230593 Is Literature Safe for Kids? The Problem of Learning and the Teaching of Literature (S) (SoSe 2010)

This course explores teaching about literature and culture from the perspective of learning. Through theoretical and applied readings dealing with the problem of learning in educational contexts we will engage in a range of issues critical to the pedagogies of literary and cultural studies, such as close reading, interpretation, and cultural critique, complexity, ambiguity, the interplay of cognition and emotion, and the constructed nature of meaning. We will explore these and other issues in light of what we know about learning development, teaching practice, and the nature of expert thinking. Students will have the opportunity to develop projects in line with their interests, including teaching in higher education, secondary education, community-based teaching, and digital and multimedia pedagogies. (nb: This is not a didactics course.)

Initial questions include:

• What are some of the ‘ideas of consequence’ at the core of literature pedagogy?
• Are theories of reading and interpretation also theories of learning?
• How have ideas such as ‘difficulty’ and ‘complexity’ shaped the way literary and cultural fields get reproduced in the classroom?
• What would it look like if we approached literary study the way we approach the teaching of writing (i.e. what would ‘process approaches’ to literature look like)?
• Are there signature pedagogies in literary studies?
• What impact might new media technology have on the teaching of texts and its related skills?
• What is important about the humanities that might shape pedagogy in the 21st century?

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand how teaching about literature and culture is expressive of underlying theoretical paradigms
2. Understand the interdependencies between research and teaching
3. Develop a terminology to talk about teaching and learning effectively
4. Ability to critically examine potential signature pedagogies of English or American studies
5. Ability to generate and articulate responses to texts in class discussions, and to explain the premises and assumptions underlying such responses;
6. Ability to plan and execute the facilitation of a class session.