Doctoral Dissertations
Date of Award
12-1996
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
Human Ecology
Major Professor
Sandra Twardosz
Committee Members
Mick Nordquist, Melissa Groves. Mariea Hoy
Abstract
Books depicting various ethnic groups, multiethnic books, are provided for children for a number of philosophical reasons, such as to promote acceptance of diversity; however, there is an absence of empirical research that has examined their use. The purpose of this study was to explore the story-related topics of discussion initiated by preschoolers as they used multiethnic books. It was hypothesized that topics involving the children’s current understanding of - and attempts to further understand - diversity might emerge in their discussions. In addition to books depicting only white characters (Euro- American), two categories of multiethnic books were used: Culturally Conscious, depicting a specific ethnic group in an accurate way; and Diversity Explicit, depicting a variety of ethnic groups and containing text that specifically addresses diversity issues. Eleven children (ages 53 to 66 months) and the teacher in one daycare classroom participated, with the investigator assisting with classroom activities such as small group readings. Audiotaped recordings of children’s discussions were made during three types of book-related activities: small group readings conducted by adults, emergent readings, and drawing pictures about the books. Content analysis of the transcripts of small group readings, emergent readings, and drawing activities revealed very few child-initiated ethnically specific comments (comments pertaining to physical characteristics that tend to differ between ethnic groups, such as skin and hair color). Further content analysis of the transcripts from the small group readings and emergent readings revealed story-related themes and topics in the children’s discussion within each category of books. Themes and topics within small group readings seem to suggest that children use language which indicates current understandings as well as the construction of new understandings of material related to the books. Themes and topics within emergent readings revealed children’s importations (information not included in the original text) from sources such as background knowledge and prior small group readings. Across small group readings, emergent readings, and the drawing activity, slight differences in the topics discussed by children emerged between book categories; Diversity Explicit books seem most likely to foster discussion about ethnicity-specific issues. If preschool teachers in daycare classrooms similar to the one used in this study want to provide multiethnic books for their children in an effort to initiate discussion regarding ethnic differences, it appears that the teachers need to be prepared to initiate that discussion themselves as the children are unlikely to do so without prompting. Additional information about the book use of the children was gained through a teacher interview and parent questionnaires.
Recommended Citation
Reid, Kathleen Anne, "Preschoolers' language during use of multiethnic books in daycare. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 1996.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/9837