Visualizing the Voiceless and Seeing the Unspeakable: Understanding International Wordless Picturebooks about Refugees

Recognising silence and absence as part of multivocal storytelling in and through picturebooks: migrant learners in South Africa engaging with The Arrival

“…It has been argued that the striking, evocative illustrations and powerful narratives provide an engaging medium through which to encourage children to think freely and in depth about characters, their actions and the situations they face (Arizpe et al, 2014), with the sparse text creating ‘textual gaps’ (Iser, 1974) or ‘breathing space’ (Kucharczyk, 2016) to offer multiple, personal interpretations. Bellorín & Silva‐Díaz (2011, p. 212) highlight that picturebooks sometimes “require the active participation of the reader to fill in the indeterminacies.” In this way, then, Roche (2015, p. 79) argues that picturebooks are accessible and offer “a more democratic space for collaborative enquiry and exploration”, with Duckels and Jaques (2019, p. 6) noting that they “invite[…] readers to enter into the meaning‐making process on their own terms.” Additionally, Barton and Hamilton (2000) recognise that learners' engagements with texts are shaped by the context of social interactions and activities in the classroom; this understanding might also be extended to their use in the research space.…”

“…However, a study by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education notes the lack of ethnic diversity among main characters in children's fiction (CLPE, 2018). Duckels and Jaques (2019, p. 5) argue that “wordless picturebooks invite interrogation across language barriers and are thus by definition inherently inclusive of multiple identities”. Hanna (2020a) proposes that recognition and inclusion of migrant learners, particularly where they are acknowledged as agentic ‘experts’ on their own lives, can lead to children being enabled to participate fully in classroom life.…”