Philosophical-Educational Analysis of Iranian and English Picture-Story Books Based on "Authority and Freedom" Categories

Abstract

Authority and freedom paradox is one of the most important issues in the philosophy of education as it is in the children's literature. Techniques used by authors of children's literature works, originate from their view on the child. The purpose of this paper is to compare Philosophical-Educational analysis of Iranian and English picture-story books via discovering and investigating the authors' view on "authority and freedom" categories. The research is a kind of exploratory and descriptive research with non-emerging approach to research design. Purposive sampling and documentary method of data collection and interpretive-descriptive method of data analysis were used. Two picture-story books "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" by Beatrix Potter and "Hypa and Shypa's Shoes" by Morteza Khosronejad had been chosen for analysis. The research question is based on Iranian and English authors' viewpoints on "authority and freedom" in the children's literature and comparing them. Revealing the techniques in the works is important for the authors, because they sometimes use these techniques unconsciously. Denuding the techniques can also be considered by critics, parents, teachers, and even children. The results show that the authors' view on the child affects the way of writing books and the use of various techniques. The results also indicate that although they belong to different social and cultural settings, the Iranian and English authors' viewpoints on the child are an independent being that is free, adventurous, vivacious, and able to solve the problems. The authors also are aware of the existence and importance of "authority and freedom" categories in the children's literature. Although Beatrix Potter makes a beautiful balance between the author's authority and the audience's freedom at the end of his story, Khosronejad delicately accepts child freedom beside the adult support and inspection.

Keywords: Authority and Freedom paradox, Picture-story Books, Beatrix Potter, Morteza Khosronejad