Integrating values into the social learning process: The occupational world in children’s television shows in Israel

ABSTRACT

Children develop their perceptions, expectations, and attitudes toward the occupational world much earlier than they enter it, also via television which serves as a central socialization agent in the preschool years. The current study thematically analyzes the values associated with the occupational world in children’s series by integrating two theoretical perspectives: Schwartz’s theory of values and Bandura’s social cognitive theory. The study finds that children’s series represent the occupational world extensively and uniformly as multicultural and community-oriented. Many aspects of the occupational world in these shows are portrayed inconsistently with the real-world workplace. All occupations are treated equally, and the workplace is portrayed positively, involving obedience and conformity and nearly no concern for personal professional advancement.

Impact Summary

Prior state of knowledge: Most prior research on the representation of the occupational world has focused on adult-targeted programming and on gender representations. However, television is an important socialization agent about the occupational world and its associated values also for young children.

Novel contributions: This content analysis applies two perspectives: social cognitive theory and Schwartz’s theory of values. It finds that the occupational world on children’s television is presented positively, with conformity and little concern for personal advancement, rather inconsistently with the real-life workforce.

Practical implications: As children can learn about the occupational world from its televised representation in child-targeted shows, parents should be familiar with and mediate the content’s meaning for their children and complement such portrayals with discussions and real-world encounters with the workforce.

KEYWORDS:

• Preschool children’s television series
• occupational world
• Schwartz’ theory of values
• social cognitive theory
• qualitative method

Children develop their perceptions and expectations about the occupational world much earlier than they enter it. Children may be indirectly exposed to their parents’ jobs, they hear their parents talk about their work, meet parents’ colleagues, and visit parents’ workplace; preschoolers learn about professions when teachers introduce occupations or as they play in stations, such as a doctor’s clinic or a grocery store. Post-COVID-19, children may even be exposed to their parents’ work at home (Galanti et al., 2021). Still, the intricacies of adults’ work and the occupational world – workplace relationships, hierarchies, and responsibilities – remain largely invisible to children who are highly interested in the workplace that occupies adults’ time and is awaiting them in the future.

Television can serve as an important socialization agent for children, in general, and about the occupational world, specifically, as it provides children with images of the work world. To date, only research on adolescents has found that professional aspirations are linked to their television viewing and that they obtain information and enhance their desire to achieve professional goals and a respectable occupation as a result of television exposure (Gehrau et al., 2016; Hoffner et al., 2008; Signorielli, 1993). But empirical research has yet to examine younger audiences and such representations within their programming. The current study aims to fill this gap by analyzing the messages about the occupational world as presented in young children’s television shows and by identifying the central values associated with work in these shows. To do so, the study innovatively integrates two theoretical perspectives: Bandura’s social cognitive theory and Schwartz’s theory of values.

Social cognitive theory

Social cognitive theory maintains that individuals learn social behaviors by observing the environment, including media content, and through this, the attitudes, expectations, and feelings involved in behaviors (Bandura, 2009). The theory explicates that the social learning process entails paying attention to appealing media content, remembering and cognitively rehearsing its messages, and executing (or not) actions based on the messages as dependent on the person’s motivation, expectations, and self- and other- reinforcement (Schunk & DiBenedetto, 2020). Various studies have used this theoretical framework to analyze media content, in general (e.g., Hamlen & Imbesi, 2020), and media content that presents the occupational world, specifically (e.g., Hammer, 2010). Studies have also used the theory to examine the connection between exposure to content and the knowledge, attitudes, aspirations, and actual choices of young viewers regarding career and future work (Gehrau et al., 2016; Wenhold & Harrison, 2021).

Children in the pre-operational cognitive developmental stage, ages 2–7, are progressively capable of paying attention to and comprehending television content due to their improved television representational understanding, especially when the content specifically targets them (Linebarger & Vaala, 2010; Mares & Pan, 2013). Limiting children’s learning from television in these ages is children’s tendency to perceive the content through their egocentric and self-centered point of view, which focused on one aspect at the expense of others (Piaget, 1952). Thus, it is important to examine the extent to which television content presents lessons about occupations in a concrete and simple manner, to what extent the messages are consistent across programs, and to what extent the messages are linked to familiar characters and contexts.

Social cognitive theory emphasizes the concept of perceived self-efficacy in explaining the link between media exposure and occupation-related outcomes. Perceived self-efficacy is the personal belief of individuals regarding their chances of succeeding in performing tasks and in attaining their objectives; this perception has been found to be important in career aspirations and perceptions and in the professional success of youth and adults (e.g., Chang & Edwards, 2014). The current study explores the extent to which messages in children’s television shows communicate self-efficacy-enhancing lessons within the occupational context, such as employee empowerment and success in achieving workplace objectives.

