On the concept of Children’s Literature. A case study using pre-service teachers

Abstract

The aim of this article is to reflect on the results obtained after a quantitative and interpretive study was conducted with pre-service teachers. The research problem concerns the concept of Children’s Literature, its present state and, above all, the opinions of the participants about its different aspects. This research provided us interesting data that helped us to reach conclusions in our search concerning the right placement of Children’s Literature in society. Using a survey methodology, the sample was of one hundred and seven students from the fourth course of the Preschool Teacher’s Degree (University of Murcia). The results will encourage us to go further into such aspects as a better knowledge of characters and plots by these students; the quality of children`s literature texts; or, to study questions related to the definition of this discipline, taking into account the influence that the audiovisual element has on it.