More than just imaginative: A qualitative study of values in literature for young children from the 20th century

This dissertation endeavors to address the issue of proper methodology for character education. Although character education enjoys wide support among teachers, parents, and society at large, the proper manner with which to accomplish this educational objective continues to be debated. Literature-based approaches to character education are among the most popular means of presenting values to students. This popularity has prompted scholars to closely scrutinize the value patterns in literature for young people. In part, the resulting studies have aimed to ascertain the worthiness of literature itself as a medium for introducing discussion about values and related issues.;The method used for collecting the data for this dissertation was a qualitative content analysis of a sample of children's literature. A reputable list of values was used as a guide for identifying the values present in the sample. The focus of the study was to determine the frequency with which each value appeared throughout the sample.;The results of the analysis indicate that the frequency with which values occur in a sample of children's literature is high. Eighty-four percent of the stories in the sample show a strong presence of values. In those stories, the average number of values per story is 9.3. The final theory offered addresses why children's literature contains values.