Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Childhood
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Pramling, N.
Right arrow Articles by Archer, T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Conceptualization of the Unknown by 6-, 9- and 14-Year-Old Children in a Story-Telling Context

In Search of a `Heffalump'

Niklas Pramling

Karlstad University

Torsten Norlander

Karlstad University, at.norlander{at}mailbox.swipnet.se

Trevor Archer

Göteborg University

This study examines children's imagination of the unknown within a story-telling context. In total 40 children (20 girls and 20 boys) participated, distributed over three groups, as follows: 10 6-year-olds, 12 9-year-olds, and 18 14-year-olds. One chapter from the English children's book Winnie- the-Pooh (written by A.A. Milne in 1926) was read aloud by the respective teacher to each group, after which the children in the two youngest groups were each given the task of making a drawing of a `heffalump', which they subsequently were interviewed individually about. Each child in the oldest group was given the task of writing their own story on the theme of the `heffalump'. Phenomenological analysis of the material, with regard to meaning-content of `what' and `how' was performed. The results consisted of eight qualitatively different categories providing an image-analysis of the concept of the `unknown' structured as `something-otherwise' (the `other'), i.e. an absence of constancy arising from colour, form, time, place, reality. Differences pertaining to age and gender are discussed.

Key Words: children • imagination • phenomenology • story-telling • unknown

Childhood, Vol. 10, No. 3, 379-392 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/09075682030103008
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 ChildhoodHome page
G. Mantle, J. Leslie, S. Parsons, J. Plenty, and R. Shaffer
Establishing Children's Wishes and Feelings for Family Court Reports: The significance attached to the age of the child
Childhood, November 1, 2006; 13(4): 499 - 518.
[Abstract] [PDF]