‘Credible, but not really reliable’: teachers' responses to children's literature on energy production and the environment

Abstract

Incorporating climate change into literacy curriculum is an important goal globally, but one that has gone unmet in typical elementary classrooms. One reason may be a lack of preparation of teachers to select texts on this topic. This research involved preservice elementary literacy teachers in a children's literature course evaluating children's picture books on the environmental topic of energy production. Preservice teachers rated each text's enjoyability for students, the credibility of the content, and discussed the underlying assumptions about natural resources in each narrative. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods analysis was applied. Findings suggest that preservice teachers generally found texts about energy production to be enjoyable for children, and they did not believe that books on energy production might evoke fear or frustration amongst elementary students. However, they differed in their views of authorial credibility. Some felt that personal experiences with text content (i.e., being an indigenous author writing about the need to preserve tribal lands) strengthened authors' credibility while others believed personal closeness made the text more opinionated and therefore less credible. This research suggests the need for elementary teachers to be better prepared to interrogate corporate bias and personal bias in texts about climate change.