An Analysis of Ideological Teachings in Some of the Iranian Children's Literature for High School and Secondary School Age Groups

In this study، we investigated the opinions، attitudes and ideologies that the authors of children’s book convey to the children and adolescences through their books. Thus، we have strived to identify what the concepts، beliefs، attitudes and ideologies in the religious books targeted at children and teenagers are and what linguistic structures represent these ideologies and concepts in such books. The approach adopted in this research is Thompson’s method of analyzing ideology (1990). He identifies five general modes through which ideology can operate to establish and sustain relations of domination—legitimation، dissimulation، unification، fragmentation and reification—and a number of strategies appropriate to their symbolic expression. Moreover، to analyze the structures of the texts، concepts proposed in Halliday’s Functional Grammar have been used. The case study in this research comprised six stories for these two age groups which can be categorized as religious stories. This research is descriptive-analytical. One of the findings of the research shows that the authors of such books sometimes have applied different strategies of narration، narrative expression and stories and sometimes have opted for rationalization or have provided tangible and obvious reasons to convey these concepts. Besides، they have used differentiation and universalization. Because of the unpleasant and negative nature of concepts such as punishment for sins and retribution the strategy of mystification was used. Moreover، to express painful concepts sometimes strategies of euphemism، trope and dissimulation have been employed.