Another important action-motivating factor, according to social cognitive theory, is values, which refer to principles that are important to people (Bandura, 1986; Schunk & DiBenedetto, 2020). Values direct people’s expectations, which in turn, lead them to seek success and achievement, also in the workplace. The social learning of occupational-related values is relevant for preschool children, who are the focus of the current study, because children begin to develop a moral sense within the first two years of life (Halstead & Taylor, 2000), at the same time as they observe their parents’ and other meaningful adults’ work behaviors. However, for children in this developmental stage, to truly identify moral lessons from television, the values need to be explicitly modeled and concretely discussed in the content (Mares & Acosta, 2008; Piaget, 1952), which is another focus of the current study.

Schwartz’s theory of values

Values are one of the central concepts in social sciences and humanities; they have predictive and explanatory power about attitudes, norms, opinions, and actions at the individual and societal level (Belic et al., 2022; Schwartz, 2007). According to Schwartz, values are “desirable, trans-situational goals, varying in importance, that serve as guiding principles in people’s lives” (p. 165).

Recently, research has begun to integrate social cognitive theory with theories of values, as important underlying constructs in the learning process. For example, Griffiths (2021) suggested that values serve as motivators for cognitive evaluation, which in turn serve as impetus for action in the context of communication for social change. Ismail (2016) addressed values as predictors of young people’s career choices. The current study extends this line of theoretical work by integrating social cognitive theory with a theoretical consideration of values often portrayed in television content for children. The study relies on Schwartz’s (2012) theory of basic universal values, which has been widely used in the social sciences but has yet to be applied to the context of children’s television content.

Schwartz’s (2012) list of universally-accepted values includes power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation, self-direction, tradition, conformity, security, universalism, and benevolence. According to Schwartz (2007), the values derive from basic human needs, including the needs for survival, well-being, and social interaction. The values have been found to motivate attitudes, behaviors, and decision-making. Empirical research has found that the values are accepted in nearly every society in the world (Belic et al., 2022; Schwartz, 2012). Schwartz’s (2012) also explicates the relationships across the values, which largely involves dialectics of higher-order values that are congruent but conflictual (e.g., openness versus resistance to change values).

Samaniego and Pascual (2007) suggested that television shows can be relevant texts within which to examine the representation of values such as those suggested by Schwartz. This study will examine the representation of Schwartz’s values in young children’s television shows. This will enable the identification of messages about values associated with the occupational world from which young children are expected to learn from the television series designated to them.

Occupational world values

Children undergo the process of value education from a very early age, initially from their families but also from the media, peers, playgroups, and the community (Halstead & Taylor, 2000). One context in which values are especially central is the occupational world. Work values reflect people’s preferences for the types of work and the work environment they desire (Pataki-Bitto & Kapusy, 2021). These values often motivate people and help them set goals in their occupation-related decision making; they are also thought to be associated with occupational satisfaction.

Children’s television content is thought to be a convenient way to transmit educational and cultural values to children, including about the occupational world (Hoffner et al., 2008; Puiggròs et al., 2005; Signorielli & Kahlenberg, 2001). Young people develop schemas and values of work and form expectations regarding their place in the work world long before entering the workforce, probably by the age of 6 (Aladé et al., 2022). Research found that the importance of televised role models for individual career aspirations is high among children and adolescents (Chambers et al., 2018). Televised characters and their portrayed jobs were found to relate to adolescents’ wishful identification with the characters, their desire for future high-status and prestigious positions, and their expectations about what the different tasks and rewards that occupations entail (Hoffner et al., 2006, 2008; Signorielli, 1993).

Content analyses consistently reveal that adult-targeted television programming depicts a biased under-representation of trades, production, administration, and education occupations (Gehrau et al., 2016; Signorielli, 1993). In contrast, prime-time television in different countries over-emphasizes justice and security-related occupations, including police officers, judges, lawyers, and federal agents (Esch, 2011). In general, television tends to present a desired image of respectable jobs that are prestigious, glamorous, adventurous, and exciting (Gehrau et al., 2016). Dramatic considerations guide television’s portrayal of occupational roles, and only those jobs that serve a dramatic function are regularly portrayed on prime-time (Signorielli & Kahlenberg, 2001).

As can be seen above, much of the existing work on the presence of occupational portrayals in the media has focused on adult-oriented television (Aladé et al., 2022), Aladé et al. (2021) found that 14% of the occupations portrayed in STEM-focused children’s television shows were STEM occupations. Long et al. (2010) found that the typical scientist character on children’s television was an unmarried man, held a high-status science position, and was portrayed as being intelligent. Other studies have also identified a gender bias favoring men in the presentation of the workforce in children’s programming (Smith et al., 2012). This gender inequality mirrors that found in adult-targeted programming, though some advances toward presenting women in more high-status positions have been identified (González de Garay et al., 2020). Despite their importance in children’s social learning process in the occupational realm, values associated with this context in children’s shows have yet to be examined; this is the focus of the current study.

Research questions

Guided by social cognitive theory and Schwartz’s theory of values, the current study is a content analysis of messages within children’s television shows that are likely to communicate important lessons about the occupational world, its characteristics, and values:

RQ1:

What occupations are attributed to the main recurring characters in children’s series (targeting children in the pre-operational developmental stage) and what are the main characteristics of these occupations?

