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This 3-month long, participatory-action research study with 19 college freshmen exposed students to children's literature selections hoping to initiate dialogue on social justice. The following questions guided the study: 1) How do students in a freshman writing course at a small, private liberal arts college initially perceive social justice? 2) How will critical reading of children's literature texts impact students' perceptions of social justice? 3) How do students self-identified as preservice teachers differ from the remainder of class members in relation to the first 2 questions? Data included 152 short narratives, 19 long narratives, field notes of the primary researcher and the student research assistant, and a group interview transcript. Findings included the following themes: a) Students and teachers should interact dialogically on their own cultural backgrounds as they consider their social justice perceptions; b) It is possible to go beyond the "tunnel" vision of prejudice and see "difference" as a positive attribute; c) All students, but particularly preservice teachers, need to wrestle with how they "fit" into a larger world context and teacher education should provide this critical opportunity; d) Personal, critical reflection on texts and discussion within a caring, secure environment can foster change; and e) Students embrace change as they hope to avoid becoming "stagnant." The findings serve to explicate the research theories on building caring classroom communities (Noddings, 2003), transformational learning opportunities (Hooks,1994; Villegas & Lucas, 2002), the use of text to drive change (Rosenblatt, 1995; Trites, 1997; Vandergrift, 1993; Zipes, 2001), and the value of dialogue on social justice topics to preservice teachers and others (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Lowery, 2002; Marshall & Oliva, 2006). / Ph. D.

This research examines changes in the depiction of Muslims in Islamic-themed children's literature over two time strata, one decade before and one decade after the events of September 11, 2001. Random sampling with replacement across the two strata yielded a total sample of 59 books, examined at three coding levels: bibliographic data, story/plot data (genre, rural/urban setting, time epoch, conflict type, conflict context, religious instruction), and primary character data (age, culture/ethnicity, and gender). Content is examined using both quantitative comparisons of manifest characteristics and qualitative comparison of emergent themes. Mann-Whitney U tests revealed no statistically significant changes regarding the quantities of manifest features, while additional qualitative analyses suggest six substantive latent thematic changes identified with respect to genre (3), time epoch/setting (1), conflict type (1), and gender related to conflict type (1). Regarding genre, while the quantity of books with humor, with Arabic glossary additions and those employing non-fiction are consistent, the kinds of humor, the nature of glossaria and the subject focus of non-fictions are believed to have changed. With respect to a story's setting, shifts are identified in the treatment of rural and urban spaces, even while most books continue to be set in rural locales. Finally, with respect to a story's conflict type and the primary characters engaged in that conflict, it is believed that changes are evident with respect to self-versus-self conflict type and that female characters are generally lacking in stories of self-identity discovery. / Master of Science

Changing the existing framework for how schools operate and the "deficit frame of reference" for students of color begins with teacher awareness of differing social and cultural norms and values that privilege some and oppress others (Villegas and Lucas, 2002). These normalized cultural values are exacerbated by the fact that they are generally "invisible" to the white teacher majority. Quaye (2012) and Zuniga et al. (2002) use the term "consciousness-raising" to describe the process of developing an awareness of these norms and values. Using a Critical Race Theory lens, this study aimed to capture the process of "consciousness-raising" in a white teacher book club examining ten different African American children's picture books. The study design was supported by an Intergroup Dialogue model, developed by Zuniga et al. (2002) and adapted for white facilitators by Quaye (2012). Data Analysis was guided by a continuum of white racial identity developed by Helms (1990) and modified by Lawrence and Tatum (1998). Transcripts of participant narratives were analyzed for signs of status change along the continuum and each teacher demonstrated varying degrees of socio-cultural awareness. The researcher journal was analyzed to capture reflections on the Intergroup Dialogue Model for facilitation. Principal findings of the study include the replication of themes found in the existing whiteness literature as well as the value and limitations of the continuum of white racial identity as a tool for analysis. / Ph. D.

