Designing English Curriculum Courses for Primary Preservice Teachers: A Focus on the Transformative Potential of Postmodern Picture Books

Abstract

In this article, we document our experiences as teacher educators as we designed and implemented two courses that scaffold primary preservice teachers to engage critically with postmodern picture books and to explore a range of pedagogical practices for using postmodern picture books in classrooms with young children. Initially, our preservice teachers told us they did not have many experiences with postmodern picture books. Postmodern picture books are a special form of children’s literature that showcase some unique characteristics such as breaking boundaries, excess, indeterminacy and parody. In this article, our research investigation includes two case studies which draw on Schon’s classical approach to exploring the epistemology of our own practice through a reflective lens that brings together academic theory and professional practice. Firstly, we each recount our preservice teachers’ most adverse reactions to postmodern picture books. In response, we use the multiliteracies framework of the New London Group, that of situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing and transformed practice, to describe how we designed the learning activities and assessment tasks at two different universities in Australia. We do not attempt to generalise from our findings; rather, we explore the pedagogical framework that takes our preservice teachers from places of not knowing, resistance, and critique to one where they can articulate their understandings of postmodern picture books as social and cultural commentary and demonstrate a range of effective pedagogical applications.

1. Introduction

As experienced classroom teachers, teacher educators, and academic researchers, we design courses for Australian primary preservice teachers who are themselves learning about teaching the English curriculum to primary students from diverse backgrounds. In this paper, we use Schön’s (1991) reflective lens to investigate the epistemology of our experiences and practice. In this self-study of teacher education practices, we firstly recount some of our preservice teachers’ most adverse reactions to postmodern picture books. We then highlight our disparate approaches at our respective universities to using contemporary children’s literature, both as course content and as the focus of preservice teachers’ planning for teaching.

In Australia, primary school caters to students from Foundation (aged 4.5–5.5 years) to Year 6 (aged 10.5–11.5 years). The inaugural Australian Curriculum: English (2025), first published in 2011 by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, provides an extensive Rationale which also articulates overarching guidance for including children’s literature in classroom-based learning.

The English curriculum helps students to engage imaginatively and critically with literature and appreciate its aesthetic qualities. They explore ideas and perspectives about human experience and cultural significance, interpersonal relationships, and ethical and global issues within real-world and fictional settings. Students are exposed to literature from a range of historical, cultural and social contexts. Through the study of texts, students develop an understanding of themselves and their place in the world. The English curriculum explores the richness of First Nations Australian voices and voices from wide-ranging Australian and world literature.

(Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2025)

The Rationale moves beyond the simple view of reading as decoding and linguistic comprehension (Hoover & Gough, 1990) to include constructing meaning and analysing a wide range of children’s literature within sociocultural contexts of production and consumption (see Bradfield, 2017; Bradfield & Exley, 2020b). The statements in the Rationale showcase the multiple theoretical positions of the Australian Curriculum: English, such as: a reader-response orientation where “students develop an understanding of themselves and their place in the world” and of “interpersonal relationships”; a formalistic approach where students “appreciate” the “aesthetic qualities” of literature and explore “the richness of First Nations Australian voices”; and a critical perspective where students “explore ideas and perspectives about human experience and cultural significance… and ethical and global issues within real-world and fictional settings” (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2025).

In addition, the design of our ITE courses is informed by research studies that highlight the importance of introducing primary school students to contemporary children’s literature and how it engages them (Dooley et al., 2013). Children’s literature has long served, metaphorically speaking, as a mirror to society, reflecting cultural principles, ethical lessons, and social standards. As Turyalay et al. (2024) demonstrate, in the last decade or so, children’s literature has transformed to be “a powerful tool for social justice and activism, particularly in terms of shaping young readers’ understanding of complex issues such as racial equality, gender identity, environmental justice, and human rights” (p. 1). Children’s literature is continually evolving, with new genres and formats emerging regularly. For example, categories of contemporary children’s literature include postmodern picture books (Bradfield & Exley, 2020a), multicultural literature (Alford & Yousef, 2023; Brosseuk, 2022), eco-criticism (Bradfield, 2020), graphic novels (Bucher & Lee Manning, 2004), historical fiction (Groce & Groce, 2005), social justice and activism (Fletcher & Holyoke, 2023), and fantasy and science fiction books (Hopkins & Lillard, 2021). Children’s literature encompasses traditional print formats as well as audiobooks and contemporary digital and interactive books (Unsworth, 2024).

Children’s literature as a field of study and practice has not always been afforded a dedicated course, or indeed as a major component of a course (Ryan & Grieshaber, 2005). As a case in point, when Paatsch et al. (2019) investigated the level of confidence and preparedness of 321 primary school teachers in the Australian state of Victoria to teach children’s literature, they found that 22% of the participants reported that the teaching and learning of children’s literature was never mentioned in their preservice teacher education courses. This is in contrast to the experience of Natasha Small, a Bachelor of Education preservice teacher from the University of Sydney, Australia, who documented how she introduced postmodern picture books into an upper primary classroom for her Honours project. This study highlighted her capacity to plan for, deliver, and reflect on a series of lessons that were reportedly enjoyed by the children and also expanded their “conception of narrative structures, the author’s role and critical thinking skills” (Small & Callow, 2021, p. 15).