RQ2:

Which values are associated with the occupational world as presented in children’s television series?

Method

A qualitative content analysis was performed on episodes sampled from the eight television channels in Israel that targeted the early childhood age group in January 2017, the sampling period. The channels included BabyTV, Disney Junior, Hop, the Israeli Educational Television, JimJam, Junior, Luli, and Nick Junior.¹ The sample was randomly selected throughout this month, with eight hours sampled from each channel to represent two weekday afternoons and one Saturday morning each. Overall, 330 episodes from 111 series were sampled. A recent examination of the series in the sample revealed that many of these are still broadcast on Israeli children’s television today and all are available for viewing by millions of viewers worldwide on streaming services and YouTube. Recent reports indicate that children under the age of 8 are heavily and increasingly exposed to television content via streaming services and YouTube (Rideout & Robb, 2020), making these shows and their episodes still relevant years after their original broadcast.

The current analysis is part of a larger project, which focused on analyzing a multitude of depictions in young children’s television programming, including the representation of socialization agents (Eyal et al., 2021), gender roles (Aharoni et al., 2020), information and communication technologies (Eyal et al., 2022), and the portrayals’ complexity (Te’eni-Harari et al., 2020). Following the earlier analyses, the sample was reexamined with a focus on the values represented in the occupational world, which was found, through informal observation, to be prevalent on these shows. All the episodes were revisited to identify those that regularly represented the occupational world as a central feature of the shows and the characters, and 32 series were found to be relevant (28.83% of the sample’s series) (see Table 1).

Table 1. Occupations and their central characteristics in the shows.

Professional Domains	Occupations	Programs	Channels	Main Characters: Gender (Male [M], female [F]), Type (Human [H], Anthropomorphized [A]), Age (Adult [A], Youngster [Y]), Race/Ethnicity (White [W], non-White [n-W])
Scientific research	Investigators	Floogals	Hop	2 MAA, 1 FAA
		Shuster veShuster	Educational Television	1 MHAW, 1 FHAW
		Nature Cat	Hop	1 MAY
	Professors/apprentices/research assistants	Confused Yuval – Mr. Tomato	Hop	2 MHAW, 1 FAA
		Alice Knows What to Do	Junior	1 MHAW, 1 FHYW
Service providers	Locomotive driver	Post Train	BabyTV	1 MHAn-W
	Builder	Bob the Builder	Hop	1 MHAW, 1 MAA, 1FHAW
	Doctor/nurse	Doc McStuffins	Disney Junior	1 FHYn-W, 1 FAA
	Sheriff/deputy	Sheriff Callie’s Wild West	Disney Junior	1 FAA, 1 MAA
	Delivery personnel	Super Wings	Hop	1 MHAW, 1 MAA
	Store clerk	Rega with Dodli	Educational Television	1 MHAW
		The Crazy World of Uncle Haim	Hop	2 MHAW, 1 FHAW
		Hungry Henry	BabyTV	1 FHAn-W
	Rescue teams	Fireman Sam	Hop	3 MHAW
		PAW Patrol	Nick Junior	5 MAY, 1 MHAW, 1 FAA
		Robo Car Poly	Nick Junior	5 MAY, 1 MAA, 1 FAA
	Princesses	Princess Sofia the First	Disney Junior	1 FHYW
		Elena of Avelor	Disney Junior	1 FHAn-W
Entertainment and leisure	Football players	Sendokai Champions	Junior	3 MHYn-W, 1 FHYn-W
	Circus people	Bomba Around the World	Luli	2 MAA
	Chef/pastry chef	The Best Pastries Club	Nick Junior	1 MHAW
		Molly and Tsumi	Hop	1 MHAW, 1 MAA
		Hungry Henry	BabyTV	1 MHAn-W
	Race car drivers	Blaze and the Monster Machines	Nick Junior	1 MHAn-W, 1 MAA
	Magicians	A School for Wizards	Educational Television	2 MHAW
		Little Charmers	Nick Junior	3 FHYW
	Musicians	Tiny Beats	BabyTV	2 MHYW, 1 FHYW
		Jammers	BabyTV	4 MAA
	Dancers	Tipa Tupa	BabyTV	1 MHAW, 1 FHAW
	Youth leaders	Duggee	Luli	1 MAA
		The Best Pastries Club	Nick Junior	1 MHAW
	DJ	Yo Gaba Gaba!	Luli	1 MHAn-W
Productive professions	High-tech workers	Talking Tom and Friends	Junior	2 MAY
	Farmer	Little Lola!	BabyTV	1 FHYW
		Hungry Henry	BabyTV	1 FHAn-W

The examination was conducted inductively and qualitatively using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The thematic analysis began with repeated viewings by the lead author of all the episodes of the relevant series. In this way, programs and occupations were located that reflect familiar occupations in real life, such as farmers and scientists. The next stage was to identify repeated patterns pertaining to the occupations, the behavior of the characters, and the values that are reflected in the programs. This led to defining main categories (e.g., professionalism, cooperation, teamwork, obedience). Through a process of refinement and redefinition, similar categories were combined and considered for inclusion in themes. Main themes were determined in a joint discussion among the three authors. The themes were formulated, re-examined, and confirmed, and disagreements were resolved through joint examination and discourse until full agreement was attained. A new theme was identified when meaningful categories did not validly fit into already recognized themes. Once themes were determined, the authors considered their fit to Schwartz’s list of values, and representative examples were selected for each theme.

