Engaging Student Teachers in Indigenous Children’s Literature Through the Picturebook Fry Bread. A Native American Family Story: A Mixed Methods Study

Abstract Teaching with literature from an action-oriented perspective has become increasingly popular in language education. Intercultural awareness should also be a key consideration, with literature by Indigenous authors offering rich opportunities for this purpose. By narrating an implementation of the picturebook Fry Bread. A Native American Family Story (2019)—written by Seminole author Kevin Noble Maillard and illustrated by Juana Martínez Neal—in teacher education, this mixed methods study demonstrates the feasibility of incorporating Indigenous picturebooks in English language teaching (ELT). The experience took place at the University of València, the Complutense University of Madrid, and the University of Alicante with students of Primary and Preschool in two iterative cycles during the academic years 2022–2023 and 2023–2024. Fry Bread . A Native American Family Story frames a poem with 12 stanzas, which turned into the 12 headings the story contains (“Fry Bread is Food,” “Fry Bread is Shape,” “Fry Bread is Sound,” “Fry Bread is History,” etc.). By connecting with the different aspects of Indigenous knowledge, the story poignantly illustrates that student teachers worked to create learning scenarios focusing on the various headings, following the reading-aloud structure (Ellis & Brewster, 1991). Considering the study results, this pedagogical experience has served to broaden the intercultural perspectives of the participants and has impacted their learning process in ELT.