El cuento infantil como elemento pedagógico. La revista El Mundo de los Niños (1887-1891)

Abstract

Children’s and young people’s literature has been used as an instrument to transmit behaviors and values throughout history. Through illustrated magazines and the press, an increasing number of readers were receiving this type of informal education through stories and children’s stories in which the protagonists were children with whom the reader could easily identify. The objective of this article is to analyze the stories and children’s stories published in the decennial magazine El Mundo de los Niños –The World of Children– (1887-1891), to make an approximation to Spanish society at the end of the 19th century and its values. The method used was the content analysis, in which grouped by areas, we have been studying the values that make up the morality of an era present in the analyzed readings, constituting a faithful reflection of Spanish society and the situation of childhood in this historical moment. After the detailed reading and analysis of more than a hundred stories published in that magazine, we have been able to observe the presence of a moral education based on values (freedom, courage, work, effort, honesty ...) and counter-values (laziness, imprudence, greed...) that constitute a whole socio-educational program of the period in which these children’s stories were written and published.