The Importance of Family Education in To Kill a Mockingbird 论《杀死一只知更鸟》中家庭教育的重要性文献综述

 2023-04-22 04:04

文献综述

1. Introduction1.1 Research backgroundAmerican novelist Harper Lee (1926-2016) won Pulitzer Prize for fiction and many other literary awards for her only novel To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), which became one of the most popular novels in the 20th century. Lee was born in a small town in southern Alabama. Her father was a lawyer and a former state legislator, whose trial experiences had contributed to her writing. She entered the University of Alabama to study legal science, and then headed to Oxford University as an exchange student. In 1949, Lee decided to move to New York to pursue her writing dream, which was opposed by her family. According to Shields (2016), her mother was emotionally unstable, insane and unhealthy; meanwhile, her father was very disappointed with her, for she would graduate in one semester. He hosted a partner of a law firm in the hope that she could join it. Her father was worried about her because southerners were 'from the countryside' in the eyes of northerners and were discriminated against, which may be one of the reasons why she spared no effort to create a father figure willing to abandon prejudice and encourage his children to look at the world with tolerance and openness in To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee didnt follow her fathers advice and resolutely set foot on the road to New York. Later, encouraged by friends and editors, she returned to her hometown in Alabama and wrote novels based on her childhood stories. To Kill a Mockingbird centers on a rape case in Maycomb town. Tom, a black man, is charged with rape and Scouts father Atticus is his defense lawyer. However, owing to the fact that racial discrimination is deeply rooted, Atticus fails to win the case. Finally, Tom is shot when he attempts to escape from the jail. The three children in the novel also grow up rapidly after this event. This novel takes place during the Great Depression. Although Lincoln signed the Declaration of Emancipation of Black Slaves, racial discrimination still existed in the south of America. The novel is based on what happened in 1931 when nine young blacks were accused of raping two white women. After torturous trials, four of the nine suspects were sentenced to long-term imprisonment. Many people believed that the two white women told lies because their repeated statements were inconsistent (Shields, 2016). The themes of this novel include the exposure to racial discrimination, hierarchy, feminist thought and family education, which is therefore of great research value. In terms of racial discrimination, Maycomb Town represents the white society; conversely, Tom stands for the oppressed black so that his tragedy is inevitable. From the perspective of hierarchy, Radley is regarded as a devil; however, he saves Scout at the end of the story, which is a great satire at that unjust world. From the feminist point of view, the three female characters personalities are in sharp contrast. For example, Aunt Alexandra is a typical defender of male chauvinism, thinking that 'girls should look like girls'. Scout neither likes to wear skirts nor has a clear concept of gender. Miss. Maudie is the only person with feminist thoughts and provides much valuable guidance for Scout. Finally, from the point of view of family education, childrens growth runs throughout the novel. It is also noted that the novel portrays an excellent father, who educates his children patiently and responsibly at different stages of their growth, and teach them to abandon discrimination, respect others, make compromises, and practice strong pressure resistance, which can be described as a model of family education and is therefore the focus of this thesis.Family education is the foundation and starting point of ones life. It is one of the components of comprehensive education, the foundation and the extension of school education. However, quite a few parents dont have a correct and clear understanding of family education. To carry out targeted family education, the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) put forward the famous theory on childrens moral development in a scientific and systematic way, which has become a model of discipline, aiding people in understanding childrens psychology and behaviors. This thesis is therefore intended to interpret the importance of family education in To Kill a Mockingbird under the framework of Piagets theory.1.2 Literature review According to the information collected, many domestic and overseas scholars have studied To Kill a Mockingbird. Among overseas literature, the most popular themes of analysis are racial discrimination and democracy. Milic (2012) compares the novel with Faulkners Dry September, finding that both foreground the importance of individualization and expound the harm of racial discrimination and concluding that the relationship between people cannot rely on abstract principles but on personal connections, intimate relationships and judgement according to what they are as individuals. Gregory (2015) covers almost all the important cores of this novel, including popularity and education; racial discrimination and democracy; identity recognition. He focuses on biographical facts and historical backgrounds, clarifies the contact between novels and modern racial liberalism, and pays attention to the changing gender norms. Macaluso combines frameworks of new racism with critical literature pedagogy to provide ideas and strategies for critically engaging, teaching, and reading with To Kill a Mockingbird (2017: 1), hoping that more attention can be drawn to antiracist pedagogies and ideologies. Apart from racial discrimination, family education among the domestic research has been paid great attention to. For example, Xiao (2010) expounds the influence of social morality on children, that is, good social morality has a positive influence on childrens growth. G. H. Li (2014), Chen and Wu (2016) analyze the importance of family education, respectively stating from the perspective of father and mother. Yan (2016) applies Fahrendorfs conflict theory to illustrate what kind of typical society is under oppression, pointing out that the reason that no ethnic conflicts break out in Maycomb is related to the mode of social repression, social consensus and the positive function of conflict. In addition, C. N. Li and Li (2021) combine the novel with cooperation principle, conducting the conversation analysis of the violation of quantity, quality and related norms to prove the effectiveness of pragmatic analysis.Few scholars at home and abroad have discussed family education, most of whom prefer social moral education. Moreover, a portion of the research on family education has analyzed the phenomena without in-depth explanation of the relevant reasons as well as lacked theoretical support, Piagets moral development theory in particular, which is exactly what this thesis aims to make up for. This thesis hopes to combine this theory with the view on family education in To Kill a Mockingbird to emphasize the importance of family education. 1.3 Purpose of the study This thesis will interpret family education in To Kill a Mockingbird from Piagets moral development theory. Theoretically, it can provide a specific example for the enrichment of this theory. Practically, it, on the one hand, offers an efficient way of teaching in family education, that is, to apply targeted methods in conformity with childrens different characteristics of each stage. On the other, it analyzes the irreplaceable importance of family education, which can urge parents to pay attention to childrens physical and mental health. 