Children's Literature Studies
Year:2011 | Volume:1 | Issue:2 (24)|Papers Count:7

Greimas, a structuralist and semiology theoretician, made an attempt to reach the inner layers of a text by going through the surface and the structure of the text. He wanted to find the hidden structure influential in the production of meaning. In fact, a writer, by creating a special kind of narration and narrator in his/her story, produces a chain–like series of sender/ message/ receiver) to present coherent structure for a story.The aim of this paper is to analyze "Crows", one of the best stories of Nader Ebrahimi by using narrative analysis (permanent and non–permanent process) and Actantial Model of Greimas. In this way with the help of narratology the structure and internal relationships of signs of the text, the likns between the characters are clarified.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the gender roles and how they are induced to the reader, the place given to women by the patriarchal society, the roles of wife and daughter, the male gaze and the relationship of woman and nature in one of Sobhi's stories called "Khale Sooske". The approach is based on the distinction between gender and sex and within the framework of feminism. It is mentioned that except for very minor references in three books no research has been done on this story. In this paper it is argued that creating gender roles and values related to it as well as how they are presented to the reader in different ways such as children's literature and internalizing them are all performed by the patriarchal institution in order to support and continue such systems within the social-cultural context.

This research studies Iranian children's understanding of the meaning of conceptual signs and icons existing in the user interface of the International Children's Digital Library (ICDL) in order to evaluate the suitability of the user interface of this library for Iranian children.The research method is mainly qualitative; however, quantitative method is also used to answer some of the research questions. The research population consists of 20 children aged between 7 and 11 years. The research findings showed that all of the conceptual elements of the English user interface are inappropriate for the use of Iranian children. Furthermore, according to the findings, none of the icons were evaluated as suitable from the viewpoint of the studied children. The research findings also indicate that the Persian user interface has facilitated the children's understanding of the meaning of conceptual signs existing in the interface of the International Children's Digital Library. Using the findings of this study, suitable user interfaces may be designed for children considering the differences in their culture and language.

Any discipline requires researches to provide supporting evidences in order to demonstrate their scientific findings. Similarly any research needs to launch their assumptions and findings, alongside or contrary to prior findings based upon preceding studies in order to have a positive impact on the research area. Iranian children's literature, as a recently established university field of study, also demands researches in which regulations and principles of documentation and giving references are met in order to expand its research area.Referencing is mental and cultural process and also a social deed. A list of references is one of the most important components of any research paper or manuscript. Some elements of referencing and citing are "how to use references", "type of emphasis on particular cases", "recurrence of some specific references". Though different types of citation and referencing are undertaken and there is a tendency to move away from personal approaches on how to cite toward systematic and standard citation and referencing, still many cases of slip-ups are observed in research and critical papers.This paper addresses how citation and referencing styles are deployed in research and critical papers in two children's literature journals: The research Quarterly of Children and Youth's Literatureand Iranian Children and Young Adult's Book Review.The results show that citations and referencing in these two journals are below standards in writing scientific papers.

Due to the importance of textbooks in forming students’ social identity and character, the present research tends to study Grade two Persian primary textbook in terms of the importance given to nature.This issue is of crucial importance affecting learners’ outlook and behavior toward their environment. Taking some linguistic features such as lexicons, grammar (transitive, non-transitive and relationals) used to depict nature, the researchers analyzed the book to find the writer (s) ’ outlook toward nature. The findings of the study shows that nature, in general (flower, animals, mountains, sky, etc.), do not have powerful status. From a more specific standpoint, birds, sky and those associated with the sky are found to be more powerful compared with soil, ground, food, and the like. Surprisingly, water and related words are in the weakest position. Considering the age of the learners and impact of textbooks on building the students’ personality, some suggestions and implications are in order.

This paper is a content analysis of several stories in order to show that the program of «philosophy for children» can benefit from existing stories to reach its main aim, that is, independence. It is concluded in this research that such works of fiction can help the program of «philosophy for children»very well answering its needs. In addition, the many similarities were identified among the many theories of Morteza Khosronejad, Maria Nikolajeva and Bruno Bettelheim with the findings of this research.

Critical thinking as a way of thinking affects our attitudes and behaviors. It includes skills like the ability to describe the purpose, formulating the question, gathering relative data and criticizing them, adopting clear options toward different issues and judging based on evidence and reasonable documents leading to problem solving.Fiction plays an important role in enhancing the formation of the above skills in children by involving them in situations that might not be experienced in real daily life, also strengthening reading skills and comprehension. If the characters of children books think critically, they can be very effective on the readers through observative learning.In this research the writers have been trying to make a link between critical thinking and fictional elements in order to evaluate the existence of these components in Iranian children fictions. To validate the research, Richard Paul’s seventeen key skills have been selected and used in several stories to identify whether these skills have been considered in them or not. And if the skills have been existed, in which fiction elements have been observed. The research population is 14 children’s books (for ages 10-12) listed as the honored list in the Children’s Book Council of Iran (CBCI) from 1343 to 1385 (1964-2006). Apparently “The Reality and the Wise Man” (Haghighat va Marde Dana) and “the Tiny Black Fish” (Mahi Siahe Koochooloo) are on the top of the list of using the component of the critical thinking.The main weaknesses in the fictions are the existence of interfering narrators that weaken inferences and interpretation skill in readers, lack of humor, lack of new techniques to create new atmosphere, lack of effective characters to strengthen children’s intellectual skills, and themes deeply conforming to social norms and rules. The research showed that ethical reasoning abilities compared to other skills proved to be the strongest component.