Introduction to Children's Literature Studies

Lesson Overview

Contrary to what many outsiders might assume, children's literature studies has a rich and varied body of research that is growing at a phenomenal rate world-wide. Historically, we've looked at research in children's literature studies as coming from the three disciplines most commonly associated with children's literature: Education, English Literature, and Library Science. Broadly, research in education has looked at some matter relating to pedagogy, English Literature to literary criticism, and Library Science to bibliography. As our understandings of literature and children have broadened since 1975, so has research on children's literature. Nowadays, children's literature research can be informed by many disciplines including: pedagogy, literary criticism, bibliography, linguistics, psychoanalysis, spirituality, sociology, anthropology, economics, child development, ethnography, and cultural studies. In this lesson you will get three overviews of research in children's literature studies. Notice the kinds of questions different disciplines ask and where they look to find data.

Lesson Objectives

After successfully completing this lesson, you should be able to:

Recognize the possibilities of children's literature research.
Explain what makes research research.