Work content and attitudes toward work in eighth grade literature anthologies

Abstract

The problem of this study was to determine whether eighth grade literature anthologies approved by the state of Virginia and used throughout the nation contained sufficient selections of appropriate content and attitude to facilitate the integration of career education and literature study in the eighth grade English program. The eighth grade level was selected as being at the heart of the exploratory phase of career education programs and as the last opportunity for exploration of careers, attitudes toward work, and work values before students are required to make decisions regarding their high school programs. The instrument developed for the content analysis of the anthologies contained a section on manifest work content which included the sex, age, and race of the principal character or persona/ narrator, the kind of work performed, its career cluster classification, and the importance of the work to theme and characterization. A second portion of the instrument recorded the character's attitudes toward work, toward the chief value of work, and toward the possibility of occupational choice. The third portion was concerned with the degree of reinforcement of selected career education concepts typically designated for the exploratory phase of career education programs. In selections not showing work, kinds of leisure activities were noted. Findings of the analysis revealed that the median proportion of selections in all the anthologies treating work as 42%, a sufficient number of selections in each anthology for English teachers to utilize in developing career education-literature study units. Other positive features of the anthologies as a group included their emphasis on legal, realistic work and their adequate emphasis on leisure activities for the teacher wishing to incorporate the concept of leisure into the larger concept of career development. Further, the attitudes toward work, in general, were positive, and the chief values characters of persona/narrators saw in work were (1) material gains, (2) pride, prestige, dignity, and (3) service, pursuit of truth. The fifteen career clusters were generally evenly distributed, though each anthology omitted some clusters, and all emphasized the Public Services and Transportation cluster. On the negative side, males and Caucasians dominated the work selections, in some cases to the complete exclusion of females and non-Caucasians who were consistently shown in traditional, stereotyped occupational roles. Affirming attitudes toward occupational choice were scarce, and six of the ten selected career education concepts were not upheld by even 50% of the selections in any anthology. This study concluded that while all approved eighth grade literature anthologies contain a sufficient number of selections for use in a career education-literature study effort, all would need to be supplemented because of weaknesses in content and attitudes. Recommendations for further research included similar investigations of seventh, ninth, and senior high school literature anthologies, attitudinal studies designed to determine the effects of career-oriented literature on student knowledge and attitudes toward work, and content analysis studies focusing on work content and attitudes in television, film, art, and music.