To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the character traits and the number of programs that are relevant to each theme, a descriptive quantitative analysis was conducted by one of the three authors. The author meticulously tallied the number of characters based on these codes: gender (male or female), ethnicity (white or non-white – Asian, Latina/Hispanic, African American), age (below or according to the accepted working age in the Western world – youngster or adult), and whether they were human or non-human (anthropomorphized). Additionally, the author counted the number of programs related to each of the five themes of values identified in the occupational world.

Results

Answering RQ1: Occupations and their characteristics

Occupations represented in children’s television series in this sample can be grouped based on a functional categorization (e.g., Stichweh, 1997) into four main domains (see Table 1), which fit Holland’s (1997) commonly-accepted categorization linking occupations with personality types: (1) service providers (Holland’s social type) – occupations involving working with and helping others (e.g., doctors, delivery personnel, search and rescue teams); (2) scientific research professions (investigative type) – involve problem-solving and searching for facts (e.g., researchers of society, the environment, and human behavior); (3) productive professions (realistic type) – involve hands-on, practical jobs (e.g., builders, farmers); and (4) entertainment and leisure professionals (creative type) – involve arts and music (e.g., musicians, circus performers, and wizards). Each profession is central to the narrative and the series regardless of the training or education required for learning the occupation and the skills necessary for executing it.

Workers’ gender, race/ethnicity, and age

The study focused on three central characteristics of televised workers which are especially relevant for children: gender, race, and age. Children recognize gender at a very young age, even as less than one-year-old infants (Martin & Ruble, 2010). They differentiate racial features as infants and develop stereotypical racial perceptions early in the pre-school years (Pauker et al., 2016). All three constructs are easily identifiable in human television characters and gender and age are relatively easy to identify in anthropomorphized characters common in children’s television content, as they are represented by audio and appearance attributes to which young children pay attention (Bar-Tal, 1996). Moreover, gender has been a central category of interest in research on real-world occupations, with gender lack of diversity and inequality recognized as important determinants of well-being and business performance in the occupational world (Gutiérrez & Castaño, 2021).

The televised occupational world is marked by quantitative gender inequality – there are about two-and-a-half times as many males (n = 56, 71.79%) as females (n = 22, 28.21%) in various occupations. Importantly, despite the paucity of female characters, some of them take center stage in the programs and even challenge traditional occupational-gender stereotypes. For example, female characters in traditionally male occupations, such as medicine, agriculture, and law and order (Oswald, 2008), are often presented as the top bosses and are portrayed to be successful and well-respected in their professions (e.g., Doc in “Doc McStuffins,” Disney Junior, U.S.A., 2012–2020). Women characters often function on an equal footing with men, even in jobs traditionally perceived as male-oriented, such as investigators and federal agents, football players, and wizards (Janssen & Backes-Gellner, 2016). For example, the cat character Sheriff Callie (“Sheriff Callie’s Wild West,” Disney Junior, U.S.A., 2014–2017) is responsible for keeping order in a small town. In the episode entitled “Barrelsful of Troubles,” she exhibits leadership, wisdom, courage, and perseverance. In the episode, Sheriff Callie learns that a band of robber foxes has stolen valuable items from the city store. With her deputy woodpecker, Peck, Callie unsuccessfully pursues several strategies to find the loot before enlisting the townspeople to help think of an effective solution. Throughout these attempts, Sheriff Callie leads the action, jumping over or digging under walls, while her male deputy serves as advisor. Eventually, Callie devises the perfect creative solution and guides the townspeople in carrying it out. At the end of the episode, Sheriff Callie successfully captures the three foxes using her lasso in a heroic fashion.

With regard to race/ethnicity, categorized similarly to past studies (Hamlen & Imbesi, 2020), the current sample finds that 7 of the 24 series in the sample that involve human characters (29.17%) include central characters in the occupational world who can be considered as non-White, from traditionally underrepresented racial groups. There are 12 non-White characters (27.91% of 43 human characters), including Asians (“Sendokai Champions,” Junior, Spain, 2013-current), Latina/Hispanics (“Elena of Avelor,” Disney Junior, U.S.A., 2016–2020), and African-Americans (“Doc McMuffins”).

In terms of age, a surprising finding is that more than a third of working characters in these shows are children below the accepted working age in the Western world (27 of 76 characters, 35.53% of the sample). These young characters appear in all the occupational domains presented in the television programs in the sample.