The next section of this paper, Section 2, presents a literature review on the definition of postmodern picture books and the different practices readers/viewers undertake as they engage with these texts, which then leads to our two research questions about our preservice teachers’ adverse reactions to postmodern picture books and our experiences in designing dedicated modules on postmodern picture books at two Australian universities. Section 3 outlines the research methodology for examining our different experiences by focusing on Schön’s (1991) classical approach to exploring the epistemology of practice through our practitioner and researcher lenses. We also outline the theoretical understandings of a pedagogy of multiliteracies, which is the theory we use to describe how we design our courses. Section 4 reports on the results of our investigation, outlining the themes that arise across our preservice teachers’ most adverse reactions to postmodern picture books and the points of difference as we design and implement new curricula, pedagogies, and assessments in modules dedicated to the study of postmodern picture books in service of the Australian Curriculum: English. Section 5 provides a concluding discussion, highlighting how both of the modules, although different, achieve high-quality outcomes for preservice teachers learning to teach with postmodern picture books in the primary school.

2. Literature Review

In this research paper, we narrow our focus onto picture books of a special kind, postmodern picture books. We understand a picture book to be more than a text and its images; each postmodern picture book is “a social, cultural, historical document” and “an experience for a child” (Bader, 1976, p. 1). The term postmodern should not be seen literally as post meaning after and modern meaning something new. Greenberg (1980) explains that postmodern is not so much about a point in chronological time, but rather a reference to the specific artistic and cultural movement that comes after Modernism and challenges the traditional boundaries and conventions of art and literature.

Postmodern picture books emerged in the late 20th century, breaking away from traditional storytelling methods. Lewis (2001) explains that postmodern picture books often include unique, unconventional elements called metafictive devices. Pantaleo (2014) provides a more comprehensive list of the range of metafictive devices used in postmodern picture books, which we have summarised in the ten points below:

• Direct Address: Narrators or characters directly addressing readers.
• Self-Referential Commentary: Characters or narrators commenting on their own stories or becoming part of the story.
• Multiple Perspectives: Stories told by multiple narrators or characters, or featuring multiple narratives.
• Nested Narratives: Stories within stories.
• Disrupted Narratives: Disruptions of time and space, and non-linear narratives.
• Intertextuality: References to other texts.
• Parody: Parody that imitates other works, often distorting a feature for comic effect.
• Typographic and Stylistic Experimentation: Experimentation with typography, mixing genres and styles, or introducing mise-en-abyme (recursive plot or image).
• Innovative Design: Unusual physical or e-book design.
• Indeterminacy: Elements of plot or images are intentionally uncertain.

Postmodern picture books have not only broadened conventional notions about picture books, they have also implicated what it means to be an engaged reader/viewer/listener of these texts. Following Serafini (2010), we use the term reader/viewer and extend it to reader/viewer/listener to recognise that postmodern picture books shift the focus from “the single mode of written language to multimodal texts that include extensive design and visual elements” (p. 86), and in the case of electronic and digital postmodern picture books, sound effects (Unsworth, 2024). This shift in form requires a parallel shift in the strategies and skills of the postmodern picture book reader/viewer/listener (Exley & Dooley, 2014; Exley et al., 2014). Like word choice, images in texts and sounds in electronic and digital texts carry ideological messages. Nodelman (1988) explains that images not only depict appearances but also shape how readers/viewers might interpret and feel about the depicted subjects, whether consciously recognised or not. Unsworth (2024) makes a similar point about the sounds in electronic and digital texts.

The relationship between words and images in picture books has been described as a “synergy” (Sipe, 2011), where both elements must be considered together (Lewis, 2001). Unsworth (2014) refers to these sorts of interactions as “intermodal coupling”, highlighting the complex ways in which words, images, and sounds work together. A challenge to this relationship is that images and sounds may reinforce, contrast with, or extend the information provided by the text (Exley & Cottrell, 2012). As such, readers/viewers/listeners must navigate not only the distinct logic of words, images, and sounds, but also their dynamic interplay. As Lewis (2001) explains, “although words and pictures in close proximity can influence each other, the relationship is never entirely symmetrical; what the words do to the pictures is not the same as what the pictures do to the words” (p. 35). This process positions the reader/viewer/listener as an investigator, critically analysing the messages embedded within the text—whether explicitly stated or subtly implied (Gee, 2003).

Building on earlier theories in multimodal literacy by Kress and van Leeuwen (1996), Bull and Anstey (2018) explain that readers/viewers/listeners of picture books have to comprehend a greater range of semiotic systems above and beyond words (linguistic design) and images (visual design). These images often contain facial expressions and movement, constituting gestural design, and layout and organisation, constituting spatial design (Arizpe & Styles, 2003). A fifth design element is that of sound effects, music, or notifications, called audio design (Bull & Anstey, 2018). Given the increasingly multimodal nature of texts in young children’s lives (Brosseuk & Downes, 2024), it is essential that preservice teachers also learn how to create opportunities for students to not only interpret images for meaning, but to examine how that meaning is constructed and construed through the intermodal coupling across all the modes of representation.

With all of these complexities inherent in postmodern picture books, it is not surprising that we three authors have observed a lot of excitement for taking postmodern picture books into the classroom in service of the Australian Curriculum: English (Exley & Kervin, 2013; Exley et al., 2015). In contrast, we have also experienced some preservice teachers’ adverse reactions to the postmodern picture books introduced in our courses. Our preservice teachers’ mixed reactions to postmodern picture books are not entirely surprising. Yun (2011), a South Korean teacher educator, reported on a small case study involving 14 preservice teachers undertaking a course in children’s literature. Some of the preservice teachers identified their dislike of postmodern picture books because of the “distraction and confusion, skepticism, sassy attitudes, drastically diminished purposes and meanings, realistic endings, and scattered structures, and subversion” (p. 1116). In contrast, Yun (2011) also found that some preservice teachers liked postmodern picture books for their “fun and playfulness, new, creative, and challenging aspects, norm and tradition, conformity, and truth” (p. 1116).

