Transfer of values in the Turkish and Western children's literary works: Character education in Turkey

Abstract

In this paper, the occurrence frequency of the values ‘justice, family union, independence, peace, scientificality, diligence, cooperation, sensitivity, honesty, aesthetics, tolerance, hospitality, freedom, wellness, respect, affection, responsibility, cleanliness, patriotism, benevolence’ which the Ministry of Education requires that children acquire in the Civics Course, have been analyzed in the narrative works from Turkish and Western children’s literature that are within children’s sphere of interest and are also recommended by the ministry. The document analyzing technique from qualitative research has been used to obtain data. A total of 20 values have been examined in the works, sticking to the definitions given in the syllabus according to their frequency of occurrence in a word, sentence or context, and coded into the relevant value themes in the rating lists. Content analysis, percentage and frequency techniques have been utilized in the analysis of the data obtained. In the Turkish children’s literary works (TCLW) as well as Western children’s literary works (WCLW), it has been observed that the religion is more foregrounded than others and that there is neither equality nor a priority ranking among the frequencies of occurrence of the other values. 71% of the values studied in the works occur in the TCLW whereas 29% exist in the WCLW. Key words: Children’s literature, value, transfers of value, character education, narrative text.