Abstract:

Transforming teacher education in multilingual South African contexts requires pedagogical approaches that foreground children’s holistic development, cultural identity, and emotional well-being. Picture storybooks offer significant potential to support this transformation, yet their use in teacher preparation remains inconsistent. This study presents a set of evidence-based guidelines for integrating picture storybooks into Foundation Phase teacher education programmes. These guidelines emerged from an in-depth qualitative study on pre-service teachers’ perceptions, reflections, and pedagogical experiences with picture books during their undergraduate training.

The aim is to articulate a coherent framework that can guide lecturers, curriculum designers, and teacher educators in embedding picture storybooks meaningfully within courses on literacy, childhood studies, inclusive education, and creative pedagogy.

Using qualitative data generated through interviews, reflective coursework, focus groups, and teaching-practice observations, the study analysed how student teachers engaged with picture books across conceptual, emotional, and pedagogical dimensions. The guidelines synthesise these insights into six thematic areas, including conceptions of childhood, critical literacy, cross-curricular teaching, emotional development, multilingual practices, and the creation of picture books in low-resource environments.

Findings highlight the transformative value of structured, intentional engagement with picture storybooks. Pre-service teachers developed stronger reflective capacities, deeper understandings of representation and inclusivity, and enhanced confidence in read-aloud, shared reading, and creative multimodal strategies. The guidelines also demonstrate how picture books can advance social justice by challenging stereotypes, affirming children’s identities, and creating spaces for age-appropriate discussions about inequity and diversity.

This guideline framework offers a scalable, contextually grounded model for teacher education programmes in the Global South and beyond. Its integration into university courses and professional development initiatives can contribute to more responsive, empathetic, and culturally aware classroom practices.

Keywords:

Teacher education, picture storybooks, guidelines, culturally responsive teaching, literacy pedagogy, Foundation Phase.