Green Dialogues
Teacher training in environmental children’s literature through dialogic teaching practices
A collaborative project connecting environmental children’s literature, ecocritical thinking, sustainable development, student and staff mobility, and dialogic teaching across three European universities.
The project Green Dialogues was developed through collaboration between Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, University of Padova, and Universitat Internacional de Catalunya. It aimed to strengthen research, teaching, student mobility, and staff mobility through theoretical and didactic perspectives on children’s literature connected to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Contemporary children’s literature has developed a growing interest in the interconnectedness between humans and the environment in the ongoing exchange and negotiation of ways to be in the world. These directions challenge teachers of children’s literature in higher education and call for teaching practices that connect close reading, material engagement, dialogue, and environmental responsibility.
Green Dialogues applied and exchanged innovative dialogic approaches to children’s literature education. The project worked across teacher education programmes and created opportunities for international exchange, joint teaching, research collaboration, seminars, conferences, and the development of classroom activities.
International project funded by the NOTED Programme, Norwegian Partnership Programme for International Teacher Education.
The project connected teacher education with international mobility, shared coursework, research collaboration, and public academic exchange across the three partner universities.
A shared 30 CFU exchange framework
The programme supported students in teacher education, with particular attention to fourth and fifth year students in Primary Education at the University of Padova.
- Sustainable Literacy and Environmental Children’s Literature
- Environmental Children’s Literature and Teaching English as a Foreign Language
- Sustainability, New Materialism, Imagination, and Sustainable Cultural Diversity
Study, internship, and thesis mobility
Students could combine study mobility with opportunities to complete an internship or thesis project abroad within the Green Dialogues network.
The historical 2023/2024 Erasmus+ call offered eight study places: four at HVL in Bergen and four at UIC Barcelona.
Lectures, seminars, and joint research
The project also supported visiting lectures, seminars, conferences, staff exchange, joint teaching, and the development of future international research projects and publications.
View the original project recordThe most recent project outcome is an open access volume that gathers the project background, theoretical framework, and fifteen activities for dialogic work with children’s literature.
The Green Dialogues: Ecocritical Pathways to Children’s Literature in Education
Campagnaro, M., Ferrari, L., Goga, N., Graell, M., Pujol Valls, M., Stengrundet, E., and Ulland, G. Springer Nature, Springer Texts in Education.
The volume presents the Green Dialogues project and includes fifteen step by step activities addressing ecocritical literacy, dialogic teaching, sustainability, critical citizenship, inclusion, and visual literacy.
Selected milestones from the international project record, including mobility, symposia, dissemination, and the final publication outcome.
Open access project book
The Green Dialogues: Ecocritical Pathways to Children’s Literature in Education was published by Springer Nature.
Presentation at IRSCL Conference 2025
The project was presented at the International Research in Children’s Literature conference in Salamanca.
Final seminar in Barcelona
The final seminar included a school visit and workshop, extending the project’s dialogue between teacher education, children’s literature, and educational practice.
Three day symposium in Padova
Networking, tool development, workshops, and meetings with students were held in Padova.
Three day symposium in Bergen
Networking, tool development, workshops, and meetings with students were held in Bergen.
The existing project publications remain available below. Two further outputs have been added from the partner dissemination record and the Padova research repository.
25 empowering books to face and act upon the current environmental emergencies
Goga, N., Stengrundet, E., and Ulland, G. The article presents a Green Dialogues literature activity linking twenty five children’s books with twenty five objects to invite dialogue about nature, climate, equality, rights, inclusion, and activism.
Read the articleTra boschi, foreste e giardini
Silvestrini, G. Ecocritical Dialogues and Children’s Literature: A Comparative Case between Norway and Italy. The thesis examines dialogic reading, environmental awareness, and primary school work in the Green Dialogues framework.
View repository recordChildren’s Literature, Ecocritical Dialogues and Social Emotional Learning
Campagnaro, M. and Ferrari, L. Developing Integrated Teaching Practices. Excellence and Innovation in Learning and Teaching, 9(1).
Read the articlePicturebook dialogues about environmental and social injustice
Goga, N., Pujol Valls, M., Agostini, R., Carolo, D., Nai, G., Silvestrini, G., and Sardella, I. Five experience based teaching plans connect literature activities with environmental and social justice.
View the DOI recordMaterial Green Entanglements
Campagnaro, M. and Goga, N. Research on student teachers’ aesthetic and ecocritical engagement with picturebooks of their own choice. International Research in Children’s Literature, 15(3), 308 to 322.
Read the articleGreen Dialogues and Digital Collaboration on Nonfiction Children’s Literature
Campagnaro, M. and Goga, N. Journal of Literary Education, 4, 96 to 114. DOI 10.7203/JLE.4.21019.
Read the articleEcocritical Engagement with Picturebook through Literature Conversations
Goga, N. and Pujol Valls, M. Ecocritical engagement with Beatrice Alemagna’s On a Magical Do Nothing Day. Sustainability, 2020, 7653.
Read the articleSelected dissemination activities connect the project’s research with public conversations, teacher education, and literary engagement.
Interview with Nina Goga and Marnie Campagnaro
Come parlano di ambiente i libri di letteratura per l’infanzia? discusses ecocritical approaches, environmental children’s literature, shared reading, and inclusive dialogue.
Read the interviewDialogue, Politics, and Activism
Nina Goga delivered an invited online lecture on children’s literature and environmental issues at the Centre for Research on Children’s and Young Adult Literature, University of Wrocław.
View partner recordTra foglie e fogli
Tra foglie e fogli: passeggiate nella natura letteraria d’infanzia brought together an exhibition, guided tours, reading aloud, botanical awareness, and student creativity.
View partner recordDigital and downloadable resources connected to the project remain available for research, teaching, and further exploration.
Green Dialogues digital collection
Access the Green Dialogues digital collection through the University of Padova library discovery system.
The project in detail
Background, research activity, mobility information, project team, and the original Green Dialogues blog link.
Open project detailsGreen Dialogues Seminar Bibliography
The bibliography prepared for the Green Dialogues seminar remains available as a downloadable PDF.
Download bibliographySelected conferences, seminars, and teaching activities connected with the Green Dialogues project in Padova.
Nature Agency
International conference on children’s literature, environmental imagination, and ecopedagogy.
Open activity record
Green Dialogues Seminar
È difficile riempire un piccolo libro coi pensieri degli alberi. Dialoghi e pratiche educative con gli albi illustrati a scuola.
Open activity recordGreen Dialogues was developed through collaboration between the following institutions.
