Content Analysis of Multicultural Themes in the Carter G. Woodson Book Award Winners from 1995-2005

Abstract

The purpose of this study was twofold. One purpose was to investigate the extent to which the latest decade of middle and secondary level Carter G. Woodson Book award winners deal with specific multicultural themes. The other purpose was to determine if these books could be used in the classroom to meet multicultural curriculum goals. Ward's 1992 Content analysis of multicultural themes in the Carter G. Woodson book award winners was replicated in this study to encompass 14 middle (grades 5-8) level and secondary (grades 9-14) level Carter G. Woodson Award winning books from the last decade. These books were analyzed to measure multicultural themes and curriculum goals using an instrument developed by Ward (1992), which incorporated 10 pairs of descriptive antonyms for each theme and goal. Results indicated that these books do incorporate most of the identified multicultural themes and multicultural curriculum goals. There was one multicultural theme, responsibility to the world community, and one multicultural curriculum goal, increase awareness of global human conditions, that was inadequate in all of the books.