To explore our own experiences as teacher educators who design and deliver English curriculum courses to preservice teachers, we adopt Schön’s (1991) concept of reflection in and on practice. We do so via two overarching research questions:

• What are our experience of preservice teachers’ adverse reactions to postmodern picture books in the initial teacher education courses we design and teach?
• How do we design our initial teacher education courses to positively promote the transformative potential of postmodern picture books to preservice teachers?

The following section, Section 3, outlines the research methodology we used to investigate the research questions of this study.

3. Research Methodology

To address research question 1, we drew on Schön’s (1991) classical approach to exploring the epistemology of practice through a reflective lens that brings together the “kinds of knowledge honoured in academia and the kinds of competence valued in professional practice” (p. vii). Accordingly, we had two interrelated roles: we were practitioners seeking to reflect on our knowing-in-practice through a reflection-on-practice. According to Hébert (2015), Schön’s experiential–intuitivist model of reflective practice involves a continuous process where we, as practitioners, critically examine our own experiences to gain insights and improve our professional actions. This approach not only facilitates a deeper understanding of practice, but also promotes our ongoing learning and development. We consider ourselves to be deeply committed to being practitioners who are reflective-in-action and reflective-on-action (see for example, Dooley et al., 2013). Put another way, within the fray of practice, we were comfortable with experimenting and seeing how our preservice teachers respond, and just as comfortable talking about our reflections.

Schön’s (1991) reflection-on-action is useful for adult educators examining their own practice where content is subject to rapid and ongoing change or when some students have adverse reactions to the content of instruction (Ferry & Ross-Gordon, 1998). We also continued to reflect-on-practice after we implemented the modules we designed. Neumann (2000) explains reflection-in-action more directly as follows:

We try action A, and the situation does nothing, from which we learn something (although we might not be conscious right away of what we have learned). We try action B; the situation does something unexpected; and we have learned something else. Perhaps now we start generating hypotheses, and to test one of them, we try action C, and the situation does something that is consistent with the hypothesis but does not confirm it. And so on.

(p. 406)

Even though we three authors are currently teacher educators at two different Australian universities, one in the northern state of Queensland and one in the southern state of Victoria, at various stages of our careers we have a/synchronously co-taught, co-researched, and/or co-published. The professional collaboration between Authors 1 and 2 extends for 16 years, and between Authors 1 and 3 for 5 years. Authors 2 and 3’s professional collaboration extends for 3 years. We three are also members of the same teacher professional associations and/or industry network groups. We thus have a habit of moving in the same circles, coming together over many years to design, describe, discuss, and reflect on the unique, uncertain, and conflicted situations in what we refer to as our “indeterminate zones” (Neumann, 2000) of our work as teacher educators. For the purposes of this paper, teaching preservice teachers about the transformative potential of postmodern picture books to act in service of the Australian Curriculum: English is our indeterminate zone. We thus view our work as requiring ourselves to enter into a perpetual cycle of problem solving because our content and practice are not constant and not fully known, and never will be (Neumann, 2000). Not only do we accept that, we relish the ongoing pursuit of new content and new forms of pedagogical knowledge, and thus new ways of thinking about our teacherly work (see for example Farrar & Simpson, 2023; Price & Simpson, 2025). We have already worked through the key steps of identifying the practice context, reflecting-in-action, documenting our course design, engaging in reflection-on-action, identifying patterns and themes as we work inductively, developing theoretical insights as we work deductively, and then discussing our findings.

To answer research question 1, we documented our accounts of the most adverse responses our preservice teachers have had when we have introduced postmodern picture books in our courses. We chose to articulate the most adverse responses because they highlight some of the higher-end challenges we need to recognise as we reflect upon how we continuously re-design our preservice teacher courses. As this study involves systematic reflection on our own experiences and practices rather than research involving identified participants, formal ethics approval was not required. Nonetheless, we engaged in ethical reflexivity throughout the research process, remaining critically aware of our dual roles as both researchers and teacher educators. We were mindful of the power dynamics inherent in our positions and took care to ensure that our reflections did not compromise the integrity or confidentiality of our preservice teachers.

To analyse these reflections, we employed a qualitative research method, specifically thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006; Xu & Zammit, 2020), to identify and interpret patterns within this data set. We followed the steps for inductive analysis: documenting the data, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing the themes, and then defining and naming the themes (Braun & Clarke, 2006; Xu & Zammit, 2020). No pre-existing frame was used to determine these themes. This same research method was used by Daly and Blakeney-Williams (2015) from the University of Waikato in New Zealand in their study that explored the experiences of eight teacher educators from a range of curriculum areas who shared picture books with preservice teachers.

After naming the themes of the most adverse reactions we have experienced as teacher educators, we then reflected on the common challenges for our course design. By systematically naming these themes, we gained some insight and could make informed adjustments to our course design. This reflective process allows us to continuously improve our course design and work towards our goal to promote the transformative potential of postmodern picture books in primary school classrooms.

To address research question 2, we described the two courses, one that is taught at Griffith University in Queensland where Authors 1 and 3 are teacher educators, and another that is taught at Monash University in Victoria where Author 2 is a teacher educator. Both courses include a six-week module on postmodern picture books which have commonality across both institutions, and an associated assessment task which provides a point of difference between the two institutions. Following Schön’s (1991) work on the epistemology of practice, we recognise the difficulties of describing, explaining, and reflecting on the tacit knowledge of our knowing-in-action. Schön (1991) describes how individuals respond to inconsistencies in a situation by re-evaluating their tacit knowledge, reframing the situation within their intuitive understanding, and conducting an action experiment to test potential solutions. It was at this point we sought to describe our practice through a theoretical lens. Working deductively provided a structured and systematic way of understanding complex phenomena, making it easier to communicate within our group of three researchers to build upon knowledge within this field. To assist this undertaking, we used the framework of multiliteracies pedagogies as articulated by the New London Group (1996) to describe our course design, pedagogical practice, and orientation to assessment. This approach brought our tacit planning knowledge and experiences in course design into relief, allowing us to show in abstract terms what is both similar and different in our courses.

