Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

6-1981

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major

Curriculum and Instruction

Major Professor

Clinton B Allison

Committee Members

Karl Jost, Lester Knight, Edwin McClain

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the treatment of the social values of achievement and equality in the Newbery Award-winning children's books and in the runners-up for that award during the conservative 1920s and the liberal 1930s. The conceptual framework was derived from Seymour Martin Lipset's thesis that expressions of these values are the cement of American society. He showed that they have been influential throughout American history, that they are strongly interrelated, and that they occur in creative tension, falling occasionally into conflict. Finally he observed that a conservative political era will tend to emphasize achievement in its social and intellectual life while a liberal one will tend to emphasize equality.

The research questions were designed, first, to explore the relationship between the conservatism or liberalism of each political era and the relative emphasis on achievement and equality in prestigious children's books; and, second, to show the developing conceptions of each value throughout both decades.

From this comparative value analysis of the content of the books the following conclusions were drawn:

1. Lipset's observation about the operation of values according to the dominant politics in American life holds. The conservatism of the 1920s and the liberalism of the 1930s, expressed as concern with achievement or equality, is reflected in them. In both decades, however, the other side is also represented.

2. The reflections of the dominant politics in the conservative era are more clear-cut than in the liberal one.

3. The contrast in emphasis on the values within and between the decades is not as strong as their steady interactive development throughout both.

4. The interplay of these values with each other and with their milieu in the 1920s and 1930s produced a steady development in conceptions of each that moved from narrow, traditional views to broader, more liberal ones.

5. The influence of achievement on equality has been a stabilizing one that requires people newly accepted for their intrinsic worth to demonstrate it by external achievement.

6. The influence of equality on achievement has been a creative one that has expanded its sphere of operation, allowed more people to achieve, and stressed cooperation.

7. A second influence of equality on achievement has been to reduce achievement expectations to somewhat less heroic proportions; many accomplishments portrayed are attuned to the occupational needs of modern industrialized society for widely diffused competence as well as for leadership talent.

8. The fact that an anti-egalitarian stereotype is softened or eliminated in one book, as in one sector of society, does not mean that it will necessarily be modified in all later ones.

9. Regardless of changes in definitions of honored achievements or in the background of achievers, the character traits recommended for achievement do not change.

10. The element of literary quality in and of itself has little effect on the presence or absence of the values of equality and achievement.

11. The values of achievement and equality are remarkably pervasive.

The conclusions indicate that in the period studied the books honored by the American Library Association were performing a useful educational function not only as mediators between the child and society but also as reflectors of important American social values.

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