You, Me and Diversity

Winner of the Geographical Association Publishers' Silver Award 2015. You, Me and Diversity offers teachers and student teachers approaches for teaching children about development education and promoting intercultural understanding through carefully selected picturebooks. Research by the United Kingdom Literacy Association in 2007 found that few teachers are aware of such books. They feel unable to select appropriate contemporary literature to use in class, and rely instead on the books they enjoyed as children. Irish Aid, through the DICE (Development and Intercultural Education) project, funded the research that underpins this book, so that teachers can make use of the wealth of excellent and appealing modern picturebooks that deal sensitively with contemporary issues. Dr Dolan critiques a selection of the books she identifies and advises on how to use them in the classroom. She provides a directory of recent picturebooks that feature development and intercultural themes such as climate change, migration and social justice, and range from the earthquake in Haiti to the struggles for civil rights. The framework used for categorizing the picturebooks gives teachers a planning tool to ensure they offer children a full range of development and intercultural perspectives while also adhering to literacy guidelines. Every primary school teacher and student teacher needs to read this book so they can widen their pupils' global and cultural horizons while simultaneously developing their literacy skills.