A pedagogy of multiliteracies was introduced by an international group of scholars who called themselves the New London Group (1996). We use this theory to describe how we design our courses. The New London Group’s (1996) manifesto covered multiple interconnected topics, one of which was a pedagogical framework for equipping students with the skills to navigate and interpret their lifeworlds and the multiple forms of literacy within, including texts where linguistic, visual, gestural, spatial, and audio design intercouple (Kulju et al., 2018). Such an approach aligns not only with the Rationale of the Australian Curriculum: English (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2025) introduced in Section 1, but also aligns with the inherent complexities of postmodern picture books as texts, as detailed in the literature review of Section 2 (Bradfield & Exley, 2020a). This pedagogy of multiliteracies framework aims to foster critical thinking and adaptability, enabling students to engage effectively with the dynamic nature of modern communication alongside social complex problems (Exley & Luke, 2010). Theoretically, when teacher educators enact a pedagogy of multiliteracies, as proposed by the New London Group (1996), they facilitate preservice teachers working collaboratively in situated contexts (Cumming-Potvin, 2009; Rowsell et al., 2008) and moving backwards and forwards through four dynamic and fluid interconnected practices:

• Situated practice—this involves learning that is grounded in preservice teachers’ real-life experiences, allowing them to connect classroom topics with their personal and cultural contexts;
• Overt instruction—this focuses on the explicit teaching of concepts and skills, providing preservice teachers with the necessary scaffolding to understand new knowledge;
• Critical framing—this encourages preservice teachers to analyse and question the sociocultural contexts and power dynamics that shape texts and practices in their future classrooms, fostering a deeper understanding of their future students and the material available in postmodern picture books;
• Transformed practice—this involves applying learned concepts in new and creative ways, enabling preservice teachers to adapt their knowledge to different contexts.

In this research, the preservice teachers were our students, and we designed courses to help them learn how to positively engage with the style and multifarious themes of postmodern picture books and to design effective and engaging lessons for their future students. We thus employed a deductive approach by applying the pedagogy of multiliteracies framework to analyse and interpret the description of the courses we designed. This method involved using the four interconnected practices outlined by the New London Group (1996) as a theoretical lens to systematically examine how these practices were reflected in the course design. By grounding our analysis in this established framework, we aimed to identify specific instances of situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice within our courses. This deductive approach allowed us to test the applicability and effectiveness of the pedagogy of multiliteracies in promoting the transformative potential of postmodern picture books to preservice teachers, thereby providing a structured and theory-driven basis for our findings.

At a technical level, we took statements and descriptions of our course material and annotated each according to the pedagogy of multiliteracies framework of situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice. We then compared and contrasted our annotations by using a process of axial or pattern coding (Liu, 2016) to interconnect the data. This provided the categories to answer the research question about how we design our courses to bring about positive change in our preservice teachers’ reactions to using postmodern picture books in the classroom context with primary school students.

4. Results and Discussion

This section presents the findings related to the research questions, commencing with research question 1: what are our experiences of preservice teachers’ adverse reactions to postmodern picture books in the initial teacher education courses we design and teach? Our experiences provide insights into the underlying factors contributing to our preservice teachers’ adverse reactions and offer a foundation for understanding how to better support our preservice teachers in navigating these complex texts.

Beryl (Author 1) recalls hosting a fulsome tutorial discussion on the Rationale of the Australian Curriculum: English, including moving beyond the simple view of reading as decoding and linguistic comprehension (Hoover & Gough, 1990) to include constructing meaning and analysing a wide range of children’s literature within sociocultural contexts of production and consumption. The tutorial discussion covered the importance of the multiple theoretical positions of the Australian Curriculum: English overviewed in Section 1 of this paper: a reader-response orientation, a formalistic approach, and a critical perspective. Beryl then introduced the postmodern children’s picture book Piggybook (Browne, 1986) to her preservice teachers. Piggybook, by English author/illustrator Anthony Browne, a winner of the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal and the Hans Christian Andersen Award, tells the story of Mr. Piggot and his two sons, Simon and Patrick, who take their wife/mother for granted. She finally leaves the family home, forcing the male Piggots to fend for themselves. Typical of postmodern picture books, Piggybook employs metafictive devices, enticing readers to break the metaphoric fourth wall by discovering the trail of intertextual and cultural references, and engaging in self-awareness of the major themes (Ritone & Kurkjian, 2018). In line with Browne’s style, the images and text intercouple to create and augment meaning, often with images providing additional layers of interpretation not explicitly stated in the written text (Joosen, 2015). After reading the book with the preservice teachers, Beryl recalls an uncomfortably pregnant pause, followed by one preservice teacher’s candid remark: “I don’t want to do this political work; I just want to teach children how to read.” Other preservice teachers supported this sentiment. Beryl’s dilemma is how to move these preservice teachers beyond the pragmatic worldview focused on the practical and overly simplistic aspects of teaching reading such as decoding and linguistic comprehension (see Hoover & Gough, 1990).