Characteristics of the workplace organizational culture

The occupational world presented in children’s shows entails working in teams with a clear hierarchy. The research teams, search and rescue teams (e.g., federal agents, firemen), entrepreneur work teams (e.g., in high tech), and entertainment teams (e.g., circus personnel, bakers) work harmoniously and calmly without conflicts and tensions between the workers. These teams usually include a leader, or a boss, who motivates and guides the workers, and this is usually the program’s main character. The distribution of labor remains static within and across the series’ episodes.

The shows rarely present both the workday and leisure time; when the workday ends, so does the episode. On the other hand, some of the programs blur the distinction between leisure and work, as the characters integrate their private family/home life with their public/work life. For example, the rescue teams in “Paw Patrol” (Nick Junior, Canada, 2013-current) and “Robo Car Poly” (Nick Junior, South Korea, 2011-current) live together at the headquarters and Duggee the youth movement counselor (“Hey Duggee,” Luli, Britain, 2015-current) manages the camp based in his home. Work in these children’s shows rarely takes place in an office, and most often, public and wide-open outdoor spaces are where work takes place.

Interestingly, children’s television shows hardly mention financial compensation for the work, salary, or bonuses. Promotion or improvement in employment conditions is hardly ever mentioned in the programs, with two minor exceptions (e.g., in one episode of “Talking Tom and Friends” [Junior, Austria/Spain, 2015–2021], the characters work toward winning a contest with a one-time monetary award).

Answering RQ2: Themes of values in the occupational world

Five main themes were identified that characterize the values presented in the television occupational world: (1) a helpful community-oriented work environment (65.62% [n = 21] of series); (2) conformist obedience to job definitions and workplace guidelines (62.50% [n = 20] of series); (3) multi-culturalism and acceptance of the other as part of work (43.75% [n = 14] of series); (4) learning and curiosity in work (50.00% [n = 16] of series); and (5) the joy of work (56.25% [n = 18] of series).

A helpful community-oriented work environment

A central value that is reflected in the occupations within these shows is a concern for the community. This is reflected in teamwork and the use of job resources and authority to tend to the environment beyond the workplace and, at times, above and beyond the job definition. Teamwork in the programs is presented as effective cooperation and mutual assistance, including sacrifice for the community and family-like solidarity. Concern for the other as a binding commitment that arises from professional practice is well reflected in the search and rescue team programs, in which the essence of the job is concern for others. For example, in “Fireman Sam” (Hop, Britain, 2003-current), the job requires Sam and his fellow firemen to help the citizens of their town Pontypandy.

Examples of community-orientation and concern for others that go beyond the occupational job description are seen when characters use their professional resources and knowledge to altruistically help others beyond the call of duty. Examples of this are found in “Sendokai Champions,” in which a team of football players uses a football game to protect humankind from aliens threatening to take over Earth and the Multiverse. In their mission, the football players place themselves in extreme danger from fireballs and laser beams.

Conforming obedience to job definitions and workplace guidelines

The occupational world in the sample’s programs conforms to a strict hierarchical division, with ranks, bosses, and underlings. The worker characters accept this hierarchy with conformity and obedience without questioning or challenging it. Three main elements delineate the workers’ obedience in the programs: (1) the job definition and labor division; (2) the uniforms symbolizing the workers’ ranks; and (3) the professional knowledge that symbolizes the expertise of those whose authority must be obeyed.

An example of hierarchical and obedient group behavior can be found in “Doc McStuffins.” In the program, Dotty (Doc) is a girl who plays an imaginary game with her toys (who come to life as humans) in which she is their doctor. Hallie the Hippo serves as the good-hearted nurse assistant to Doc. In the episode “To Fall in Love with a Cat,” Doc adds an old and ragged cat that she received to her group of anthropomorphized animals. Lenny the sheep asks permission from Doc to adopt the cat as her pet. Doc decides that first she must examine the cat and Doc’s animal toys run to the vet clinic, dancing and singing to calm the cat. Doc asks the group to leave the clinic during the examination, except for the nurse and the adopting sheep. Without protest, the others immediately obey the doctor’s orders and the examination begins.

Multiculturalism and acceptance of the other as part of work

Especially programs that portray service occupations tend to represent the value of recognizing and accepting the other, and the idea of multiculturalism. In messenger-delivery and cooking/baking shows, deliveries are made to, and food is brought from, different countries; the basic characteristics of whose cultures are, in turn, explained to the viewers. The main characters – representing the viewers’ culture – are the central mainstays, whereas the foreigners are replaced from episode to episode. Symbolically, each episode includes a sequence in which a route taken by the characters from their country of origin to the country on which the episode focused is plotted on a globe.

