Secretaria/ Secretary

• Almudena Barrientos Báez, U. de Iriarte, España

• Inmaculada Clotilde Santos Díaz, UMA, España

• Efrén Viramontes, E. N. Ricardo Flores Magón, México

• Ester Trigo Ibáñez, UCA, España

• Marek Baran, U. de Lodz, Polonia

• Gloria Santiago Méndez, UMA, España

• Marta Sanjuán Álvarez, U. de Zaragoza, España

• Xaquín Núñez Sabarís, U. do Minho, Portugal

• Ana Cea Álvarez, U. do Minho, Portugal

• Inmaculada Guisado Sánchez, UNEX, España

• María Auxiliadora Robles Bello, UJAEN, España

• Magdalena López Pérez, UNEX, España

• Milagrosa Parrado Collantes, UCA, España

• Paula Rivera Jurado, UCA, España

• Begoña Gómez Devís, UV, España

This study, which focuses on the issue of citizenship education, is based on an official document issued by the Portuguese

Ministry of Education, entitled National Strategy for Citizenship Education (Estratégia Nacional de Educação para a

Cidadania). The research question for this study was: “How can we educate for citizenship through children’s literature?”,

broadening their knowledge on these issues; and to reflect along with children based on practices aimed at promoting

citizenship through children’s literature. The methodology was centred on an action-research approach, along the lines of

reflection on the very teaching practice. The instruments used for collecting data were semi-structured interviews,

Keywords: Citizenship education, children’s literature, multiculturalism, racism, migration

he challenges of today’s society largely involve, to

a large extent, the issues of inclusion, acceptance of

the Other, living with differences, in a word,

citizenship. Portugal is no exception when it comes to these

humanistic training of children and youths and that

accept and positively integrate diversity from an early age

in an equally comprehensive way.”

It is in the social contexts in which the children live and, in

their relationships and interactions with the Other and, with

the environment that children build their identity and shape

their ability to live with otherness. Contact and experience

in these contexts allow children to become aware that life

in society and in a community entails rights and duties,

towards oneself and towards the Other, because, as

Cardona (2015, p. 44) states, “Educating for and in

that take place in the field of literary reading, using

researchers such as Martínez-León et al. (2017), Sales

(2019) or Sales & Balça (2020) do in their studies for,

respectively, the Spanish or Brazilian reality.

Reading and literature take on, among others, a formative

role, because, as Balça and Azevedo (2016, p. 121) state,

innocuous, it is written within a certain time and

space, in dialogue with art, myths, ideologies,

Literature, in its most varied manifestations, takes in the

values and ideas that society recommends or regards as

harmful. In the words of Cândido (2004), Nussbaum (2003)

or Cerrillo (2014), we are faced with a constrained and

compromised literature; literary text shares with its readers

certain orientations and stances of an ethical, political,

religious, and humanist nature, and Nussbaum claims

educating citizens of the world.”

hand in hand, especially when we talk about the single-

children, placing an emphasis on the presence of and

respect for human rights. The school should therefore

individual, involving the school community, drawing

attention to the development of experiential processes and

practices that promote inclusion and citizenship.

research question of this study was: How can we educate

for citizenship through children's literature? In this context,

the objectives of the study were to get to know and

understand children’s conceptions about racism,

multiculturalism, and migration, broadening their

knowledge on these issues; and to reflect with children

based on practices that promote citizenship through

children from the 3rd -grade of an urban, public primary

education school in the Portuguese city of Évora.

conceptions about racism, multiculturalism, and migration,

before and after an intervention with children’s literature.

The methodology used for this study was an action-

research approach, along the lines of action-research-

reflection on the very teaching practice, based on the

understanding that teachers research their own teaching

practice daily, constantly questioning it, with the aim of

transforming it and gradually improving the context in

which they operate (Ponte, 2002). The study included two

intervention with children’s literature, we were able to

notice that most children were unaware of the concepts of

multiculturalism, racism, and migration. The lack of

The intervention with children’s literature showed that

these texts, whether verbal or visual, in addition to their

aesthetic-literary and playful role, also play a formative

role. In fact, this intervention allowed the children to gain

knowledge and understanding of these concepts and even

to become aware of these realities, since it was evident that

they mobilised their own world and experiences.

