LOOKING FOR STEREOTYPICAL PORTRAYALS OF GRANDMOTHERS IN SOUTH AFRICAN MULTILINGUAL PICTUREBOOKS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25159/0027-2639/269Keywords:
picturebooks, portrayal of grandmothers, cultural diversity, multilingualism, ethnicit, South Africa, politics and publishingAbstract
Picturebooks are vehicles of knowledge and socialisation for children. In portraying grandmothers in children’s picturebooks, existing stereotypes are often enforced (Crawford and Bhattacharya 2014). This article set out to determine how, and if, the portrayal of grandmothers in a sample of multilingual picturebooks in South Africa is stereotyped and how possible stereotyping relates to South Africa’s cultural diversity. Ten books were selected that have been translated into more than four of South Africa’s 11 official languages.
By using quantitative coding these texts were deconstructed by looking for stereotypical representations of grandmothers and the relationships that exist between the portrayal of cultural groups and stereotypes. The findings indicated that stereotypical portrayals of South African grandmothers do not follow the patterns uncovered in studies of a similar nature in the United States (US) andthe United Kingdom (UK). South African grandmothers are stereotyped because of their goodness – their attitude of a positive servitude. In providing possible reasons for this deviation from the findings of similar studies elsewhere, the complex intricacies of politics and publishing activities in South Africa’s are briefly discussed.
Metrics
References
Airhihenbuwa, C. O. and J. de W. Webster. 2004. Culture and African contexts of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support. Journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS, 1(1): 4−13. DOI:10.1080/17290376.2004.9724822 (accessed 12 June 2011) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17290376.2004.9724822
Alexander, N. 1999. An African renaissance without African languages? Social Dynamics: A Journal of African studies, 25(1): 1−12. DOI:10.1080/02533959908458658 (accessed 15 May 2015) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02533959908458658
Ansello, E. F. 1977. Age and ageism in children’s first literature. Educational Gerontology, 2: 255–274. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0360127770020305
Bloch, C. 1999. The potential of early childhood for developing and sustaining literacy in Africa. Social Dynamics: A Journal of African Studies, 25(1): 101−129. DOI: 10.1080/02533959908458664 (accessed 16 May 2015) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02533959908458664
Botelho, M. S. and M. K. Rudman. 2010. Critical multicultural analysis of children's literature: Mirrors, windows, and doors. International Research in Children's Literature 3(2): 229−231. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/ircl.2010.0114 (accessed 7 July 2015) DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/ircl.2010.0114
Crawford, P. A., and S. Bhattacharya. 2014. Grand images: Exploring images of grandparents in picture books. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 28(1): 128−144. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2013.853004
Danowski, J. and T. Robinson. 2012. The portrayal of older characters in popular children’s books in the US. Journal of Children and Media 6(3): 333−350. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2011.630741 (accessed 7 July 2015) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2011.630741
Davids, A. 1987. Arabic-Afrikaans. A view of the written Afrikaans of the Cape Muslim during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. South African Journal of Linguistics, 5(1): 24−40. DOI: 10.1080/10118063.1987.9724243 (accessed 15 May 2015) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10118063.1987.9724243
Dellmann-Jenkins, M. and L. Young. 1997. The portrayal of older characters in award-winning literature for children. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 12: 96–100. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02568549709594720
Department of Arts and Culture, 2014, ‘The Library and Information Services Transformation Charter,’ Pretoria: DAC. www.nlsa.ac.za/Downloads.../2014_Final_LIS_Transformation_Charter (accessed 20 May 2015)
Fenwick, G. and A. Morrison. 2009. Images of grandparents in young children’s picture books in the United Kingdom. New Review of Children’s Literature and Librarianship, 7(1): 127−145. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13614540109510649
Gibson, L. R. 1988. Beyond the apron: Archetypes, stereotypes and alternative portrayals of mother in children’s literature. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 13(4): 177−181). http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/chq/summary/vO13/13.4gibson.html (accessed 4 July 2015) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/chq.0.0187
Gilbert, C. and K. Rickets. 2008. Children’s attitudes towards older adults and aging: A synthesis of research. Educational Gerontology, 34(7): 570−586. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03601270801900420
Hamilton, D. L. and J. W. Sherman. 1994. In Wyer, J. R.S. and T. K. Scrull, eds. Handbook of social cognition. 2nd ed. 1−68. Hillside, NY: Macmillan.
