RR 94-2 Public knowing and private understanding: Two views of reading and teaching literature.
Abstract
This paper describes two prospective English teachers' beliefs and understandings regarding literature and the teaching of literature. Through extensive interviews that included context-specific tasks, the authors explored the subjects' prior experiences with literature, their conceptions regarding the nature of literature, and their perceptions of effective literature instruction. While their views contrasted on several points, similarities also appeared. The subjects' views of literature influenced their teaching decisions; however, both had experienced limited opportunities to articulate and debate these views in their English and teacher education courses. A question for teacher educators is how to elicit these views and make them the focus of instruction, exploration and debate, so as to develop more effective teachers.