Kylie (Author 2) recalls working in an undergraduate primary education programme in a course that introduced preservice teachers to the importance of literature and meaning making as critical components of reading in the primary years. While introducing the preservice teachers to a selection of contemporary picture books, Kylie then focused on an Australian postmodern picture book, The Watertower, written by Gary Crew and illustrated by Stephen Woolman (Crew & Woolman, 1994), and shared it as a personal favourite. The narrative is set in a mysterious small-town setting where unanswered questions abound. Bubba and Spike, two teenage friends who explore the town’s water tower, remain oblivious to the strange occurrences around them. The story explores themes of fear, bravery, and the supernatural, with its striking visual elements inviting readers to imagine an eerie, unsettling scenario. The inference is that something lurks within the watertower—but exactly what remains unknown, leaving readers to draw their own conclusions. After reading the book aloud, Kylie eagerly awaited the preservice teachers’ reactions. To her surprise, one student exclaimed, “What a stupid book! Where’s the ending? I hate it.” Several others agreed, with some even declaring they would never use the book in their future classrooms. Kylie’s dilemma is how to move these preservice teachers beyond the utilitarian worldview of valuing straightforward practical content that can be directly applied in their future classrooms without critical and creative interpretation.

At a later time, Kylie recalled the preservice teachers’ interactions with The Island by Swiss-born, Australia-based author and illustrator Armin Greder (Greder, 2007). This postmodern picture book is quite provocative, presenting an allegory about refugees, racism, and xenophobia. The preservice teachers were able to make meaning from the text in terms of the experiences of the characters, but many did not make links between the text and the real world of refugees or racism (see Veliz et al., 2024). This lack of connection between the text and real-world issues reflects broader patterns identified by Adam et al. (2021), who found that Australian preservice teachers overwhelmingly selected books that reflected their own cultural backgrounds and experiences, with minimal representation of racial diversity or engagement with themes such as racism or refugee experiences. This is despite the contentious nature of Australia’s refugee policies, which are often highlighted in the media and served as a major election issue, as well as the fact that approximately 60% of Australians perceive racism as a significant problem (Alford et al., 2021). In a similar study, Johnston et al. (2007) hypothesised that preservice teachers had difficulty identifying inequities and parallel situations in the picture books, likely due to their lack of familiarity with diverse perspectives or their own privileged backgrounds.

Danielle (Author 3) recalls reading another Australian postmodern picture book, The Rabbits (Marsden & Tan, 1998), with a group of preservice teachers. The book was written by Australian author John Marsden and illustrated by Shaun Tan, an Australian artist of Malaysian Chinese and English–Irish descent. This text addresses several complex issues, including the perspectives of the colonised regarding colonisation and invasion, as well as the impact of humans on the natural environment. It primarily uses the metaphor of rabbits, an invasive introduced species in Australia, to convey these themes. As Banerjee (2013) notes, “The book has been controversial for a number of reasons. While some have read it as too politically correct, others have argued that the portrayal of the Aboriginals is patronising and silencing, and still others have been confounded by its categorisation as children’s literature” (p. 418). The book was also branded by some as too confronting for children and political propaganda despite being awarded Picture Book of the Year by the Children’s Book Council of Australia in 2000. Danielle remembers the preservice teachers’ adverse reactions as they grappled with these concerns and controversies, often asking “Shouldn’t we be reading a book by Indigenous authors and illustrators to understand Indigenous perspectives on colonisation?” Danielle was pleased that the preservice teachers took up particular ideological positions and articulated various understandings of identity and appropriation. However, when Danielle asked the preservice teachers to suggest other resources, the preservice teachers were unable to name any alternatives. Danielle’s dilemma is how to harness the preservice teachers’ critical worldview, where they question the appropriateness of resources for understanding Indigenous perspectives on colonisation, while also supporting their knowledge of accessing diverse and continually evolving resources.

To address our first research question, we conducted a thematic analysis of our own documented reflections on the most adverse responses preservice teachers have had to postmodern picture books in our courses. Using the inductive approach (Braun & Clarke, 2006; Xu & Zammit, 2020) described in Section 3, we identified recurring themes in these reactions to inform ongoing improvements in course design. Beryl’s experience with Piggybook highlights a resistance to engaging with political and social themes while some preservice teachers expressed a preference for focusing on traditional literacy skills. Kylie’s introduction of The Watertower and The Island underscores a preference for conventional narratives with clear endings and a difficulty in making real-world connections to complex issues like racism and refugee experiences. Danielle’s work with The Rabbits illustrates the preservice teachers’ capabilities with being critical of content of postmodern picture books, which contrasts with their limited exposure and familiarity with postmodern picture books for teaching. Taken together, these findings underscore the importance of equipping preservice teachers with the skills and confidence to effectively engage with postmodern picture books, fostering a more inclusive and critical approach to literacy education.

The next sub-section presents the findings related to research question 2: how do we design our initial teacher education courses to positively promote the transformative potential of postmodern picture books to preservice teachers? Using the pedagogies of multiliteracies framework as a deductive analytical tool, we explore how our course designs fluidly integrate situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice.

4.1. Case Study 1: Griffith University

At Griffith University, English 2 has a module on postmodern picture books. English 2 is taken by Bachelor of Education primary preservice teachers in Year Two, Semester Two of their four-year undergraduate degree. The preservice teachers have completed English 1, which focuses on reading and writing in the early years, in addition to a 2-week practical placement in schools focused on the changing landscapes of schools, a 3-week primary teaching practical placement focused on creating supportive learning environments, and planning for some routine lessons. The course introduction for English 2 explains that the schedule of learning activities

…extends pre-service teachers’ professional competence in the three interrelated strands of the Australian Curriculum: English—Language, Literature and Literacy. The focus is on teaching students in the middle and upper primary school and a key emphasis is on the role of grammar knowledge in enhancing students’ comprehension and interpretation of texts, and the creation of a range of texts.

(Griffith University, n.d.)

