ERIC Number: EJ952017
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
Reference Count: 48
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1205-5352
Too Many Monkeys Jumping in Their Heads: Animal Lessons within Young Children's Media
Timmerman, Nora; Ostertag, Julia
Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, v16 p59-75 2011
Young children's media regularly features animals as its central characters. Potentially reflecting children's well-documented affinity for/with animals, this media--books, toys, songs, clothing, electronic media, and so on--carries with it many explicit and implicit messages about animals and human-animal relationships. This article focuses on the particularly foundational age of children under four and their parents/caregivers as children's first early childhood environmental educators. Drawing on ecofeminism, ecocriticism, and early childhood environmental education, we explore messages about animals in children's media, critically considering notions of mis- and dis-placement, anthropomorphism, and subjectivity. Our inquiry challenges parents and environmental educators to reconsider the lessons young children learn about animals from their surrounding media and explore possible alternatives that question and seek to transform social and ecological inequalities.
Descriptors: Animals, Environmental Education, Teaching Methods, Educational Media, Young Children, Influences, Social Attitudes
Lakehead University and Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Communication. Lakehead University Faculty of Education, 955 Oliver Road, Thunder Bay, ON P7B 5E1, Canada. Fax: 807-346-7771; e-mail: cjee@lakeheadu.ca; Web site: http://cjee.lakeheadu.ca
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers: N/A

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