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Title: | Teachers’ beliefs and literature teaching : the case of poetry |
Other Titles: | The institution of English literature : formation and mediation |
Authors: | Xerri, Daniel |
Keywords: | Poetry -- Study and teaching English poetry -- Study and teaching English literature -- Study and teaching Literacy -- Study and teaching |
Issue Date: | 2017 |
Publisher: | V & R unipress |
Citation: | Xerri, D. (2017). Teachers’ beliefs and literature teaching: The case of poetry. In B. Schaff, J. Schlegel & C. Surkamp (Eds.), The institution of English literature: Formation and mediation (pp. 207-229). Göttingen: V & R unipress. |
Abstract: | Literature teaching is the subject of a lot of current research and the debate includes a focus on issues of value and methodology, as shown by other papers in this volume. For example, Elisabeth Bracker analyses the interplay between language learning and engagement with literature in class while Christine Gardemann assesses the actual use of literary texts in English language classrooms. This paper adds to the debate by evaluating the beliefs of poetry teachers working in a post-16 institution in Malta. In light of the idea that “Poetry doesn’t matter to most people” (Parini: ix), it is important to investigate how teachers seek to help students engage with poetry in contemporary classrooms. Some consider education as being partly to blame for the loss in cachet that poetry is supposedly experiencing (Edmundson) while others “denounce literature’s privileged role in education as an irrelevant or elitist relic” (Paulson: 2). However, probably more than any other literary genre, poetry still has a substantial amount of cachet and this is partly due to teachers’ perceptions of it as something difficult but at the same time laden with the potential to enrich and transform the reader. These beliefs influence the way teachers approach poetry in class and thus determine the mediation between students and poetry. Given the importance of having poetry teachers who are themselves readers, this paper analyses teachers’ reading of poetry and then explores their beliefs in relation to its status as a school subject. Due to the fact that students’ experience of poetry is largely dependent on how they study it in class, this paper also examines teachers’ beliefs about the approach they consider most suitable for teaching poetry. |
URI: | https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/114809 |
ISBN: | 9783847006299 |
Appears in Collections: | Scholarly Works - CenELP |
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Teachers_beliefs_and_literature_teaching.pdf Restricted Access | 236.22 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open Request a copy |
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