The module is delivered in the second half of English 2 over six weeks with a nominal commitment of 10 h per week. The learning encompasses four distinct activities: weekly pre-recorded lecture bites, weekly formative self-marking quizzes, weekly live tutorials, and a summative assessment task. The grammar mentioned in the course overview weaves together traditional Latin-based and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theory (see Exley & Kervin, 2013; Exley et al., 2015). Specifically, Beryl and Danielle introduce the preservice teachers to verbs/processes, nouns/participants, and circumstances of where, when, how, why, and with whom. Understanding these elements helps preservice teachers analyse how actions, participants, and settings are constructed in texts, revealing underlying power dynamics and social roles. They also look at conjunctions and evaluative language to identify how ideas are connected and how attitudes and judgments are conveyed, which is crucial for uncovering biases and persuasive techniques in texts. In terms of the grammar of visual design, our preservice teachers are introduced to colour, texture, line, size, balance, spatial arrangement, gesture, and gaze in order to interpret how meaning is created through visual composition (see Exley & Cottrell, 2012) and to critically evaluate the messages and ideologies embedded within. These components build upon the foundations of critical literacy, which were established over two decades ago by various educational researchers (Alford et al., 2021; Vasquez, 2013). Our goal is to help the preservice teachers to see that engaging critically with a text does not necessarily mean adopting a negative stance; rather, it involves analysing written and visual texts to draw conclusions about the seemingly opaque designs of the authors and illustrators (Bradfield & Exley, 2020a), considering why certain perspectives are highlighted while others are silenced (Alford & Yousef, 2023), and uncovering embedded messages and power discourses (Exley & Dooley, 2014; Exley et al., 2014).

The pre-recorded lecture bites are a weekly set of 6 to 8 short-form video clips, typically 15 min in length. Each set begins with the introduction of a postmodern picture book, situating the text within the lifeworld of the author and illustrator, as well as the context of its production. Beryl encourages preservice teachers to consider how the content and context of the stimulus text relate to their own life experiences and those of their future students. Ideas are presented on how to use the postmodern picture book according to the multiple theoretical positions inherent in the Australian Curriculum: English, including a reader-response orientation, a formalistic approach, and a critical perspective. The lectures also overtly focus on a dominant language or visual grammar element, using the postmodern picture book as a stimulus. Pre-recorded lectures offer significant advantages over in-person real-time lectures, such as flexible access and the ability to revise according to the needs of the preservice teacher. Occasionally, Beryl, as the lecturer, will reach out to the author or illustrator of a postmodern picture book and request an online interview that is then made available as part of the pre-recorded lecture set. All the lecture bites are linked to a discussion board post, although the majority of preservice teachers rarely participate in this interactive element (Dooley et al., 2013). Those who do engage often provide deeply thoughtful and inspiring content which serves as evidence of the preservice teachers’ development of knowledge and skills for teaching with postmodern picture books. Beryl responds publicly in writing to all students who post, and the tutors who teach in this module have a knack for integrating posts from the preservice teachers into the weekly in-person tutorials.

The weekly formative self-marking quizzes are designed to align with the grammar content of the lectures. Preservice teachers complete these short grammar quizzes in their own time. The quizzes are auto-marked and allow for repeated attempts. Although these quizzes carry no weighting towards the final grade, they provide an opportunity for preservice teachers to reinforce their knowledge and skills with the written and visual grammar content before attending the weekly tutorials. Beryl can see the preservice teachers’ attempts, which serve as evidence of the development of their grammar knowledge and skills aligned to the Australian Curriculum: English. When a persistent misunderstanding is identified in quiz responses, Beryl incorporates this into the upcoming tutorial content, prompting tutors to address and discuss the issue with preservice teachers during tutorials.

The weekly tutorials shift gears, prioritising practical experiences of teaching grammar through critical inquiry using carefully selected examples of postmodern picture books. The university employs casual tutoring staff to lead the tutorial groups. Importantly, these tutors are all registered teachers with current classroom experience. They have taught in this manner themselves and can provide convincing anecdotal evidence of classroom organisation, pedagogical approaches, and ways of planning for personalised learning for the diverse students in the primary school classroom. In small discussion groups, preservice teachers reflect on the teaching segment and collaboratively plan new lessons.

The summative assessment for this module is a textual analysis of a children’s postmodern picture book. This task, weighted at 60% of the total course marks, requires each preservice teacher to prepare a 3 min video artefact suitable for classroom use, in which they deconstruct the language and visual grammar used in one of the prescribed postmodern picture books and plan for teaching critical literacy in the primary school years. In previous iterations of the course, preservice teachers were tasked with selecting a quality postmodern picture book from either the university library, school library, or their personal collections. Despite their good intentions, the preservice teachers’ selections predominantly consisted of Disney books, titles from local supermarket checkouts, childhood favourites, or popular chapter books that had been made into a movie. Similar findings were reported by Adam et al. (2021), who found that their Australian preservice teachers often nominated older books published during their own childhood and rarely nominated picture books that positively represented people of colour as main characters. Over the last few years, the teaching team has adopted a different approach by prescribing five postmodern picture books from which the preservice teachers could select one. This strategy allowed the teaching team to ensure that the five texts together addressed the three cross-curriculum priorities of the Australian Curriculum: English, that being Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures; Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia; and Sustainability (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2025). Additionally, changing the prescribed list each year broaden the range of texts that preservice teachers at Griffith University had in-depth knowledge about. This action also helped maintain the academic integrity of the assessment task, as assignments from previous years that were in circulation focused on a different text list.

