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Research on children's rights very often deals with the legal aspects of their rights, based on perceived protection and provisioning needs, and focussed on deficiencies in children's lives. There is obviously a place for such considerations. It is rare however for writers on children's rights to deal with the personal, ontological and moral rights of children in a principled way. This study aims to address this deficit and reveal the axiomatic and essential rights of children in their home setting. The standing of children's rights in the Republic of South Africa (RSA) is reviewed. Although the primary focus will be on the South African situation, it will be illuminated by references to cogent international experience and positions, apposite to the prosecution and theme of this study. This is appropriate, as South Africa is integral to the international initiatives and imperatives in human rights, especially as they apply to children. In terms of the South African state, children's rights have been given formal recognition in the Constitution, as well as in laws and policies flowing there from. It is noted that there may be deficiencies in the implementation and realisation of these rights in practice, however. Only a fraction of children's rights apply in the public sector. Children live their lives predominantly in the home and so the realisation of their rights very often comes down to the attitudes and actions of their parents, in a horizontal application of the Bill of Rights. This study explores what rights children should be bestowed by their parents in their home and according to what values and criteria. The traditional and emerging roles of parents are considered, as they relate to the realisation of rights by their children. The evolution of the concept of childhood is explicated, including social change advocacy and social movements designed to assist children to realise their rights optimally. This study is not based on legal rights per se, but is predicated on an ontological vision of personhood, as it applies to children. Instead of natural rights, the fundamental and universal values that underlie human rights are considered. These values include respect for person, dignity , equality, autonomy, freedom and justice for children in their relationships with their parents. In order to generate the debate on children's rights in the home, two exemplars are considered, based on first principles and fundamental, axiological values. The first exemplar is the child's right not to receive corporal punishment from parents. The second exemplar considers the child's right to realise freedom of religion in the home, including the right to hold different religious beliefs from his or her parents, and to act on these beliefs, in contradistinction to the religion espoused by his or her parents. The thesis contained in this study is that children's rights can only be realised and assured if parents treat their children as persons of worth and dignity, and raise them to become fully functioning adults. The concept of an 'enlightened parent' is critical, if children are to realise their rights. Enlightened parenting involves a lifetime of support and education by parents in order to assist their children to achieve their own special ends as persons. The concept of an 'enlightened parent' is proposed as the portal through which children's rights will be realised. An 'enlightened parent', as the ideal type of parent, should form the basis on which an advocacy campaign should be mounted to enhance the realisation of children's rights in the private domain. The values implicit in an 'enlightened parent' are briefly sketched, incorporating critical values such as tolerance, good will, respect, care, concern and unconditional positive regard. These are the relational values between parents and children that will deliver the human rights values, and therefore ensure, in effect, the accomplishment of children's rights. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

Objective: To complete an integrative review of the studies on pediatric chronic illness utilizing the Children's Hope Scale to determine the association between hope and thechronically ill child. Method: A comprehensive review of PubMed, PsycINFO, Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, The Cochrane Library, ProQuest, and Dissertations Theses was completed. Titles were reviewed, selected abstracts were then assessed, and full papers were obtained. Results: Ten studies were found which met the specified inclusion criteria: participants less than or equal to 19 years of age, an illness of more than three months in duration, and hope measured by the Children's Hope Scale. The studies found some support for the positive effect of hope for children with chronic illness, but more research needs to be done with larger samples. Conclusion: This integrative review supports the positive impact of hope on the chronically ill child and the need for additional research on the role of hope in the chronically ill child.

