Readers Becoming Teachers of Literature

Abstract

This naturalistic case study focuses on 2 preservice students in a secondary language arts program. I wanted to know how their histories as readers and students of literature intersected with their secondary-school literature course and how their developing stances on teaching literature changed as they moved through their preservice teaching. Data collection included fieldnotes; audiotaped interviews; reading protocols; documents such as syllabi, handouts, and assignments; preservice students' portfolios, logs, lesson plans, and tests; and videotapes of the participants teaching literature during their preservice teaching. I made observations of additional classes, and I collected teaching logs, lesson plans, and other relevant artifacts. I used a constant-comparison analysis to produce grounded theory about the preservice experience. The data revealed two broad sources of knowledge that were important to the participants' entering perceptions on teaching literature: prior experiences with literature and preexisting conceptions of the role of a teacher. The ideas they brought with them were often in conflict with what they encountered in the preservice course. Their cases illustrate the impact of a secondary-literature course and preservice teaching on participants' ideas about teaching literature.