focusing on gender issues in her gender studies course, and Warren (1996) brought her white
students to a community of color with an environmental hazardous facility to teach about
environmental racism. All of them partly answered what to teach and how to teach about
environmental justice. However, few studies have been done focusing on children. In this paper,
children’s literature is used as a way of addressing EJ themes to K-12 students.
WHY CHILDREN’S LITERATURE?
One of the challenges in teaching environmental justice to young students is in relating
the concepts of justice or injustice to students’ life experiences. Fortunately or unfortunately,
many of our students, especially middle- and upper- income youth, are emotionally and
demographically isolated from the extreme poverty and injustice of the world. On the other
hand, some students from marginalized groups are accustomed to the injustice, but may have
little chance to experience the brighter side of the world. Literature can address controversial
issues such as social/environmental justice issues, in a meaningful and less-threatening manner to
both sides’ students (McCall 2004). The outstanding books can most effectively provide a
context for students to critically examine their own world views and also alternative ways of
understanding the world and social relations (Kruse 2002).
According to Moller’s research on the effect of group discussions of literature with
Convention