Producing a popular image of the Amazon rainforest and indigenous peoples in picturebooks in English-speaking societies
Journal Title: Problemy Wczesnej Edukacji - Year 2016, Vol 34, Issue 3
Abstract
For many years the media have presented the rainforest as a fascinating and exotic place, abundant in various species of plants and animals, the home of people decorated with feathers or holding spears. Picturebooks are no exception. This article presents the ways a popular image of the Amazon forest is produced in picturebooks for young readers in English-speaking industrialised societies. The analysis shows that shaping knowledge about the tropical forest is based on stereotypes about the “untouched pristine forest” populated by “wild indigenous people” – a notion that is spurious. Some of these books undertake the subject of indigenous knowledge or the loss of cultural identity. However the presentation of these issues often lacks deeper dimensions. The exoticisation of rainforest inhabitants as well as the forest itself may have a negative impact on young readers’ understanding of the cultural diversity of the Amazon, as well as their understanding of the complexity of indigenous peoples’ lives.
Authors and Affiliations
Aleksandra Wierucka
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP186673
- DOI 10.5604/01.3001.0009.4845
- Views 50
- Downloads 0
Historyczno-prawna analiza sytuacji dzieci w epoce Rousseau
The aim of this article is to bring the reader closer, in a synthetic way, to the legal realities in which children had to work in the eighteenth century in Europe. The analysis applies in particular to the private law s...
Analiza rysunków/szkiców i wypowiedzi werbalnych dzieci na temat budowy anatomicznej człowieka
The article discusses the results of an analysis of student’s drawings/sketches and interviews about the internal structure of the human body. The problems discussed in this article have an interdisciplinary approach. Ou...
Charakterystyka postaci w szkole – między stereotypem a kreacją
The school characters’ characteristics – between the stereotype and creation Self-presentation is one of the basic human communicative behaviours. At school it is connected with the ability to characterize a character, w...
Zwodnicza szczerość(?) Jana Jakuba Rousseau czyli narracja jako kreacja i doświadczanie świata
Literature remains somehow suspended between fiction and the truth, between pretending and authenticity. Each type of narration is, at the same time, a story and a creation, constructing the world portrayed on the experi...
Matematyczna aktywność badawcza uczniów klas początkowych. Między koncepcjami naukowymi i potocznymi/Research into mathematical exploration done by students of early education. Between scientific and common concepts
Conditions stimulating an independent creation and formulation of regularities require particular cognitive scenarios. In the early grades, students have the opportunity to develop this all-compassing intellectual abilit...