Abstract
This contribution presents research on children's literature and the training of educators. This discipline is fundamental to the education of children, as it is the gateway from adult knowledge to the cognitive and emotional development of the youngest children. Using a survey-type methodology, research was carried out with students of the bachelor's degree in teaching specialising in early childhood and primary education at the University of Murcia, Spain. Besides learning about thinking in teaching, the interest of the study lay in comparing the results of the two specialisations in order to check whether attitudes to children's literature are different according to the type of study pursued. The conclusions show that there are differences in attitudes and thinking, with primary education teachers' perception of children's literature being less restrictive in terms of the concept than early childhood education teachers.
TopBackground
The treatment of children's literature in the academic sphere in Spain has had a multi-faceted approach in terms of the areas of knowledge which are potentially involved in it. Hence, Didactics, Translation or Philology have carried out different works claiming moral supremacy in terms of expertise on the subject. To date, this dialectic has not ceased and each of the above-mentioned areas claims to have competence in the definition, course and application of Children's Literature. We do not wish to contribute to the debate, but simply note the difficulty of defining it. Academic settings have encouraged the demand for compartmentalised pools of knowledge when in fact we need the different disciplines to have a joint and accurate view of what we study. It is therefore from a holistic rather than a compartmentalised perspective that we present this text.
We have to approach the definition of children's literature as a fundamental theoretical reference. However, this is a delicate question, since as we know, the shadow of the adult (Nodelman, 2008) or the well-known condition of impossibility pointed out by Rose (1984) surrounds the concept. If we return to the ideas of González Gil (1979) and López Tamés (1985) on the presence of universal themes, we can see that the specification for Literature is the adaptation to a specific stage of development. Given such a premise, we would probably not have to make the distinction between types of literature. It can thus be said that the aesthetic-artistic object that the literary work linked to children's literature represents, has a certain value depending on the user's experience of it. The cultural framework in which the individuals accessing children's literature are framed is key to determining which texts will succeed in connecting with children.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Mediating Teacher: A professional who mediates between students' learning and knowledge. He/she does this in a constructive way, ensuring that the atmosphere is communicative.
Hybrid Canon: A set of works that serve as a reference for the creation and interpretation of other texts. It includes different formats and its character is changeable depending on political-socio-economic-social issues.
Children's Brands: Products that are distinguished from literary works because they have a markedly commercial character. For example, merchandising in the form of a book.
Updated Teaching: Curricular and extracurricular designs that are made according to social and cultural trends, as well as the changes they entail.
Children's Literature: A discipline that studies the aesthetic-artistic objects that are mainly aimed at children, which can be treated from different perspectives that help collective and individual personal growth from a playful and formative perspective.
Liquid Modernity: A period or epoch characterised by the evanescence of learning and by the speed of change in the perception and handling of texts (academic and literary).
Critical Training: Preparation of educators characterised by the analysis of materials and strategies for the improvement of teaching and learning processes.