Date of Award
2012
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Education
Abstract
In recent years globalization has been cited as the cause or force changing our world, making it more interdependent and "smaller" through new means of technology and communication. As such a force, globalization is seen as pervasive in all aspects of contemporary life. Sesame Street has been used as an educational tool in the United States since 1969 and since that time, the producers of the program have created a presence in various countries throughout the world, using the technology of television to communicate with preschool audiences. In particular in the last decade, new productions have begun and been funded by international development organizations in countries considered post-conflict. These areas are considered post-conflict as they have experienced or are experiencing recent conflict between two or more groups of people and the aims of Sesame Street in these co-productions are termed pro-social in that the curriculum of the productions aims to promote understanding and deconstruct stereotypes within the preschool audience. Sesame Street is a touchstone linking many issues from the globalization of multiculturalism, media and visual culture, to international development. The aims of Sesame Street have grown and changed from concentrating on promoting literacy and numeracy skills in preschool children in America to promoting pro-social aims in post-conflict areas around the world in their international co-productions (Cole et al, 2008). These co-productions represent an intersection of forces of globalization, local educational goals, visual culture and political intentions. In picking apart these intersecting threads, the question emerges of how these international co-productions of Sesame Street, especially those with explicit pro-social goals in post-conflict areas, play a role in visually constructing views of multiculturalism, identity and education on a global stage.
Recommended Citation
Palm, Julianna Carlson, "Muppets Abroad: Globalization of Multiculturalism and the International Co-Productions of Sesame Street" (2012). Master's Theses. 837.
https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/837
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2012 Julianna Carlson Palm