The connection between the locals and the foreigners is reflected in one of two ways: the foreign characters need the services provided by the main characters, or the foreigners’ foods help resolve local problems. For example, in each episode of “The Best Pastries Club” (Nick Junior, Israel, 2012–2016), pastry chef Micki prepares a dish characteristic of a foreign country which helps youth-leader Gili solve the children’s problem. In the episode “Tasting the World in Switzerland,” Bar had arranged to visit two different friends at the same time. The two friends do not get along, and Bar does not want to insult one by going to the other. Micki and Gili help resolve the problem by preparing Bar a fondue dish; eating together from the fondue pot enables everyone to have a good time together. The solution, according to Gili, came from Switzerland. Gili gathers the students to see where Switzerland is on the globe in relation to Israel and tells them basic facts about Switzerland. Switzerland is also represented by two of Gili’s neighbors who disguised themselves as visitors from Switzerland to participate in the fondue celebration. In keeping with familiar stereotypes, they disguise themselves as Johana, the daughter of Heidi of the Mountains, and Herman Spitzer, the watchmaker.

Learning and curiosity in work

Curiosity is an important value that facilitates personal occupational growth, especially in scientific professions. In these programs, the main characters seek to investigate and understand human behavior (e.g., “Floogals” [Hop, Britain/France, 2016–2020]), to learn and experiment using technological means (e.g., “Talking Tom and Friends”), and to understand nature and the human environment (e.g., “Nature Cat” [Hop, U.S.A., 2015-current]). Curiosity-motivated learning is presented on television as part of the job requirements.

An example for learning and curiosity can be seen in “Shuster veShuster” (Educational Television, Israel, 2015-current). At the center of the program are two federal agents who, in each episode, must deal with a villain with superpowers who will conquer the world if they fail to solve a riddle. To solve the riddle, they learn about technology, culture, physics, and the environment. In one of the episodes, they must find the connection between cars, Dr. Seuss, and opera. To this end, they visit a garage and learn how to measure motored vehicles’ (horse) power. They also visit a children’s library and learn about the author and painter Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss (which is the Hebrew word for horse). Through the curiosity required in their profession, they solve the riddle. Solving the riddle led to the only professional advancement in all the series sampled – the successful agent was promoted to the rank of Senior Agent.

The joy of work

The workday of the main characters in these programs is usually presented as happy and entertaining. Work both satisfies and promotes happiness. In some series, happiness in the occupational world forms part of the linear narrative structure: the work day begins by going out to work, accompanied by joyful shouts and playfulness; during the workday the characters may encounter a problem which they solve while celebrating the solution, reflecting the joy that work brings them. Even the opening sequence of some of the series that deal with the occupational world show the joy of work as the characters are seen running joyfully to work to a soundtrack of happy music. For example, Lola the farmer opens each episode of the series “Little Lola!” (BabyTV, Israel/Britain, 2012–2022) running around the farm and laughing. Lola deals with the animals on the farm, entertaining herself with riddles about animals.

Discussion

The study investigated the representation of the workplace in children’s television shows. The study enables the integration of values theory (Schwartz, 2012) with social cognitive theory (Bandura, 2009) by illustrating how the concrete representation of abstract values in children’s shows reflects messages that child viewers can learn from these shows about a non-child context – the workplace. Child viewers are exposed to a fairly consistent and elaborate representation of the occupational world and of various occupations that appears consistently across many series. As will be discussed below, the shows reflect seven of the ten basic human values and seem to place a strong emphasis on interpersonal relationships and caring for others in the workplace, almost to the point of equating the workplace with the family.

Some of the portrayals of the workplace within the shows are in line with real-world trends in the workforce. First, the study finds a wide representation of a diverse range of occupations in these shows. Second, the depiction of the work community as family-like is resonant of views of the workplace as a community and even as a family (Cucchi & Seracini, 2022; Kunda & Van Maanen, 2017). It is also consistent with the ideals of the workplace as reflected by generation Z youth, who aspire to experience good workplace relationships (e.g., Iorgulescu, 2016). Child viewers can learn through such depictions about cooperation and teamwork toward a joint goal and infusing one’s professional responsibilities with interpersonal relationships and care.

In contrast, other depictions in the shows may contradict today’s contemporary occupational world. The occupations are presented without differentiation based on the required educational background or required professional training. This egalitarian representation of occupations contrasts with the depiction of other issues in children’s television shows, such as family representations (Zurcher et al., 2018), which are often laden with moral evaluations. It is also inconsistent with real world data regarding inequalities in the workplace (e.g., DiPrete et al., 2017).

Moreover, the occupational world in children’s television shows involves many minor-aged characters. In this televised world, child workers and bosses are treated equally to adults and carry the same professional responsibilities. Furthermore, the positions that child-characters hold in these shows are in no way restricted to child-relevant contexts, such as selling lemonade on a hot day in a neighborhood playground, but rather they are immersed in the adult occupational world in what seem to be full-time positions. On the one hand, children’s shows likely appeal to children by emphasizing characters who are like them and open new contexts that might captivate this audience. On the other hand, and as opposed to Bernardini (2013), the current study finds that child characters do not reject adult responsibility, but rather naturally adopt adult professional responsibilities (see also Davidson & Ribak, 2021 about the adult/child switch in advertisements). Such representations might blur the boundaries between the child and adult worlds, also within shows targeting young children (Meyrowitz, 1985; Postman, 1985).

