The purpose of this study was to investigate the representation of other cultures in award-winning picture books from the United States, Australia, and Great Britain between 1960 and 2009. Not only was the cultural content of childrens literature over the past fifty years investigated, but the protocol created to evaluate the books was a newly devised instrument that focused on the educational application of the content in the books. The protocol included three levels of analysis of the award-winning picture books. The Level I Analysis determined which books depicted other cultures; that is, cultures that were different from the cultures in the country in which the book was originally published. The Level II Analysis investigated the type of cultural representation found in the books, including depictions of geographic location, social systems, economic systems, and/or political systems. The final analysis (Level III Analysis) identified the genres and themes found in the picture books. Of the 143 books read for this study, only 25 (17%) depicted information about cultures different from those in the country in which the book was originally published. Books from the 2000s had the least amount of cultural representation. Geographic location was the cultural element most often represented in the picture books. Political systems had the least amount of representations in the books. This study addresses the potential for using childrens literature as a medium for cross-cultural awareness and the importance of providing teachers with appropriate tools to critically analyze books with cultural content. Study results might be interpreted as an indication that there is a need for more picture books to be representative of all people and cultures.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-04202011-092604 |
| Date | 13 May 2011 |
| Creators | Hall, Virginia |
| Contributors | Marah Gubar, Linda Kucan, John Meyers, Patricia Crawford |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04202011-092604/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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