Importantly, the four practices of the pedagogy of multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996) are not linear but iterative and dynamic, allowing for continuous movement and interaction throughout the postmodern picture book module. Using the pedagogies of multiliteracies framework as a deductive analytical tool, we explore how this course design fluidly integrates situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice. It is not possible to categorise each activity strictly into one of these practices, although some experiences are more aligned with aspects of the framework. For example, situated practice is evident as preservice teachers reflect on their life experiences and their connections with texts, as well as the life experiences of the authors and illustrators and their (future) students in schools. This way of working has elements of critical framing insofar that it encourages preservice teachers to analyse and question the sociocultural contexts and power dynamics that shape these texts and the preservice teachers’ reactions to these texts. The overt instruction of the new grammar of the Australian Curriculum: English comes from the authentic language and images within the postmodern picture books. This understanding is reinforced in the short grammar quizzes that allow preservice teachers to review their knowledge and skills of written and visual grammar on a weekly basis. Critical framing is emphasised in these same activities as preservice teachers analyse and interpret both written and visual texts, uncovering embedded messages and power discourses, considering choices made by authors and illustrators, and reflecting on why certain perspectives are highlighted while others are silenced. Critical framing is included in every tutorial, where preservice teachers reflect on the demonstration lessons provided by the tutors and enter into the transformed practice of thinking about and discussing planning their own lessons. All of these activities work towards another instance of transformed practice, where preservice teachers complete the summative assessment, showcasing how they incorporate critical framing as a pedagogic practice within their knowledge and skills repertoire in new, creative, and situated ways.

4.2. Case Study 2—Monash University

In the fourth and final year of their undergraduate primary education degree, a Bachelor of Education, Kylie’s preservice teachers undertake a course that helps them explore non-traditional texts, including postmodern picture books. This is the fourth English curriculum course in their four-year undergraduate degree, and there is a determined sense of building on their previous learning in relation to teaching reading and writing in the later primary school years, as well as the learning from the five professional experience courses the preservice teachers would also have completed across different school contexts. The course is based on the premise that school students are increasingly engaging with evolving text forms (see Brosseuk & Downes, 2024), meaning that our preservice teachers must be able to examine the challenges and affordances that these texts bring to the reading event. Drawing on curricula, multiliteracies pedagogy, and their own lived experiences both outside and inside the classroom, the preservice teachers engage in learning activities that support meaningful engagement with these texts.

Throughout the course, but especially at the beginning of the module, postmodern picture books are shared with the preservice teachers. In small groups they read together, examine, and then react to these texts. They are asked to roleplay the reading of the texts in the way they would in the classroom with the school students. The preservice teachers are provided with time to build their knowledge of these kinds of texts through collaborative discussion with their peers. Prompts (Bradfield & Exley, 2020a) are provided that include questions such as the following: What do you notice about these texts? Have you seen texts like these before? How are they similar or different to the texts you read as a child? Kylie’s main goal is to build on the preservice teachers’ own life-world experiences in the enactment of situated practice, within multiliteracies pedagogy, where meaning is situated in real-world contexts (New London Group, 1996).

After examining connections between the picture books and their own experiences, the preservice teachers are introduced to the metalanguage associated with postmodern picture books introduced in the Literature Review Section of this paper (Section 2): linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, and spatial design. The metalanguage is taught through a scaffolded approach involving movement across and between modelled, shared, guided, and independent practice. For example, one tutorial involves the tutor reading a picture book aloud, identifying the modes, and annotating the first part of the text in terms of the “what” and “how” of each mode. Preservice teachers then contribute to further examination of the modes in supported dialogue until the tutor has ascertained that the metalanguage is being used competently and confidently (Bradfield, 2017). The preservice teachers then undertake a number of cooperative group tasks, using the metalanguage to analyse texts such as Irmin Gerder’s The Island, Anthony Brown’s Piggybook, and Emily Gravatt’s Wolves.

The explicit teaching of the metalanguage recognises that the previous activities involved in the situated practice will “not necessarily lead to conscious control and awareness of what one knows and does” (New London Group, 1996, p. 85). In order to support this awareness building, overt instruction is utilised. Kylie’s classroom is a reminder that direct transmission and rote memorisation are not necessary implications of overt instruction. Instead, the learning takes place within a community of practice that scaffolds the content to “allow the learner to gain explicit information at times when it can most usefully organise and guide practice, building on and recruiting what the learner already knows and has accomplished” (p. 88). When learning and teaching is handled in this way, the interconnectivity between overt instruction and transformed practice shows through.

The assessment task related to this learning involves the preservice teachers first identifying, describing, and analysing a postmodern picture book. In order to contextualise the assessment task, they first identify a significant contemporary societal issue relevant to upper primary students, ensuring alignment with one of the three cross-curriculum priorities of the Australian Curriculum: English, either Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures; Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia; or Sustainability. Kylie recognises that the current cohort of preservice teachers have varying levels of experience with what Rittel and Webber (1973) term “wicked problems”, that is, issues that invite engagement with the complexities and challenges inherent in our social world. Wicked problems do not necessarily have easy one-size-fits-all agreements; rather, they are “relentless challenging problems involving multiple stakeholders with differing views” (Wright & Monsour, 2020, p. 155). Wicked problems are not always of the malevolent kind; indeed, wicked problems can also be mischievous and playful, causing trouble in a fun or harmless way. The preservice teachers must justify their text choice based on the picture book’s characteristics in relation to the topic and identify potential challenges and affordances the text could bring to upper primary readers. In analysing the texts in this way, the preservice teachers are experiencing the critical framing component of multiliteracies pedagogy, where the focus turns to the experiences of readers in analysing both functionally (How are the modes working?) and critically (How have these modes been designed to influence?) (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009). An example of a common affordance identified by the preservice teachers is the recognition of the multiple opportunities for pleasure these texts can bring in learning and teaching (Farrar & Simpson, 2023; Pantaleo, 2014; Price & Simpson, 2025), while a frequent challenge is that many of these texts are non-linear, demanding comprehension of stories told in ways that are often disrupted (Goldstone, 2004).