Hart, G. and M. Nassimbeni. 2013. From borders and landscape to ecosystem: Reconfiguring library services to meet the needs of South African youth. South African Journal for Library and Information Science, 79(1):13−21. http://sajlis.journals.ac.za doi: 10.7553/79-1-106 (accessed 20 May 2015) DOI: https://doi.org/10.7553/79-1-106
Heale, J. ed. 2012. Children’s books in African languages. Pinelands, Cape Town: Biblionef. http://biblionefsa.org.za/about-us/#sthash.iaTTzYsG.dpuf (accessed 3 August 2015)
Hollis-Saywer, L. and L. Cuevas. 2013. Mirror, mirror on the wall: ageist and sexist double jeopardy portrayals in children’s books. Educational Gerontology, 39(12): 902 −914. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2013.767650 (accessed 4 July 2015) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2013.767650
Hurst, J. B. 1981. Images in children’s books. Social Education, 45(2): 138−142.
Jacobs, J. 2004. My ouma is ’n rockster. Pretoria: LAPA.
Jacobs, J. 2014. My ouma is ’n filmster. Pretoria: LAPA.
Janelli, L.M. 1988. Depictions of grandparents in children’s literature: A revisit. Educational Gerontology, 14: 193−202. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0380127880140303
Leedy, P.D. and J. E. Omrod. 2014. Practical Research and Planning. 10th ed. Harlow: Pearsons.
Machet, M.P. and L. Tiemensma. 2009. Literacy environment in support of the development of literacy skills and voluntary reading. Mousaion, 27 (Special issue 1 on children’s literature): 58−76.
Mayring, P. 2000. ‘Qualitative content analyses.’ Forum. Qualitative Social Research, 1(2): Article 20. http://scholar.google.co.za/scholar?hl=en&q=Mayring%2C+P.+2000.+Qualitative+content+analysis.+Forum.+Qualitative+Social+Research%2C+1%282%29+%28Article+20%29.+&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C5&as_sdtp= (accessed 20 May 2015)
Morgan, N. 2006. Revisiting the South African book market: towards a change of tongue? Acta Academica Supplementum, 2: 179−196.
Pinsent, P. 2003. Crone or alien: the image of the grandmother in some recent picture books and illustrated texts, New Review of Children's Literature and Librarianship, 9(1): 41-55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1361454032000232095 (accessed 8 July 2015) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1361454032000232095
Sciplino, C., P.K. Smith, H. Hurme, M. Rusek and P. Bäckvik. 2010. Representations of grandparents in children’s books in Britain, Italy and Greece, Finland and Poland. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 8(3): 298−316. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15350770.2010.498760 (accessed 8 July 2015) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15350770.2010.498760
Silverstein, M. and R. Giarrusso. 2010. Ageing and family life: A decade review. Journal of marriage and family, 27:1039−1058. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00749.x
Song, S. 2014. Multiculturalism. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. E.N. Zalta. Spring edition. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/multiculturalism/ (accessed 17 July 2015).
South African Book Development Council. 2007. ‘National survey into the reading and book reading behavior of adult South Africans.’ Pretoria: Department of Arts and Culture.
Statistics South Africa (StatsSA). 2012. ‘Census 2011†Statistical release.†Report P0301.4. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa.
StatsSA. 2014. ‘Poverty trends in South Africa: An examination of absolute poverty between 2006 and 2011.’ Report-03-10-06. Pretoria: StatsSA.
Turner, P. and S. Turner. 2011. Is stereotyping inevitable when designing with personas? Design studies 32: 30−44. http://dx.doi:10.1016/j.destud.2010.06.002 (accessed 7 July 2015) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2010.06.002
Van der Vyver, M. 2015. My ouma is cool. Pretoria: LAPA.
Vasil, L. and H. Wass. 1993. Portrayal of the elderly in the media: A literature review and implications for educational gerontologists. Educational Gerontology, 19(1): 71-81. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0360127930190107
Zeece, P, 2007. Grandparents and grand books. Early Childhood Educational Journal, 35(2): 217-130. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-007-0171-x
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Accepted 2015-08-25
Published 2015-11-18