Financial responsibility within the United States volleys between the individual and outside agencies frequently; however, the uninformed individual suffers financially as a result. Integrating concepts of personal finance and children's literature together will promote life-sustaining habits of personal finance and will likely lessen the prevalence of a culture that does not stress financial literacy. / Master of Arts

My studies consider the genre of children's literature, specifically picture books, and their treatment of the topic of diabetes. I frame my argument with an examination of diabetes, the psychological effects of diabetes on the child, the need of thorough education about diabetes. I argue for the use of the picture book as an effect tool in educating and socializing the diabetic child. I first explore the implications of diabetes and the long term complications caused by one's poor control of the disease. I then explore the psychological ramifications of a chronic illness on the young child. Next I assert the need to combine the physiological and psychological factors of diabetes into a responsible text for children, one which both serves as an educating tool and a source of comfort in difficult times with the disease. I conclude my studies with critiques of existing materials in the limited genre and compare them to the story I have written for children about diabetes. / Master of Arts

The purpose of this study is to explore the novels of a highly respected author of young adult literature and to summarize the plots, analyze the themes, and examine the motivations of the characters in a format that would be accessible and useful to the classroom teachers and students who read her novels. The bulk of the document will follow the format of the Twayne Series of Young Adult Writers, a serial publication of biographical information, plot summary, and critical commentary that is standard in many school libraries. Cynthia Voigt's novels are both popular with teachers and students and well-acclaimed by literary critics and scholars of young adult literature. The first chapter outlines Voigt's professional career and the events in her life that affected her writing. The four chapters that follow treat individual novels grouped as they relate to themes of defining a self, balancing commitment to self and family, learning to recognize and value individual differences, and finding the courage to challenge socially conventional expectations. The sixth chapter summarizes Voigt's philosophy of personal development as it is reflected in her writing, and the last chapter suggest strategies which could be applied to Voigt's novels in the classroom. Throughout the analyses of Voigt's novels, critical Opinions and scholarly commentary have been summarized to provide a perspective that is informed by a variety of sources of information about this author's work in particular and about young adult novels in general. / Ed. D.

It is the purpose of this work to compile and organize available material dealing with children's magazines published in the nineteenth century in America, and present it in a usable form.

The thesis identifies cultural indicators of Englishness through an analysis of readings of children's literature texts. These were taught on a children's literature course to Czech student-teachers at the Pedagogical Faculty, Brno in the Czech Republic from 1992 to 1995. The aim has been to identify cultural indicators of Englishness embedded in the texts and to reveal myths of national identity. This has been achieved by using a cross-cultural perspective whereby the Czech readings have been used to identify taken-for-granted aspects of English culture. The outcome has been to provide a paradigm for the exploration of culture in and through children's literature texts and to argue that children's literature should be incorporated into the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language and cultural studies for non-native speakers of English. In addition the methodological implications for the teaching of children's literature texts in the EFL classroom are discussed. The theoretical position which underpins the work is phenomenological in that it is an investigation of meanings. The readings by the Czech students and then the researcher were considered from two theoretical positions. An ethnographic perspective has been employed using the work of Geerz and Cohen to investigate the readings of three cohorts of Czech students who are outsiders to English culture. The reactions of the Czech students to the texts significantly reveal the legacy of the totalitarian system which began to end with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. Literary theory has been applied by the researcher to investigate the texts from an insider's perspective. Reader response theories involving the notion of the implied reader (Iser) and horizons of expectations (Jauss) are adopted to reveal and interrogate a culture's notions of childhood. It is established in the thesis that hitherto a sociological perspective has been taken with children's literature texts in the investigation of ideology with reference to class, race and gender. These have been oppositional readings which locate English children's literature as a site for the socialisation of children into the norms, values and beliefs of dominant society. It is argued in this thesis that by a careful investigation of the texts from a literary perspective and using the cross-cultural information gained, another view might be taken which is that English children's literature texts are less than normalising.

Dissertation--Universität Bochum, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 337-349).