In the past decades, the Swedish society has gone through multiple changes as a result ofglobalization and migration. Sweden went from being a homogenous country to a nationcharacterized by ethnic diversity. This had led to many debates on how to correctly representdifferent ethnicities in literature and media. The current example study aims to analyze andcompile how ethnicity is being represented in three children's picturebooks. With scientificstudies and ongoing debates, we gain an understanding of how ethnicity has been representedin literature over time.Our findings show that noncaucasian characters lack fair representation in our chosenchildren's picturebooks. The picturebooks are: Rally och Lyra och Limpa written by MarieNorin, Pippi långstrump på kurrekurreduttön written by Astrid Lindgren and Varför bråkarsyrran? Written by Kristin Murray Brodin . These characters mostly have a minor role in thecentral theme of the story and are poorly and stereotypically portrayed. Rare protagonistportrayal of non- caucasian characters is mostly the intent of publishing houses that aim at aholistic, inclusive approach. Therefore, it is very vital that educators analyze children'spicturebooks before using them in their classrooms, so that every child regardless of ethnicitycan be seen and represented in a manner which leads to growth of their inner selves.

Teaching English as a second language is widely different depending on what teacher you ask and what methodology they use. The purpose for this study is to look deeper into the visual literacy approach of how primary school teachers choose to incorporate the use of children’s picturebooks in their own teaching practices for L2 acquisition and development. Through semi-structured interviews, the study gathered information with regard to how a visual literacy approach though the use of picturebooks is utilized in practice and in theory among primary school teachers. The results of the study revealed that the majority of the participating teachers are positive towards the use of picturebooks in the ESL classroom but differ in the way they choose to incorporate the visual literacy approach in their teaching. The results showed that the participating teachers are not using children’s picturebooks to the extent that they would like to in theory, due to reasons such as time restraints and inexperience. Finally, the results show that children’s picturebooks has positive implications for L2 development with regards to vocabulary and reading comprehension in the early years. Utilizing literature that pupils are familiar with in L1 further helps to engage in the use of their L2 for overall language development.

Multiple studies show that growing up with a mentally ill parent affects children in many ways. In recent years many children ́s picturebooks about mental illness have been published, making it an accessible subject for the youngest readers. The aim of this study is to examine how children’s experiences of parental mental illness is described in picturebooks on the topic, and if these books can be helpful in increasing children's sense of coherence. The study is based on an analysis of eight Swedish picturebooks dealing with different types of mental illness directed to children in the age group 3-6 years. The books’ descriptions of children’s experiences of parental mental illness are mapped and the content is analyzed using Antonovsky’s theory Sense of Coherence, SOC. The study shows that children’s experiences of parental mental illness as described in the books, are relatively consistent with descriptions found in interview studies with children with experiences of parental mental illness. Furthermore, the study shows that the picturebooks can be helpful for children with experiences of parental mental illness, especially in combination with the presence of an adult whom the child trusts to talk to. Finally, the study shows that the picturebooks offer answers to children’s frequently asked questions about parental mental illness. / Flertalet studier visar att barn på olika sätt påverkas av att växa upp med en psykiskt sjuk förälder. De senaste åren har flera bilderböcker på ämnet psykisk ohälsa givits ut, vilket gör det till ett ämne som även de yngsta läsarna kommer i kontakt med. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur barns upplevelser av föräldrars psykiska ohälsa beskrivs i bilderböcker på ämnet, och om böcker av detta slag kan vara en hjälp i att öka barns känsla av sammanhang. Studien bygger på en analys av åtta svenska bilderböcker som berör olika typer av psykisk ohälsa riktade till barn i åldersgruppen 3–6 år. Böckernas beskrivningar av barns upplevelser av föräldrars psykiska ohälsa kartläggs och innehållet analyseras utifrån Antonovskys teori Känsla av Sammanhang, KASAM. Studien visar att bilderböckernas beskrivningar av barnens upplevelser av förälderns psykiska ohälsa stämmer relativt väl med de beskrivningar som återfinns i intervjustudier med barn med erfarenhet av att växa upp med en förälder med psykisk ohälsa. Vidare visar studien att bilderböckerna kan vara en hjälp till barn med egna erfarenheter av att leva med en psykiskt sjuk förälder, speciellt i kombination med att en vuxen finns tillgänglig för samtal med barnet om bokens innehåll. Till sist visar studien att bilderböckerna erbjuder svar på vanliga frågor barn har om föräldrars psykiska ohälsa.