Further, the lack of characters’ self-directional motivation for personal achievement differs from contemporary Gen Z employees (i.e., those born between the mid- to late-1990s and the early 2010s), who are thought to be competitive, open to changes, and driven to achieve personal accomplishment, are constantly seeking to advance, and often switch workplaces on their road to making professional developments (Snell et al., 2023). Similarly, the presentation of the occupational world as such a positive, almost utopian place in these shows, entirely ignores the challenges or downsides associated with work. Whereas the work context in prime-time programming is often represented with much drama (Signorielli & Kahlenberg, 2001), characters who work in children’s programming do so while literally singing and dancing, with smiles on their faces, and a positive and optimistic demeanor, even in occupations that are often associated with conflicts or challenges, such as doctors. On the one hand, such positive portrayals are expected in young children’s programming; Woo and McDermott (2019) found that already in adolescent-preferred television shows, unethical workplace behaviors are widely portrayed (e.g., abuse of power, violation of workplace norms). On the other hand, such portrayals offer a rather narrow point of view on the occupational world, with all downsides entirely ignored, including conflicts among coworkers, failures in achieving work goals, hierarchical conflicts, etc. Even the issue of salary is entirely ignored in these shows. The overall message from these shows seems to be that the pay for work is more in the symbolic capital – happiness, togetherness, purpose – rather than in materialistic capital (Bourdieu, 1986).

Values depicted about the workplace

The themes identified about the workplace in the shows analyzed reflect many of the values in Schwartz’s (2012) theory. As Schwartz defined the values as universal, this study indeed finds the values within both locally-produced and imported international programs, implicating that children world-wide are exposed to similar messages about the occupational world. The helpful community-oriented work environment, depicting co-workers as family members who care about one another and work to help each other to achieve joint goals, resonates with the values of benevolence and security. Benevolence, according to Schwartz, refers to the concern for preserving the welfare of in-group members with whom one is in regular contact to maintain a smooth functioning and create a sense of affiliation. The work team in the shows is often portrayed as a primary group, much like the family, and characters spend much of their day at work, cooperating with and being supportive of one another. Security as a value is also concerned with promoting harmony and stability of relationships for the self and others. Both values, as expressed in the shows, convey a message that the workplace provides a sense of belonging and preserves the social order, similar to findings from workplace ethnographies (e.g., Cucchi & Seracini, 2022; Kunda & Van Mannen, 2017).

This first theme – the community orientation and support – is similar to previously identified values in early content analyses of children’s educational programming. Jordan et al. (2001) found that the majority of shows focused on the importance of getting along with others, being honest, and overcoming prejudice. Further, more recent content analyses of values in children’s programming focused primarily on differentiating characters’ egoistic versus altruistic motivations. Though Aley et al. (2021) found more egoistic (e.g., competence) than altruistic (e.g., caring for others) motivations in children’s educational television shows, the current study identified mostly altruistic motivations (e.g., nurturing, sharing), similar to other studies of young children’s programming (Hahn et al., 2017); egoistic motivations tend to become more prevalent in shows that target older children (Aierbe-Barandiaran & Oregui-Gonzalez, 2016) and in children’s books (Tamborini et al., 2021).

Similarly, emphasizing the maintenance of social order and expectations is the theme of obedience to job definitions and guidelines. No instances of resistance to or attempts to break away from the job requirements were identified in these shows. This theme seems to resonate with Schwartz’s (2012) value of conformity, which emphasizes self-discipline, politeness, and the inhibition of behaviors that might disrupt an efficient group functioning. The theme also seems to reflect the value of achievement, which Schwartz defines as the performance of competence and success according to social and cultural standards and with the goal of receiving social approval.

The third theme identified in this study – multi-culturalism in the workplace – seems to echo Schwartz’s (2012) value of universalism: the appreciation and tolerance for all others, including those in the out-group. In addition to cross-cultural encounters in the shows, there is also diversity as reflected in the more than one-quarter of series that include a racial/ethnic underrepresented character in their central cast. This percentage seems to exceed that identified in past studies (Hamlen & Imbesi, 2020). It is important for future research to examine whether this is a unique portrayal in the occupational context within these shows or only to human (versus anthropomorphized characters) in children’s shows.

Though care for the environment and nature – defined by Schwartz (2012) as one of the pillars of universalism – receives less emphasis in television shows’ portrayals of the workplace, the concern for the welfare of others in the world is depicted in these shows. Interestingly, many of the cross-cultural meetings in the shows seem to be ethnocentric and depicted from the local point of view of the character worker him or herself. One possible explanation for this pattern of depictions has to do with the target audience’s developmental characteristics as young children are known to be egocentric and experience the world through their individual lens without being capable of cognitively differentiating their own from others’ perspectives (Kesselring & Muller, 2011).

