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The Human Elements of Child Story Books

Received: 24 January 2019     Accepted: 18 March 2019     Published: 20 May 2019
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Abstract

Research has established that the transfer of knowledge is facilitated by similarity between the context in which the information is learned and the context in which it is to be applied. However, many learning contexts designed for young children reduce the similarity between learning and transfer by using fantasy contexts and or fantasy characters to teach information that is meant to be applied in the real world. Among this context the representation of human in the story plot Is an important focus thus, the general objective of this study is to assess the representation of human in Ethiopian child story books. To conduct a content analysis 30 teacher in 6 preschools rated the story books they mostly used to read or refer for story telling for children. Through this method the top rated 12 books were selected for analysis which contains a total of 97 stories. The finding indicates that majority of the story’s 60 (61.83%) bases their story’s animal vs animal character, 31 (31.95%) of the story mentioned about the family type. Among which 13 (41.93%) of them are two parents, 14 (45.16%) of single parent of which 8 (57.14%) of them are single mom and 6 (42.86%) single dad. Regarding child representation only 18 (18.75%) of them involve children in the character of the story. Finally, the finding indicates 7 (7.21%) of the story portrayed people with special need as their central character. Among which only 2 (28.57%) of story represented people with special need in a appositive way. Thus, human representations in child story books are less emphasized and many focuses are given to the anthropomorphism character.

Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 7, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijla.20190702.11
Page(s) 38-42
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2019. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Child, Family, Human Element, Special Need, Story Book

References
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[2] Richert, A. R (2009) Learning from Fantasy and Real Characters in Preschool and Kindergarten. journal of cognition and development, 10(1–2): 41–66 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
[3] Burke, C. L and Copenhaver, G, J (2004) Animals as People in Children’s Literature. Language Arts, Vol. 81 No. 3.
[4] Ganea et al (2014) Do cavies talk? The effect of anthropomorphic picture books on children's Knowledge about animal. Front Psychol, volume 5.
[5] Turnbull, A., Turnbull, R., Erwin, E., & Soodak, L. (2006). Families, professionals, and exceptionality: positive outcomes through partnerships and trust (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Merrill/Prentice Hall.
[6] Buhrmester & Furman (1990). Perceptions of sibling relationships during middle childhood and adolescence. Child Development, 61, 1387-1398.
[7] Volling, B. L. (2003). Sibling relationships. Well-being: Positive development across the life course (pp. 205-220). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
[8] Lam, C. B., Solmeyer, A. R. & McHale, S. M. (2012). Sibling Relationships and Empathy across The Transition to Adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 41, 1657-1670.
[9] Olsson, I. & Roll-Pettersson, L. (2012). ‘No no, you cannot say that!’ Perceptions and experiences of parents of preschool children with intellectual disabilities in Sweden. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 27(1), 69-80.
[10] Avgustina Martirosyan (2013) Sibling Relationships in Families with a Child with Special Needs. Master’s Dissertation Department of Special Needs of Education Faculty Educational Sciences university of Oslo.
[11] Blaska, Joan K. (2004) “Children’s Literature That Includes Characters with Disabilities or Illnesses.” Disability Studies Quarterly 24(1). http://dsqsds.org/article/view/854/1029.
[12] Volling, B. L and Blandon, Y. A (2003) Positive Indicators of Sibling Relationship Quality: Psychometric Analyses of The Sibling Inventory of Behavior (SIB).
[13] Simret Wondirad (2009). aspects of Ethiopian culture as reflected in Ethiopian children's literature in English. a thesis of Addis Ababa university school of graduate studies institute of language studies.
[14] Central statistic authority (CSA) (2014) Ethiopia Demographics Profile.
[15] Borduin, et al (1990) Development of the Concept of Family in Elementary School Children. The Journal of Genetic Psychology Research and Theory on Human Development Volume 151, 1990 - Issue 1.
[16] Jeltova, & Fish (2005). Creating school environments responsive to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender families: Traditional and systemic ap- poaches for consultation. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation.
[17] Strohm, K. (2002). Siblings: Brothers and Sisters of Children with Special Needs. South Australia: Wakefield Press.
[18] Dutch coalition on disability and development (DCDD) (2018). Ethiopia: definition, numbers & types.
[19] Ministry of education (MOE) (2005). Ethiopian ministry of education report.
Cite This Article
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    Alebachew Mohammed Legas. (2019). The Human Elements of Child Story Books. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 7(2), 38-42. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20190702.11

