Prof. María Martínez Lirola
Department of English, University of Alicante, Spain
Title: Exploring the potential of picture books to delve into emotional literacy and the principles of Global Citizenship Education
Abstract:
It is essential for university faculty to connect classroom instruction with social demands to ensure students receive a comprehensive education that prepares them for the job market. This study presents an approach to socio-educational transformation, based on research utilizing picture books about migration in the teaching and learning processes for education students at a Polish university. These books serve as appropriate teaching materials to develop various types of competencies and literacies, particularly emotional, thereby promoting holistic education and the principles of Global Citizenship Education (GCE). The primary objectives of this research are: 1) To design and implement a teaching proposal grounded in the principles of GCE and emotional education using picture books on migration, enabling teacher trainees to develop multiple literacies and competencies in English as a foreign language classes; 2) To foster reflection on GCE and emotional education and its significance in cultivating prosocial attitudes and 3) To gather students’ opinions on the educational experience in which they participated. The research questions are the following: Are picture books appropriate multimodal texts to introduce the principles of GCE (and to teach grammatical contents)? And does the use of the selected picture books contribute to promote emotional literacy among students? The methodology employed is mixed, incorporating qualitative-descriptive aspects based on observations of students' performance in activities related to selected picture books on migration, as well as quantitative data focusing on the results of a rubric completed by both the instructor and students and on a questionnaire completed by the students at the end of their participation in the teaching proposal. The findings indicate that the use of picture books on migration allows students to deepen their understanding of the principles of GCE and emotional education and various literacies and competencies, contributing to their development as global citizens. In conclusion, using picture books enriches the teaching-learning process with social content, promoting comprehensive education aimed at forming global citizens while covering the knowledge specific to the subject.
Biography:
María Martínez Lirola is Professor of the Department of English at the University of Alicante, Spain and Research Fellow at the University of South Africa (UNISA). Her main areas of research are Critical Discourse Analysis, Systemic Functional Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. She has published extensively in international journals such as Discourse and Society, Critical Discourse Studies, Social Semiotics, Visual Communication, Signos, RESLA, etc. She has also published seven books and several books chapters in publishers such as Peter Lang, Cambridge Scholars Publishers, John Benjamins and Comares, among others.
Dr. Martínez Lirola is the director of the research group “Critical Analysis of Multimodal Discourse” from 2010. She has been a visiting scholar in different universities such as: Research Institute on Humanities and Social Sciences Pedro Francisco Bonó (2021), University Jules Verne (2020), Manchester Metropolitan University (2019), University of Rome (2019), Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales en la República Dominicana (FLACSO-RD) (2018), Queens College, City University of New York (USA, 2017), Universidad del Norte (Barranquilla, Colombia, 2016), Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD, 2015), University of Nottingham, Malaysia campus (2015), University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada 2014), Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada, 2012), University of South Africa, UNISA (Pretoria, South Africa, 2012), University of Anahuac Mayad (Mérida, Mexico, 2008), University of Kwazulu-Natal (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, 2006), and Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia, 2005). She has presented papers in international congresses all over the world.