The fourth theme – learning and curiosity in work – mostly reflects Schwartz’s (2012) stimulation value. Here, excitement, challenge, and the desire for diverse experiences receive the focus, similar to findings from real workplace ethnographies (e.g., Cucchi & Seracini, 2022). Though Schwartz links stimulation to the value of self-direction – independent thought and action – the television shows analyzed here reflect this value to a lesser degree. In fact, the shows seem to frame the characters’ curiosity squarely within the confines of their jobs, job requirements and goals. The characters are not represented as wanting to experience mastery or express creativity beyond what is immediately needed. The shows do not reflect a more generalized sense of joy of learning or extending one’s horizons, which could have been inspirational for child viewers. Finally, the fifth theme identified is the joy of work. These representations align with Schwartz’s value of hedonism, reflecting pleasure, self-indulgence, and self-gratification.

Importantly, though seven of Schwartz’s (2012) values are reflected in the analyzed shows, three additional values do not seem to be widely represented in the shows. The first is self-direction, as noted above. The second missing value is power, defined as the concern with social status, prestige, and status differentiation. Though the workplaces in the shows include clear bosses, and though all characters are generally obedient to this hierarchy, there is little depiction of dominance or control in these work relations. Characters seem to be unconcerned with social recognition or their public image as well as with other manifestations of power, such as salary and promotion. This absence may be explained by the age of the target audience, as the media world may prefer to present cheerful and nonconflictual portrayals.

The third of Schwartz’s (2012) values that is not easily identified in the shows is tradition, the notion of respect and commitment to cultural or long-standing religious customs, as reflected by shared practices and symbols. Rather, the shows reflect working teams’ solidarity to persons with whom one interacts (i.e., the value of conformity). Another possible explanation for the absence of these three values from the shows could be Schwartz’s (2007) delineation of the conflict between two sets of values: self-enhancement values (e.g., power), which emphasize self-interest, individualism, and control over others versus self-transcendence values (e.g., universalism, benevolence), which emphasize concern for others and solidarity. Children’s television shows, as currently analyzed, seem to resolve the conflict by emphasizing self-transcendence values at the expense of self-enhancement ones. This is consistent with people’s preference for self-transcendence (e.g., helping others) with regard to what provides meaning in their lives (Huang & Yang, 2023).

Integrating values theory and social cognitive theory

Social cognitive theory (Bandura, 2009) largely addresses the lessons that can be learned from mediated depictions; most of these messages are explicitly presented in the content. For example, joyful depictions of characters singing and dancing on the job will attract child viewers and provide positive role models of the occupational world, encouraging children’s view of this adult context. Such depictions are also likely to enhance children’s perceived occupational self-efficacy – the perception that they can succeed in the occupational world – especially if they identify with and like the portrayed characters and storylines. The current study suggests that values theory (Schwartz, 2012) offers additional depth to understanding the social learning process by emphasizing the implicit, latent messages accompanying the more explicit portrayals. These subtexts focus on values transmitted via the mediated depictions and convey the evaluations associated with the workplace. As the current analysis reveals, children’s television shows repetitively and consistently portray many of the basic human values – each value on its own as well as conflicts among the values as theorized by Schwartz – and link them to the characters’ professional occupations. Combining both theoretical perspectives extends the understanding of viewers’ likelihood to learn from mediated content, potentially also beyond the specific context of the workplace.

Limitations and future research directions

The sample for this study was drawn only from Israeli television channels. Based on the Israeli children’s television landscape and on past content analyses (e.g., Lemish, 2011), these largely international and imported shows are representative of children’s programming worldwide. Nonetheless, repeating this investigation in other countries with diverse work and organizational cultures is worthwhile. In addition, whereas the study identified themes in representations, it cannot conclude how child viewers interpret or respond to these portrayals, how they perceive the workplace, different occupations, co-worker relations, and salary/financial considerations. Reception and effects studies should follow to ascertain children’s perspectives on these depictions and whether they shape their occupational aspirations and self-efficacy. It would also be interesting to understand how the messages that children receive from such television shows match up with messages they receive about the workplace from other socialization agents, including their parents.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matan Aharoni

Matan Aharoni (Ph.D., Haifa University, 2015) is a senior faculty member at the School of Communication at Ariel University, Israel. His expertise is in qualitative research methods. His research focuses on media representation of gender, ethnic, and religious minorities in mainstream, community, and alternative media, on digital and participatory culture, and on media systems interactions.

Tali Te’eni-Harari

Tali Te’eni-Harari (Ph.D., Bar Ilan University, 2005) is a Senior Lecturer in the Business School at Peres Academic Center. Her research focuses on understanding media, advertising, and young people.

Keren Eyal

Keren Eyal (Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2004) is a Senior Lecturer in the Sammy Ofer School of Communications at Reichman University. Her research focuses on media content and effects, with a focus on the media’s role in youth socialization.

Notes

1. The Educational Television is the only public channel in the sample; all other channels are commercial channels. The Educational Television, Hop, and Luli are Israeli channels which air imported shows alongside original Israeli productions. BabyTV was originally an Israeli channel which broadcast only imported shows and is broadcast in over 110 countries worldwide (BabyTV, nd). The other channels (Disney Junior, Nick Junior, Junior, and JimJam) are all international channels which air largely international shows but also local productions.