A second part of the assessment task asks the preservice teachers to design a sequence of learning in response to the analysis of the picture book that shows how they would facilitate primary students’ critical interpretation of the issues raised in the picture book (Bradfield & Exley, 2020a). In other words, the preservice teachers consider the challenges and affordances of their choice, and decide how to support the text’s use in a primary school classroom. In this way, the process of transformed practice is offered, with the application of learning being transferred from the text itself to a situated practice. At this stage, creativity and innovation are required to turn the analysis into a story of classroom practice. This story is not communicated through lesson plans, but is instead told in a way that the students choose, with the framework of access (How will you prepare the learners for the reading event?), comprehension (How will you support the learners throughout the reading event?), and response (How will the learners demonstrate their learning?). With a focus of the design being to justify their pedagogical decisions, the preservice teachers are also evaluating their choices.

The course at Monash University illustrates again how the four practices of multiliteracies pedagogy—situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice—are not linear but iterative and interconnected. Situated practice is evident as preservice teachers draw on their life experiences and connections with texts throughout the module and into the assessment task. Overt instruction is employed through the explicit teaching of metalanguage, providing necessary scaffolding as is appropriate for the cohort in each tutorial. Critical framing is incorporated as preservice teachers analyse and question the sociocultural contexts and power dynamics of the texts as demonstrations of classroom practice and then as they design activities for the school classroom. Finally, transformed practice is demonstrated as preservice teachers apply their new understanding in creative and innovative ways, designing learning sequences that facilitate critical interpretation. This seamless movement across the four practices highlights their interconnectivity, allowing for a comprehensive and flexible approach to literacy education.

5. Conclusions

In writing this paper, we acknowledge the intersection of two indeterminacies, firstly that some of our preservice teachers demonstrated adverse reactions to some of the postmodern picture books we used in our courses. In our thematic analysis we identified that some of our preservice teachers were resistant to engaging with political and social themes and were seemingly unfamiliar with postmodern picture books that covered complex issues like racism and the refugee experience. We learnt that these preservice teachers preferred to focus on teaching traditional literacy skills and sharing texts with clear endings. Yet, within the context of our preservice teaching, the Australian Curriculum: English (see Bradfield, 2017) requires teachers to design learning experiences that engage students “imaginatively and critically with literature” and to use literature to “explore ideas and perspectives about human experience and cultural significance, interpersonal relationships, and ethical and global issues within real-world and fictional settings” (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2025). We used the new knowledge derived from the thematic analysis of our experiences to respond to the second indeterminacy that focused on the design of courses for the preservice teachers. We took seriously what our preservice teachers were telling us about their reflections on the postmodern picture books we shared with them. Using the theory of a pedagogy of multiliteracies as an analytical lens, we identified that both courses are strongly committed to working to engage preservice teachers with the transformative potential of postmodern picture books (Bradfield, 2017), critical literacy (Alford et al., 2021; Vasquez, 2013), and employing the new grammar of the Australian Curriculum: English (Exley & Kervin, 2013; Exley et al., 2015) to critical ends. Whilst both courses had much in common, a core difference lies in the timing of the course offering and the assessment tasks. As it transpires, there is no evidence that the timing of the course offering was found to have a bearing on the outcomes of the study. At Griffith University, the creation of a video artefact for classroom use consciously deploys multimodality as a major requirement, with critical literacy of multimodal texts as the focus. At Monash University, the assessment task is situated within a wicked problem that needs solving. Each of these differences are firmly in alignment with the pedagogy of multiliteracies as advanced by the New London Group (1996). As the assessment results show, both approaches achieve high-quality outcomes for preservice teachers. Our preservice teachers have also told us (either in person or in the written end-of-course feedback) that they have moved from a place of not knowing, resistance, and critique to one where they can articulate their understandings of postmodern picture books as “social, cultural and historical documents” (Pantaleo, 2014) and demonstrate a range of effective pedagogical applications. Similarly to the research by Youngs and Kyser (2020), which found that instruction on reading multimodal texts can influence the depth and creativity of preservice teachers’ responses, our new modules enhance preservice teachers’ analytical and creative skills as they design learning and teaching aligned with the Australian Curriculum: English in the primary years.

Our small-scale study highlights the importance of intentional, critically informed pedagogical design in preservice teacher courses that aim to prepare preservice teachers for the complexities of contemporary literacy education. Our findings suggest that while postmodern picture books can initially provoke adverse reactions, they also offer powerful opportunities for transformation when embedded within a pedagogy of multiliteracies. For teacher educators in Australia and internationally, this underscores the need to move beyond traditional, skills-based approaches and embrace literature as a vehicle for engaging with ethical, cultural, and global issues. However, in an era of increasing standardisation and accountability in schools, such practices may be seen as peripheral or even risky in preservice teacher education. We argue that rather than retreating from complexity, preservice teacher educators must advocate for curriculum designs that foreground critical literacy, multimodality, and culturally responsive pedagogies. Doing so not only aligns with curriculum mandates like the Australian Curriculum: English, but also equips future teachers to navigate and respond to the diverse realities of their students’ lives.

Future research work could consider the ongoing work of our preservice teachers as they transition out of their preservice teaching experience and into schools as early career teachers. A more comprehensive data base of their practices and reflections would also address some of the limitations of our research. Introducing a longitudinal component into the research would allow for a detailed analysis of how these early career educators continue to adapt their teaching over time to keep pace with the complexities of modern literacy landscapes and the different communities in which they teach. This approach to research could provide valuable insights into the long-term effectiveness of our course design, pedagogical approaches, and the evolving nature of literacy education for preservice teachers.