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Abbey Urban Thesis.pdf (475.65 KB)

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Presentation and Representation of Characters with Disabilities in Fictional Children's Books for Intermediate Grades

Urban, Abbey N.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1394114909

Abstract Details

2014, Master of Education (MEd), Bowling Green State University, Reading.
Students with disabilities are now being integrated within inclusion classrooms, causing classroom teachers and students to learn more about students with disabilities. Classroom teachers, teacher educators, parents, librarians, and publishers are faced with many challenges when selecting books that portray children who have disabilities. Fictional children's books for intermediate grades that do not correctly portray characters with disabilities in a positive light may impact the way others see them and their disability. To overcome these challenges, this study purposefully selected 30 fictional children's books for intermediate grades, and randomly selected every other book until 10 books were identified. Of the 10 books read, 50% included autism, 20% addressed deafness, 10% focused on dyslexia, 10% focused on cerebral palsy, and 10% explored ADHD. Throughout this investigation, three questions were addressed: (1) Are the characters with disabilities major, minor, or mentioned characters in the books? (2) What is the relationship between the characters with disabilities and the plot of each story? (3) How diverse are the characters with disabilities in each book? Specific categories (main, minor, mentioned characters, gender, race, disability, disability specific, generic, neutral, and portrayal) were selected to answer the three questions before, during, and after reading each book. Based on this study, a total of 16 characters appearing in the selected books had a disability. Of the 16 characters, 12 characters were main characters; three characters played minor roles in the stories, and one character was simply mentioned. Eight of the books analyzed were described as disability specific (80%); one book was disability generic, and one book was disability neutral. The authors were able to appropriately and realistically portray each disability with accuracy. Lastly, although diversity was noted according to gender (10 characters males, 6 females), there was no racial diversity apparent, as all characters appeared to be Caucasian.
Cindy Hendricks, Dr. (Advisor)
Trinka Messenheimer (Committee Member)
William Morrison (Committee Member)
78 p.
Reading Instruction; Special Education
disabilities; fictional chapter books; intermediate grades; content analysis; diversity; characters; bibliotherapy

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Urban, A. N. (2014). Presentation and Representation of Characters with Disabilities in Fictional Children's Books for Intermediate Grades [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1394114909

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Urban, Abbey. Presentation and Representation of Characters with Disabilities in Fictional Children's Books for Intermediate Grades. 2014. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1394114909.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Urban, Abbey. "Presentation and Representation of Characters with Disabilities in Fictional Children's Books for Intermediate Grades." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1394114909

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1394114909
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This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.