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    ACS Style

    Alebachew Mohammed Legas. The Human Elements of Child Story Books. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2019, 7(2), 38-42. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20190702.11

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    AMA Style

    Alebachew Mohammed Legas. The Human Elements of Child Story Books. Int J Lit Arts. 2019;7(2):38-42. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20190702.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijla.20190702.11,
      author = {Alebachew Mohammed Legas},
      title = {The Human Elements of Child Story Books},
      journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
      volume = {7},
      number = {2},
      pages = {38-42},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20190702.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20190702.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20190702.11},
      abstract = {Research has established that the transfer of knowledge is facilitated by similarity between the context in which the information is learned and the context in which it is to be applied. However, many learning contexts designed for young children reduce the similarity between learning and transfer by using fantasy contexts and or fantasy characters to teach information that is meant to be applied in the real world. Among this context the representation of human in the story plot Is an important focus thus, the general objective of this study is to assess the representation of human in Ethiopian child story books. To conduct a content analysis 30 teacher in 6 preschools rated the story books they mostly used to read or refer for story telling for children. Through this method the top rated 12 books were selected for analysis which contains a total of 97 stories. The finding indicates that majority of the story’s 60 (61.83%) bases their story’s animal vs animal character, 31 (31.95%) of the story mentioned about the family type. Among which 13 (41.93%) of them are two parents, 14 (45.16%) of single parent of which 8 (57.14%) of them are single mom and 6 (42.86%) single dad. Regarding child representation only 18 (18.75%) of them involve children in the character of the story. Finally, the finding indicates 7 (7.21%) of the story portrayed people with special need as their central character. Among which only 2 (28.57%) of story represented people with special need in a appositive way. Thus, human representations in child story books are less emphasized and many focuses are given to the anthropomorphism character.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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    AU  - Alebachew Mohammed Legas
    Y1  - 2019/05/20
    PY  - 2019
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20190702.11
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    T2  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
    JF  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
    JO  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
    SP  - 38
    EP  - 42
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2331-057X
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20190702.11
    AB  - Research has established that the transfer of knowledge is facilitated by similarity between the context in which the information is learned and the context in which it is to be applied. However, many learning contexts designed for young children reduce the similarity between learning and transfer by using fantasy contexts and or fantasy characters to teach information that is meant to be applied in the real world. Among this context the representation of human in the story plot Is an important focus thus, the general objective of this study is to assess the representation of human in Ethiopian child story books. To conduct a content analysis 30 teacher in 6 preschools rated the story books they mostly used to read or refer for story telling for children. Through this method the top rated 12 books were selected for analysis which contains a total of 97 stories. The finding indicates that majority of the story’s 60 (61.83%) bases their story’s animal vs animal character, 31 (31.95%) of the story mentioned about the family type. Among which 13 (41.93%) of them are two parents, 14 (45.16%) of single parent of which 8 (57.14%) of them are single mom and 6 (42.86%) single dad. Regarding child representation only 18 (18.75%) of them involve children in the character of the story. Finally, the finding indicates 7 (7.21%) of the story portrayed people with special need as their central character. Among which only 2 (28.57%) of story represented people with special need in a appositive way. Thus, human representations in child story books are less emphasized and many focuses are given to the anthropomorphism character.
    VL  - 7
    IS  - 2
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Author Information
  • Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, Debre Tabor University, Debre Tabor, Ethiopia

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