The results of the second interview, conducted after this

concepts under study, appropriated them and were able to

critically relate them to the society where they live, even

that this 3rd year class had 24 children, of which 16 female

and 8 were male, aged between 8 and 9.

is?”.

obtain more detailed information about the children’s

that, as for the question ‘Have you ever heard about

no; regarding the question ‘Do you know what racism is?’,

The analysis of the follow-up questions showed us that

regarding the question ‘Can you tell me what it is?’, which

1 child was able to answer: INF_01 ‘Actually I know my

Because they’re all human beings and they’re all equal

except for their skin and their language’.

are different even though we are all equal:

Apropos the questions ‘What about duties? Do you think

that, even though there are different people, everyone has

equal duties? Why?’, we noticed that the children had

majority of the children (16) said that, even if there are

argued that, since we are all different, we all have different

duties: INF_05 ‘No. Because everyone is different, because

The children’s answers to this interview revealed that it

would be relevant to carry out a planned intervention with

children's literature, so that they could broaden their

reality.

After conducting and analysing the interviews, the

intervention with the children was planned and

read and explored to discuss and reflect, along with the

migration, certainly contributing to promote citizenship.

Several books were shared with the children, providing

limitations of this article, we resort to a synthesis of these

learning experiences, so that, through these examples, we

can put the entire intervention into perspective.

Therefore, we start by presenting some of the books used

in the intervention. Migrando by Mariana Chiesa Mateos,

published by Editora Orfeu Negro, was one of the books

we worked on with the children. This book consists only of

an introductory note and illustrations, with nonverbal text.

Migrando has two different covers, which serve as two

starting points for the journey that the book offers to its

readers. The iconic text reveals that this journey is physical,

in space, as the characters cross the oceans. However, the

journey is also emotional, revealing, simultaneously

They pack their bags, spread their wings, and set

off on an adventure. They leave driven by fear,

written by Lisa Mantchev and illustrated by Taeeun Yoo; it

was published in Portugal by O Bichinho de Conto. We

find the cover of the book very suggestive, since it

a child and a baby elephant stand before the closed door of

a house; the sign on the door clearly indicates, in red capital

letters - ‘STRICTLY NO ELEPHANTS’ (Mantchev &

Yoo, 2017, cover). Why aren’t elephants allowed into this

house? Why are they excluded? The word friendship is the

s. p.).

In an intertextual relationship, we worked with the children

on the work entitled Elmer, by David McKee and published

characters are normal, grey elephants and Elmer, a

coloured patchwork elephant, we find the issue of inclusion

and being different. Even though Elmer was well accepted

Another book we worked on with the children was A

his grandmother about life around him, this guardian figure

always answers with courage, with vitality, in a positive

way, calling on Alex to look and feel the wonder and

beauty of life: ‘She smiled and pointed to the sky. -

Sometimes, when you are surrounded by rubbish, you can

experiences proposed to the children in this intervention

included three stages: pre-reading, reading, and post-

reading (Yopp & Yopp, 2014). During the pre-reading

stage, the paratexts were looked over together with the

children, promoting an initial reflection on the messages

contained in the covers, titles, back covers and illustrations,

encouraging their ability to make inferences. These initial

reflections allowed the children to problematise the issues

in question for the first time.

Then, we read the books. In each session the work was read

twice. Initially, the children became familiar with the book

through the reading aloud of the researcher. This reading

standard phrases present in the narrative, by the children,

made this reading more alive, more engaging and also more

attentive. Then the children could leaf through and read the

The post-reading activities opened up a path, contributing

to the consolidation and the appropriation of these

concepts, these realities, these messages, by the children.

Living in Community, building a different elephant using

simulated the feelings of the characters in the stories. The

appropriation of works and concepts was carried out by

sharing the activities among everyone and talking about

them with the mediation of the researcher.

important source for us to be able to give the entire work

planning real intentionality, because

attentive observation and listening lead us, as

and, by listening to them, we can discover paths

that we can follow together, fostering processes

and providing a broader space for exchange,

interactions and learning. (Umbuzeiro &

Malafaia, 2018, s. p.)

After the classroom intervention with the children’s

the same data collection instrument.