The present study investigates Asia’s first Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s (1861-1941) writings for children, situating his work in the tumultuous time of colonial India marching towards independence. The study makes an original contribution to Tagore scholarship and the field of children’s literature arguing that Tagore’s designated protagonist, the Bengali child, subverts social and political structures of power and authority, and is a vehicle for the author’s hopes for future. The discourse of Tagore’s literature for children posits, hopes for, and construes an implied child reader - the imagined nation’s future citizens. His constructions of childhood, the study claims, are symbolic, oscillating between the reflective and the transformative and synthesising the author’s intentions, fears, desires, values and attitudes towards childhood. In order to reach its overarching conclusions, the present study has considered the political and social contexts of the original production of the texts which is reflected in the study’s theoretical assumption - the historicist reading of childhood informed by postcolonial and power-oriented theories of children’s literature. Close reading of a selection of Tagore’s writings for children suggest that Tagore’s own ideologies about childhood were decisively shaped by the colonial time and the colonised place in which he lived, and his images of childhood concentrate on physical landscapes of the indigenous Bengal in order to construct an imagined decolonised landscape, and form consciousness of national identity. The present study has also argued that Tagore’s fictional world(s) of children are a result of restorative re-imagining and re-inventing, not just manifestation of his personal grief and experiences. Additionally, Tagore has employed fictive children for a variety of conflicting and complementary uses: mighty and empowered children in fantasy critique fascist regimentation, but their images are juxtaposed elsewhere with realistic portrayals of helpless and disempowered children who are unable to seek agency against societal oppression. Tagore’s persistent but persuasive portrayals of uninspired children in mechanised colonial education and of coercive teachers and teaching methods illuminate his educational ideologies and confirm a prescriptive authorial presence in the narrative. Yet, the present study has contended that Tagore’s imagined childhood is an empowered time and space in which fictive children are able to acquire agency and self-awareness through a variety of pleasurable and unpleasurable experiences, functioning as a democratic channel where child-adult power relations are constantly being negotiated.

Allow me to introduce you to AN ELEPHANT'S STANDING IN THERE, a whimsical story about an elephant standing in a little boy's bedroom that I wrote for my children many years ago. Though my kids have grown up themselves, I've held on to this tale because of the wonderful memories my family and I shared while reading it together. After stumbling back onto the story roughly a year ago while going through some old things, an idea popped into my head. My daughter, a lovely young lady named Kody, had heard this story many times when she was a young girl. She had also developed an exceptional talent for illustration. I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be fun if Kody illustrated our story for other families to share?" And that, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what we've done. From my family to yours, we sincerely hope you enjoy AN ELEPHANT'S STANDING IN THERE, the first in what Kody and I hope will be a long series of stories for children. --Scott / https://dc.etsu.edu/alumni_books/1030/thumbnail.jpg

