nicole kotras masters thesis

Table 15
Frequency and percentages of Black children with correct responses to the 20 small pictures
PICTURE
NUMBER
SAMPLE 1 SAMPLE 2
Frequency % Frequency %
1 64 100 54 100
2 64 100 54 100
3 62 97 53 98
4 58 91 53 98
5 35 55 25 46
6 62 97 54 100
7 55 86 46 85
8 52 81 45 83
9 64 100 51 94
10 63 98 53 98
11 42 66 38 70
12 54 84 45 83
13 57 89 46 85
14 44 67 35 65
15 49 77 40 74
16 46 72 38 70
17 35 55 33 61
18 14 22 12 22
19 25 39 22 41
20 21 33 22 41
Percentages in the table cells have been rounded off to the nearest percentage
Regarding the 20 small revised pictures, Table 15 indicates that the pictures 1 (ball)
and 2 (shoe) were correctly identified by all Black pre-schoolers of sample 1 and sample 2.
A closer look at the individual's responses of both samples reveals that picture 18 (shop)
was the most incorrectly named, followed by picture 20 (owl) for sample 1 and pictures 19
(wheel-barrow) and 20 (owl) for sample 2. As was noted for the White and Coloured pre-
schoolers of both samples, the shop (picture 18) was recognized to be one of the two most
incorrectly identified pictures. Furthermore, an "owl" for Black people is a symbol of bad
luck. One must always take into consideration that the interpretations of utterances by a
child (and adult) are based on the background of their experience (Oskaar, 1975). Hence, a
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