Dr Rhoda Myra Garces-Bacsal

Myra Garces-Bacsal is the Assistant Dean for Research and Graduate Studies for the College of Education at the United Arab Emirates University. She also serves as Associate Professor with the Department of Special Education. Prior to moving to the Middle East, she served as a teacher educator in Singapore where she taught for eleven years. She was nominated for an Excellence in Teaching Commendation Award in 2019, recipient of an Excellence in Teaching Commendation Award in 2012 and a Service Commendation Award in 2013. She was selected by the International Youth Library in Munich as an International Fellow in 2016 and 2017. She served as Chair of the Programme Committee for the Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) held annually in Singapore from 2011-2019 and currently serves as the International Advisor-at-Large for the AFCC. She has edited five books on Asian children’s literature featuring the Philippines, Malaysia, China, India, and Japan. Dr. Bacsal has a vibrant website on children’s literature and young adult fiction (www.gatheringbooks.org) where she shares her Social and Emotional Learning Bookshelf consisting of multicultural and international picturebooks from all over the world.

Social and Emotional Learning through Diverse Picturebooks

One of the ways through which culturally responsive teaching is done in today’s classrooms is through a “plethora of multicultural literature” (Nguyen, 2012, p. 15) allowing diverse learners to see themselves reflected in the narratives they read. This becomes increasingly important, given the changing educational landscape where a culturally homogenous classroom is more the exception rather than the norm (Chong & Cheah, 2010). There is significant empirical evidence indicating how diverse picturebooks are able to develop empathy among children (Bal & Veltkamp, 2013), provide the foundational framework needed to promote a greater appreciation of diversity, the building of compassion, and requisite social and emotional learning (SEL) skills among children (Harper, 2016).

Leveraging on a research project that examines diverse picturebooks that explore socially and culturally sensitive issues for inclusive practices and social and emotional learning, this presentation introduces participants to a range of picturebook text sets from around the world that sensitively portray life’s challenges in a realistic, sensitive, and nuanced manner, and help facilitate difficult conversations on grief, loss, empathy, and perspective taking. Subtle narratives that recognize children’s capacity to understand life’s complexities and provide spaces to discover inner reserves of strength, particularly in light of a pandemic-world – without having to be prescriptive or didactic – would be explored and shared in depth.