnehageforskning.no/index.php/nbf/article/view/594
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AT annakarlskovskyggebjerg childrensliteratureascouplingpointbetweenglobalsustainabilityconcernsandchildrenslocalagency
AT annemajnielsen childrensliteratureascouplingpointbetweenglobalsustainabilityconcernsandchildrenslocalagency