Teachers' attitudes towards teaching literary fantasy novels in classroom

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine teachers' attitudes towards teaching literary fantasy novels in the classroom. Given that fantasy literature, which is rich in fantastical elements, affects the creative development of the student's personality, the paper wanted to show the opinions and experiences of teachers on this matter. The descriptive method was applied in the research, the research technique is surveying, and the research instrument is a questionnaire, which was filled out by teachers. This questionnaire contains closed-ended questions, which concern teachers' interest in reading literary works of the fantasy genre and their opinion about the influence of this genre on student development. The questionnaire also contains open-ended questions, which sought to find out which literary works of fantastic literature the teachers like to read, which works they covered in class, and which works were proposed by the students. The questionnaire was also intended to determine whether teachers read what students propose in class. At the end, teachers listed the advantages and disadvantages of applying these contents in school. The research sample consists of 56 questionnaires collected during 2021. The obtained results show that the majority of teachers is not interested in reading literary works of the fantasy genre, but believe that such content positively affects the development of the child's imagination and abilities, as well as that most teachers do not read literature recommended by students. Also, the results show that teachers teach literary works of fantasy genre in the younger grades of primary school, although they do so very rarely.