L’objectif général de cette recherche de développement vise à évaluer à l’aide d’une grille de critères didactiques développée si les albums disponibles dans la collection de la didacthèque de l’Université de Montréal répondent aux besoins liés à la didactique du français des étudiants au baccalauréat en enseignement primaire et éducation préscolaire. Puisque la poursuite de cet objectif général se fait par l’entremise d’un objet développé, soit une grille d’évaluation des albums composés de critères didactiques, afin de suivre les quatre phases de développement d’un objet, trois objectifs spécifiques sont déployés. Le premier objectif spécifique sert à dégager les critères propres à la didactique du français à considérer pour évaluer les albums dans les didacthèques. Des entrevues semi-dirigées avec des enseignantes expertes dans l’utilisation des livres jeunesse (n=7) et des chargées de cours en didactique du français (n=5) ont permis d’analyser les besoins pour le développement de la grille d’évaluation, ce qui correspond à la première phase d’une recherche de développement. Le deuxième objectif spécifique vise à élaborer la grille d’évaluation des albums basée sur des critères propres à la didactique du français. Cela est effectué dans un mouvement itératif, entre les deuxième et troisième phases de la recherche de développement, soit celle qui concerne la conception de l’objet et celle qui en permet l’évaluation. Par conséquent, six grilles sont passées par différentes phases d’évaluation et de conception, dans un mouvement de va-et-vient. La sixième version, mise à l’essai sur la collection d’albums de la didacthèque de l’Université de Montréal, correspond à la quatrième phase d’une recherche de développement. Elle est en accord avec le troisième objectif spécifique qui est de mettre à l’essai la grille d’évaluation développée basée sur des critères didactiques sur une collection d’albums d’une didacthèque. Les résultats de notre mise à l’essai et les résultats obtenus par notre grille nous amènent à constater avec nuance l’adéquation entre les albums disponibles et la communauté servie par la didacthèque, et plus précisément les étudiants au baccalauréat en enseignement primaire et éducation préscolaire. Cependant, il semble que la désuétude observée des titres de l’échantillon peut avoir une incidence sur d’autres critères évalués. / The main purpose of this designed-based research (DBR) is to assess with a developed criteria grid whether the picturebooks available in the collection of the Université de Montréal Curriculum materials center (CMC) meet the needs related to the teaching and learning of French of undergraduate students in Preschool and Elementary Education program. Since the pursuit of this general purpose is done through an object developed in a DBR, which is an evaluation grid for picturebooks composed of criteria useful for teaching and learning of French, the three specific purposes follow the four phases of that type of research. The first purpose serves to identify convenient criteria to the teaching and learning of French to be considered in order to assess the picturebooks in a CMC. Semi-structured interviews with primary teachers who are experts in the use of children’s books (n=7) and instructors in teaching and learning of French (n=5) made it possible to analyze the needs for the development of the evaluation grid, which corresponds to the first phase of a DBR. The second specific purpose is to develop the picturebooks evaluation grid based on criteria relating to the teaching and learning of French. This is done in a iterative movement, between the second and the third phases of a DBR. Those phases are related to the design of the object and his evaluation. As a result, six grids went through those different phases of design and evaluation, back and forth. The sixth version, tested on the picturebooks collection of the Université de Montréal CMC, corresponds to the fourth phase of a DBR. This phase is consistent with the third specific purpose, which is to use the developed criteria grid to assess a picturebooks collection of a CMC (n=175) using the evaluation grid based on criteria useful for teaching and learning of French. The results obtained by our grid lead us to note with nuance the adequacy between the available picturebooks and the community served by the CMC, and more specifically undergraduate students in Preschool and Elementary Education program. However, it appears that the observed obsolescence of the sample may have an impact on other observed criteria.