The aim of this study is to examine the tension between 'commerce and culture' in the dynamic development of the Australian children's publishing industry, within the wider context of international children's publishing history. It aims to refute a commonly stated 'truism' - that the conflict between the cultural value of a book and the need to market it threatens the integrity of the authors, publishers and the books themselves. Instead, it demonstrates that the tension between cultural and commercial definitions of the book publisher's role lies at the heart of the dynamism which has fuelled the development of a publishing climate, and created really innovative publishing. Publishing has too often been examined as if the sole motive of the publisher should be to produce books of quality, and though this is certainly the primary objective of the publishers which are the focus in this study, it is imperative to recognize that the dissemination of 'quality' literature and cultural product has always been dependent upon the recognition of commercial strategies which are often naively dismissed as being opportunistic and even extraneous to the publisher's purpose. As this thesis endeavours to show, the pioneering efforts of John Newbery, the Religious Tract Society, E.W. Cole, Ward, Lock & Co., and Australia's first publisher Angus & Robertson and of later publishers such as Penguin, Scholastic, Lothian, Omnibus, Allen & Unwin and others, were founded just as much upon the shrewd recognition of a viable market as they were upon the aim to enrich young readers' lives. In fact it is the symbiotic partnership between these two objectives which has fuelled their successes and their failures. It is where publishers either steer a path paved only with good intentions or one paved entirely with gold that their enterprises generally falter. The study owes a significant debt to the achievements of those who have documented Australian children's publishing 'output' so assiduously - Maurice Saxby's groundbreaking histories (1969, 1971, 1993) and Marcie Muir and Kerry White's comprehensive bibliographical tools (1982, 1992). Contrary to those endeavours, though, this study'goes back-stage' to the area where the publishing 'action' happens. Consequently it does not provide a comprehensive overview of every publication or author; it does not cover every genre and style. Rather it is concerned to document the activities of publishers which have produced books for children in Australia, in brief, and to isolate key examples of publishing enterprises within this coverage which represent 'case studies' of the different types of companies which have played a successful part in publishing development. This work is intended to be of interest not simply to either children's literature or Australian literature theorists, but to book historians, and to media, cultural studies and entertainment industry theorists. It was based on a belief that cultural histories of this nature are valuable in tracking the growth of a society and also in demonstrating that creative endeavours are never simply that. They are the result of a complex interweaving of a variety of factors, and that therefore artists approach creativity 'at their peril' without first understanding something of the world into which they are entrusting their creations. Consequently there were several objectives in the study which were to: 1. contextualize Australian children's publishing within a history of children's publishing internationally, with particular reference to early commercial beginnings in Britain and to British Empire developments, but also with appropriate reference to growth in the USA; 2. contextualize Australian children's publishing within the broader range and expansion of the book publishing industry in Australia, particularly the latter's economic growth and cultural influence since WWII, but also including an overview of foundational developments from the nineteenth century; 3. contextualize Australian children's publishing within social, educational and cultural developments, such as the development of education programs, the expansion of public and school libraries, the changes in government policy related to children and books, shifting social attitudes towards the child, and the impact of entertainment and media industries; 4. examine the roles played by various individuals, especially publishers, managers, editors, marketers, booksellers, librarians, teachers and professional commentators in the development of the Australian children's publishing industry. Their roles will be analysed in the context of various industry-particular questions such as a) the oft-remarked upon tensions that exist in publishing, between for example, 'craft-like' and bureaucratic structures; b) the interplay between 'structure and agency' in the industry; c) the shift from a 'library market' to a 'mass market' under such influences as globalization and media; d) whether publishing is necessarily more 'Australian' if it is done by independent, rather than multinational companies; and e) the influence that the 'internal' structure of publishing has had on its development, e.g. the isolation of children's publishing from the mainstream, the predominance of women as agents in its development, and so on; 5. finally, discuss the implications of globalization since the 1970s, and posit future directions in the production, marketing and consumption of children's properties. This study examines the industry from a critical perspective relying not on the evaluation of quality as opposed to mass market literature, but viewing all forms of trade literature for children as part of a dynamic whole. It therefore traces the origins of publishing in English-language countries briefly first before examining the Australian situation, and shows that from the very beginning, publications for children have been the products of both altruistic and profit-driven objectives. It concentrates on the post-WWII period, on certain key enterprises and trends which have been particularly successful, suggesting that those publishing houses and those individuals within them who 'balance' commerce and culture with the most skill, are those who succeed in making 'good' books readily accessible to those for whom they have been created. This thesis celebrates the fact that children's publishers have always demonstrated an admirable combination of opportunism and idealism, the two characteristics which are essential to a successful publishing company. Australia has been fortunate in rearing several enterprising individuals whose early publishing attempts laid the ground for the currently successful houses. Without E.W. Cole, William Steele at Ward, Lock and Co., Frank Eyre at Oxford University Press, Andrew Fabinyi at Cheshire, Barbara Ker Wilson at Angus & Robertson, Anne Bower Ingram at William Collins, the later successes of key individuals at Penguin Books Australia, Scholastic Australia, Allen & Unwin, Lothian Books and Omnibus Books and countless others may not have been planted in such fertile ground. This study predicts that the future of Australian children's publishing lies in the recognition of the essential role played by commercial instincts in shaping cultural endeavours.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

Diss. Karlstad : Karlstads universitet, 2009.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-143).

Thesis (Ed. D.) in Literacy Education--University of Maine, 2001. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 304-318).