Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s historical representation within children’s and young adult literature

Abstract

Purpose-Education initiatives require substantive changes for history, social studies, English, and language arts teachers of any grade level. History and social studies teachers are to integrate multiple texts from diverse perspectives, which increases teachers' uses of trade books and primary sources; English and language arts teachers are to spend half their allotted time on non-fiction topics, which enhances the position of historical content. The compulsory changes are not accompanied with ready-made curricula. Trade books are a logical starting point for teachers inexperienced with the new expectations, yet, research indicates that historical inaccuracies and misrepresentations frequently emerge. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach-The authors' inquiry explored trade books' historical representation of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, America's longest serving president. The data pool was organized by early grades (Kindergarten-4), middle grades (5-8), and high school (9-12) to contrast patterns of representation between and within grade ranges. Findings-Findings included patterns of representation regarding Roosevelt's noteworthiness and accomplishments, advantages and assistances, and moral and political mistakes. Social implications-Classroom suggestions included guiding students to identify historical gaps and interrogate primary sources to fill these gaps. Originality/value-Similar research has not been conducted on this historical figure.

Trade books’ evolving depictions of Thomas Jefferson, America’s third president

“…To be judged as minimized or vague (MV), an early grades book needed two or fewer sentences or in language a student this age might find unclear, a middle grades book required three or fewer and a high school book four or fewer. This Likert scale of age-appropriate detail extended a previously published model (Bickford and Lindsay, 2017).…”

“…Some studies with notably small data pools have examined the entire data pool (Bickford, 2018a; Sakowicz, 2016); most, though, do not (e.g. Bickford and Badal, 2017; Bickford and Lindsay, 2017). The size of this particular data sample ( n =25; 45 percent) aligns with best practice expectations and common practice (Krippendorff, 2013; Roberts, 2015; Sakowicz, 2016).…”

“…Research on textbooks and trade books reveals stark incongruencies with current historical research (e.g. Bickford and Badal, 2017; Bickford and Lindsay, 2017; Bickford and Silva, 2016; Matusevich, 2006; Roberts, 2015; Sakowicz, 2016). Unlike with slavery, there have been no inquiries into Jefferson’s historical representation within curricula (Connolly, 2013; Bickford and Rich, 2014; Bickford and Schuette, 2016; Jay and Lyerly, 2016; Shuster et al , 2017; Swan et al , 2018); no Jefferson-based framework exists to inform teachers’ instruction.…”

Abraham Lincoln’s historical representation in children’s literature and young adult trade books

“…Some studies with notably small data pools have examined the entire data pool (Bickford, 2018;Sakowicz, 2016); most studies do not. This sample size and portion of the pool align with best practice expectations and common practice (Bickford and Badal, 2017;Bickford and Lindsay, 2017;Krippendorff, 2013;Roberts, 2015;Sakowicz, 2016).…”

“…To be deemed minimized or vague (MV ), an early grades book had content in less than two full sentences or with language a young student might find unclear; middle grade books needed less than four to be assessed MV. This progressive scale of age-appropriate detail, modeled after similar research (Bickford and Lindsay, 2017), was necessary to contrast patterns of historical representation between and within different age-ranges of books. Content analysis tool (Appendix 2) was first developed from and refined during open coding stage of inquiry; it was then used during axial coding.…”