Directions in Research

Abstract

Directions in Research Marilyn Cochran Smith The Parent-Diary as a Research Tool For many years literary critics, librarians and educators alike have applauded the wise parent who provides for his child a "literate environment," that is, an environment in which books, stories and other printed materials surround the child and introduce him early to the literary world. Despite the enthusiastic and undoubtedly sincere conviction of many of those in the children's literature community, that books can play a vital role in the lives of young children, we know surprisingly little about the nature of children's experiences with literature. Indeed until rather recently the paucity of writings on the topic in children's literature publications, especially American publications, has indicated little interest in the area. Several recent contributions to publications in the field, however, begin to indicate that lack of interest in children's literary experiences may no longer be the case. Exeter University's Fourth Symposium of the International Research Society for Children's Literature, for example, featured papers around the topic, "responses to literature," three of which were reprinted in Children's Literature in Education [see Agnia Barto, "Children's Responses to Illustrations of Poetry." CLE. 10:1 (Spring 1979), pp. 11-17; Michael Benton "Children's Responses to Stories." CLE. 10:2 (Summer 1979), pp. 68-85; and Reinbert Tabbert, "The Impact of Children's Books: Cases and Concepts (Parts I and II)." CLE. 10:2 and 10:3. (Summer and Autumn 1979), pp. 92-102 and 144-149]. Hugh and Maureen Crago continue to publish excerpts from their carefully recorded longitudinal account of daughter Anna's literary experiences and responses in a home setting [see Maureen Crago, "Incompletely Shown Objects in Picture Books: One Child's Respone." CLE. 10:3 (Autumn 1979), pp. 151-157 and "'Snow White': One Child's Response in a Natural Setting." Signal. 31 (January 198), pp. 42-56 for two of their most recent articles]. A special section of the Children's Literature Association Quarterly, guest-edited by Peggy Whalen-Levitt, featured five articles on various theoretical and empirical aspects of the topic, "literature and child readers" [see ChLAQ. (Winter 1980), pp. 9-28]. Last spring Dorothy Butler's Cushla and Her Books, a moving account of Butler's handicapped granddaughter and the impact that picture books had on her earliest years, was published in this country and is currently being enthusiastically reviewed and received [see Dorothy Butler, Cushla and Her Books. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1975, 1979 and Boston: Horn Book, Inc., 1980]. Finally, Janet Hickman's long-term observational study of the ways children respond to stories in the context of school settings was recently excerpted in Language Arts [see Janet Hickman, "Children's Responses to Literature: What Happens in the Classroom," LA. (May 1980), pp. 524-529]. These examples may signal a growing scholarly interest in children's literary experiences, or at least a growing recognition that questions related to this area are worthy of exploration. I would like to argue here, as has been argued previously,1 that explorations of this sort need to be carried out over time and within the contexts in which they naturally occur—in homes, schools, church schools, libraries, summer camps—by researchers who are both participants in, and observers of children's literary experiences. The rationale for such an approach has its roots in anthropology, in the view that human behavior of any sort (including listening and responding to stories) can best be understood in context—not because context influences behavior or the meaning of behavior, but because the meaning of 'human' is embedded within cultural and social context. Hence investigators who [End Page 3] omit consideration of natural context —by inventing artificial contexts or by attempting to isolate certain behaviors from their natural contexts —drastically impoverish the understanding they can proffer. Parents interested in chronicling their own children's literary experiences would seem to have the opportunity for just this sort of context-oriented study, and yet the majority of parent accounts to date2 have seemed somehow incomplete and more anecdotal than explanatory. This is not to suggest that readers of parent accounts have not been moved...