An analysis of illustrated children's books prepared for preschool children in terms of sustainable development goals

This study aims to investigate the inclusion of sustainable development goals determined by the United Nations Development Programme-UNDP in the illustrated children's books published for preschool children, and the document analysis method was used to describe the nature of illustrated children's books. The sample of the study consisted of 100 children's picture books published for preschool children. The "Sustainable Development Goals and Objectives Form" prepared by the researcher was used as a data collection tool. The books were analyzed according to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals determined by the United Nations and 169 targets under these goals. As a result of this analysis, the goals and targets were found to be available in 42 out of 100 books. Although these 42 books included just 11 out of the 17 goals of sustainable development, no data could be obtained for 6 of the goals. Among the 17 goals, most of the findings were related to "Life on Land" and "Sustainable Cities and Communities", and these findings were found in 15 out of these 100 books. There are 169 targets under the Sustainable Development Goals. In the analysis, findings were obtained for only 24 of these targets. Among the 169 targets, the item "Ensuring access to safe and inclusive green spaces and public spaces" was found to be the most relevant. This item was mentioned in 15 of the books. In order to teach sustainable development goals to children through books, publishing houses can work on publishing books that touch upon sustainable development goals. Parents and preschool teachers can learn sustainable development goals and prefer to purchase books that include these sustainable development goals.