Creating “them” and “us”: The educational framing of picture books to teach about forced displacement and today’s “refugee crisis”

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how the contemporary “refugee crisis” is being presented to children through picture books and teaching materials. It uses the concept of refugeedom as an approach that takes into account the multiple facets involved in the forced movement of people in the past and present and seeks to show the value of historical understandings in educational contexts when framing resources for teachers and students. Design/methodology/approach: The paper examines a sample of high-profile English language picture books about children’s stories of forced displacement and the most prominent freely available teaching materials connected to the books. A critical ..