Creative ways to approach the theme of cultural diversity in wordless picturebooks through visual reading and thinking

Cultural diversity, as one of the most important characteristics of European community in the framework of the DIALLS project (see Chapter 1 for overview), is integral to notions of cultural identity and cultural literacy. The acknowledgement of identity formation as an ongoing, dynamic process through interaction rather than a pre-conceived characteristic arises as an imperative need, in order to encourage democracy to thrive through constructive confrontation and integration (Rapanta et al. in The Curriculum Journal, 2020). According to Bland, picturebooks that authentically reflect cultural diversity can move even young readers towards "flexibility of perspective" (CLELE Journal, 4(2):45, 2016). Bishop (Perspectives: Choosing and Using Books for the Classroom, 6(3):ix-xi, 1990) highlights the need for young readers to recognise themselves in books they read, learn about the lives of other people, and be able to cross between groups and worlds. However, reading wordless picturebooks can be a challenging task, because of the ambiguity and open nature of their visually rendered narratives. The affordances of wordless picturebooks and the challenges embedded in their reading are discussed by the authors in Chapter 5 of this volume. This chapter presents several creative ways to analyze and approach the theme of cultural diversity in class, through various disciplinary lenses and methodological approaches.