The Roles of Children's Literature in the English Program in Primary Schools: Reading the texts of our lives?

Abstract

This study explores the possible roles children's literature plays in the contemporary primary English classroom. How teachers perceive literature is directly linked to the relationship they see between the reader, the 'read' and the practice of reading. Such perceptions are derived from many influences, both ideological and pedagogical. All, in some way, are driven by a Foucauldian perspective of power where many competing discourses of English education organise meaning differently and establish their own positions of power. The research for this study adopts a multimethodological approach that draws on ethnographic and quasi-experimental research, together with conceptual, discursive research. It is organised in a metaphorical framework of research in three broad categories of 'lab', 'field' and 'library' research. The context for the study involves two New South Wales sites: primary schools and a regional university. Through surveys of two hundred and eighty-nine teacher education students and interviews with eight classroom teachers, the study examines how preservice and practising teachers recognise and develop their own expertise in the areas of reading and literature. It explores their attitudes to literature and their knowledge of literary theory and of children's literature, and the roles they see literature playing in English education in the primary school. In keeping with the postcritical thinking of this research, the study has followed Romm's suggestion (1997) that claiming multiple realities offers sound arguments that will stimulate discussion in society and enhance the Discourse of the primary English classroom.