Complex Picturebooks in Secondary Literary Education is a research project at the Faculty of Education and Welfare Studies at Åbo Akademi University. The project explores the role and use of complex picturebooks in secondary literary education, both theoretically and empirically. Previous research calls attention to picturebooks as a challening art form, containing complex themes and sophisticated literary qualities. However, previous research shows that picturebooks in educational settings are still mainly explored with emergent readers. The project brings together research on complex picturebooks with research on complex texts in literary education by exploring the picturebook as a complex text in secondary literary education. The project contributes with knowledge about the role and use of complex picturebooks in secondary literary education, for example, by systematically reviewing previous research, by theoretical explorations of the complexity in picturebooks, empirical explorations of students’ interpretative work with complex picturebooks as well as teachers’ key strategies for using picturebooks in secondary literary education.

Principal Investigator for the project is Heidi Höglund, Ed.D., University Lecturer at the Faculty of Education and Welfare Studies, Åbo Akademi University. Project members are Katrina Åkerholm, Doctoral Resarcher at the Faculty of Education and Welfare Studies, Åbo Akademi University and teacher at Vasa Övningsskola, as well as research assistant Nanna Heino. The project members cooperate closely with Nordic researchers from the fields of literary education and children’s literature.

If you have further questions or want to know more, contact us by e-mail at:
Heidi Höglund’s research profile
heidi.hoglund@abo.fi

Katrina Åkerholm’s research profile
katrina.akerholm@abo.fi