2. Piagets theory of childrens moral developmentThis section will systematically review on Piagets theory of childrens moral development, including its origin, development, core concepts and influences.2.1 Origin and developmentJean Piaget is known as another 'giant' besides Sigmund Freud in the history of psychology. He published more than 60 monographs and 500 papers, giving lectures in many countries and winning the titles of dozens of honorary doctors, honorary professors and honorary academicians of science. He created the genetic epistemology system, which has opened up a new way of psychological research and exerted an important influence on the development of contemporary western psychology.Piaget explained in detail how children learned ethics in his theory on moral development. Before that, many scholars believed that society shaped individuals behaviors. Piaget disagreed with it, and adopted a more scientific and systematic method to explore the developmental process of childrens moral thinking. He asked children well-designed questions, observed their reasoning thoughts and behaviors, and then recorded the changes. By analyzing and integrating the research results, Piaget published the book The Moral Judgement of the Child in 1932, which is one of his most important works and has laid a good foundation for his further research. This thesis will refer to his 1965 edition that didnt make major changes. Piagets genetic epistemology was put forward in the 1920s, and it became mature in the 1950s. After that, a neo-Piaget doctrine came into being, which is an important promotion for the development of his theory. Many people were inspired to verify his ideas by conducting countless experiments. His colleagues and classmates in Geneva University also took part in the expansion and innovation of his theory, supplementing and revising his original theory while keeping the basic framework unchanged, which has thus greatly improved the breadth and depth of this theory. This is how 'New Piagetian School' was formed (Che, 1998). According to Zhang and Lin (2002), perhaps Kurt Fischer is the first neo-Piaget theorist to pay special attention to the heterogeneity of cognitive function by integrating Piagets cognitive development theory and Skinners neo-behaviorism theory, which seem to have no similarities on the surface. For Piaget, only the active interaction of children and environment leads to their development, but Fisher states at the outset that children and environment are of equal importance. Robbie Cases is the most influential neo-Piaget theory so far. Different from Piagets, Robbie no longer takes structural change as the starting point, but absorbs some unique concepts from empiricism and historicism, trying to integrate Piagets theory with the method of information processing, which is terminated as structuralism. 2.2 Core conceptsPiaget observed childrens activities, talked with them with fabricated dual stories, and investigated their moral development. In The Moral Judgement of the Child (1965), he points out that children experience four different stages of moral development at different ages. All these four stages include one subject and one object, with the former referring to childrens self-cognition and the latter external environmental factors. From one stage to the next is the result of continuous contact and mutual reaction between the two sides. (1) Preconventional morality stage: ages 0 to 2Children of this age are completely self-centered in thinking because they have not formed an independent sense of autonomy yet, and are ignorant of emotional expression most of the time. Piaget took his three children as experimental subjects, and found that although they had learned how to remove some simple dilemmas, they still could not separate themselves as 'subjects' from the objective world.(2) Heteronomous morality stage: ages 2 to 7Children of this age can directly feel the changes of emotion and external environment. However, they are still in the stage of strong self-consciousness and rigid thinking. In this stage, Piaget designed a game of playing marbles. He found that in this game, older children made rules and had a voice while younger children unconditionally obeyed orders. Children usually blindly believe in authority under the absolute control by adults in this stage, which is the concept the thesis will use. (3) Morality of cooperation stage: ages 8 to 10This stage is a great turning point in childrens moral development. They learn to classify, summarize and understand the importance of mutual respect and cooperation, showing the reversibility from 'obeying authority' to 'equality concept'. This thesis will show these characteristics by interpreting childrens rebellious performances and their fathers patient guidance.(4) Autonomous morality stage: ages 10 to 12 At this stage, childrens greatest feature is that they have formed a concept of justice, no longer passively receiving news from the outside. They actively discover the unfairness of adult society, gradually have patriotic feelings, and at last achieve true self-discipline. Although supporting most of Piagets theory, Kohlberg and Hersh (1977) object to the performance of children in the 'self-discipline stage'. They believe that even though they have formed the sense of justice, children are also easily influenced by emotional factors, such as compassion and guilt, so they cannot always make fair judgments. This thesis will emphasize the cultivation of childrens concept of justice and compassion, aimed to point out the critical functions of family education.2.3 InfluencesAs the founder of genetic epistemology and Geneva theory, Piaget has undoubtedly made great contributions to the development of human psychology. First, his theory has promoted the development of childrens psychology, revealing that psychological development is a process in which the subject and the object repeatedly react with each other and make constant quantitative and qualitative changes. Secondly, it has laid the foundation for the development of epistemology and promoted the enrichment and deepening of psychology. This theory draws on neurology, biology, anthropology, logic and other disciplines, therefore revealing the law of cognitive movement in the human world more profoundly, reliably and universally (Che, 1998). Thirdly, Piagets theory provides concrete theoretical support for childrens education. As Kohlberg and Hersh (1977) state, the purpose of education should develop students complex reasoning methods. The principles of ethics and psychology can help schools to cultivate their free and strong personality, which can only be ensured by understanding the order and connection of different stages of psychological development.ReferencesAyfer, T, tfiye, C. (2010). Analyzing the novel To kill a mockingbird in literature class.Procedia -- Social and behavioral sciences, 2(2), 4387-4391. Bandura, A amp; McDonald, F. J. (1963) Influence of social reinforcement and the behavior of models in shaping childrens moral judgment. Journal of abnormal and social psychology, 67(3): 274-281.Claudia, J. (1991). The secret courts of mens hearts: Code and law in Harper Lees To kill a mockingbird. Studies in American fiction, 19(2), 129-139.Dimitrijevic, Z. (2015). Book review: Reimagining To kill a mockingbird. Family, community, and the possibility of equal justice under law. Law, culture and the humanities, 11(3), 503-504. Gregory, J. (2015). Queer children and representative men: Harper Lee, racial liberalism, and the dilemma of To kill a mockingbird. American literary history, 27(3), 487-522.Harper, L. (2006). To kill a mockingbird. New York: Harper Collins.Jan, B. (2011). Egocentrism in moral development: Gibbs, Piaget, Kohlberg. New ideas in psychology, 29(3), 355-363.Kohlberg, L., amp; Hersh, R. H. (1977). Moral development: A review of the theory. Theory into practice, 16(2), 53-59.Macaluso, M. (2017). Teaching To kill a mockingbird today: Coming to terms with race, racism, and Americas novel. Journal of adolescent amp; adult literacy, 61(3), 279-287.Milic, I. A. (2012). Racial violence in William Faulkners Dry September and Harper Lees To kill a mockingbird. Linguaculture, 1(1), 103-120.Nass, M. L. (1966). The superego and moral development in the theories of Freud and Piaget. The psychoanalytic study of the child, 21(1), 51-68.Piaget, J. (1964). Part I: Cognitive development in children: Piaget development and learning. Journal of research in science teaching, 2(3), 176-186.Piaget, J. (1965). The moral judgment of the child. New York: The Odyssey Press.Piaget, J. (1998). Mental imaginary in the child: Selected works (vol. 6). New York: Routledge.Piaget, J. (1999). Play, dreams and imitation in childhood. New York: Routledge.Shields, C. J. (2016). Mockingbird: A portrait of Harper Lee -- From Scout to go set a watchman. New York: Henry Holt and Co.Stow, S. (2021). Where is Finchs landing? Rereading To kill a mockingbird as moral pedagogy. Philosophy and literature, 45(1), 157-171.Lickona, T. (1969). Piaget misunderstood: A critique of the criticisms of his theory of moral development. Merrill-palmer quarterly of behavior and development, 15(4), 337-350.Watson, R. (2017). The view from the porch: Race and the limits of empathy in the film To kill a mockingbird, The Mississippi quarterly, 63, 419-443.陈凤兰（2016），论《杀死一只反舌鸟》 中的教养方式与孩子成长，《教育评论》，7：122-126。

