Research Information System
International e-Journal of Educational Studies (IEJES), vol.7, no.14, pp.201-224, 2023 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
From the perspective
of language and literature education, children’s and youth books should be
sensitive to the culture of human rights and democracy and should not endorse
group antagonism such as stereotype, prejudice and discrimination. The main purpose of this research is to determine if
there are any messages about group antagonisms in the award-winning children’s
and youth stories/novels; and to understand the emotional aspect, style, context
and content characteristics of those messages. The
data source of this general survey model research consists of a total of 34
books that have received awards from various institutions and organizations in
the field of children’s and youth literature. In the content analysis, the main
category of group antagonism was divided into three subcategories: stereotype, prejudice and discrimination,
which were further divided into sub-categories based on emotional aspect, style, context, and content and analyzed in cross-tables. The findings showed that most
messages were in the prejudice
category. In
addition, it was determined that the messages that foster group antagonism were
mostly related to the affective dimension and were conveyed in a blatant style
and often without malicious intent. Within the scope of this study, it is
recommended that fictional books addressing children and young people should
address group antagonism with a critical and problem-oriented approach.