陈鹏（2016），文学形态下扭曲的价值观度量论《杀死一只知更鸟》中的正义与善良，《电影评介》，15：73-75。

陈雪琴、武仪权（2016），从《杀死一只知更鸟》中看母亲教育的重要性，《名作欣赏》24：11-12，28。

邓赐平（2020），皮亚杰发生认识论视角下的儿童思维与智慧发展，《心理研究》，13（4）：291-311。

车文博（1998），《西方心理学史》，杭州：浙江教育出版社。

李超楠、李淑华（2021），合作原则视角下《杀死一只知更鸟》的会话含义研究，《名作欣赏》，24：123-124。

李光华（2014），析《杀死一只知更鸟》中芬奇智慧的父爱，《电影文学》，7:73-74。

李昱宏（2020）, 皮亚杰道德发展理论视角下的幼小德育衔接问题研究,《教育观察》，9（36）：99-100。

庞丽娟、陈会昌、申继亮、周建达（1994），《中国学前教育百科全书（心理发展卷）》，沈阳：沈阳出版社。

剩余内容已隐藏，您需要先支付 10元 才能查看该篇文章全部内容！立即支付

以上是毕业论文文献综述，课题毕业论文、任务书、外文翻译、程序设计、图纸设计等资料可联系客服协助查找。

您可能感兴趣的文章