Teachers Opinions on Working with Children’s Literature.

Author(s):

Erna Van Koeven(presenting / submitting)Yvonne Leeman(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

03. Curriculum Innovation by Schools and Teachers

Format:

Paper

Session Information

03 SES 04 A, Renewing Reading Literacy: Cases from Finland and Scotland

Parallel Paper Session

Time:

2012-09-19

09:00-10:30

Room:

FFL - Aula 4 A

Chair:

Majella O'Shea

Contribution

Educating in and for diversity is an important topic in education in Europe. Central in our view on the aims of schooling is the development of pupils’ to learn to participate in society in an autonomous, critical, democratic and socially responsible way, whilst respecting different ideological and religious views on life (Council of Europe 2008). In educational policy technical reading skills and reading comprehension are stressed. Reading culture with room for developing a personal ‘reader identity’ is hardly found in policy documents. To realize pedagogical quality in reading education it is important to pay attention not only to technical reading skills but also to the personal identity development of the pupils (Biesta, 2010).

The aim of this study was to gain insight into opinions on the aims of education in relation to children’s literature in primary schools of a specific religious denomination. We selected four Dutch liberal protestant primary schools for a casestudy research. Liberal protestant schools have an open admissions policy and hence a varied pupil population with a range of ideological ideas. A third of all Dutch primary schools are Protestant, of which by far the majority are liberal Protestant. Because of their varied population, liberal Protestant primary schools are often confronted with requests of orthodox Christian parents to safeguard their child’s moral development by withdrawing children’s books from the school or by emphasizing transactional reading (Pike 2007).

The research is interdisciplinary in character; it is founded in educational sciences and the sociology of literature. By the start of the research there was some empirical evidence that liberal Protestant primary schools in the Netherlands sometimes withhold books from pupils and that decisions about this are not always openly communicated to parents.

The research question for the whole project is:

What opinions on children’s literature are found in liberal Protestant primary schools and how are these manifested in school practice? In the presentation we want to focus on the opinions of teachers on the identity of the school in relation to education on children’s literature in their school and how these are manifested in the choice of books and in working with books.

It is known that parents’ choice of a liberal Protestant school is not only determined by the distance between home and the school and the quality of education but also by their religious orientation. The school’s religious identity can be expressed in a formal vision but members of the school team (principal and teachers) can interpret it in an informal way (Avest, ter, Bakker, Bertram-Troost, & Miedema 2007). While the pupil population at liberal Protestant schools is very diverse, the teacher population is characterized by a shared ideological biography. Team members have been brought up Protestant and were educated in Protestant schools. They share this biography with some of the parents. Liberal Protestant schools do vary. They can focus on the narrow visible identity of the school, through religious-knowledge lessons and the celebration of Christian rituals, or give a broader interpretation to the religious identity as an integral part of the curriculum.

Method

We conducted case-study research in four schools. Selection criteria for the case studies focused on similarities and differences between the schools. The schools selected all have a liberal Protestant identity and a school team of at least eight. Furthermore, they are located in an ideologically diverse environment. They made different decisions on participating in the National Children’s Book Week about magic. As research instruments interviews, document analyses, an inventory of class libraries, a written questionnaires and fieldnotes were used. There were two research groups: school team members (including school principals) and parents. The interviews with 33 team members (29 teachers and four school principals) formed the basis of the description of the cases. The results of the questionnaires completed by team members of the four schools (N=64), research on school documents and class libraries, and the field notes provided supplementary information which both illustrated and questioned the findings from the interviews. The questionnaires completed by parents (N=165) and the interviews with some of them (N=14) completed the picture of the schools.

Expected Outcomes

It is clear that there is not a formal vision on the liberal Protestant identity, but rather an ‘identity atmosphere’ or ‘identity customs’ based on team members’ images of what ‘a Protestant school’ should be like. Choices regarding the selection of and working with children’s literature are not determined by a shared team vision of the religious identity of the school but by a combination of individual characteristics, characteristics of the school team and environmental characteristics. Focusing on the individual characteristics we can differentiate between teachers. For example not only teacher’s individual religious views prove to be important for their practices on the choice of children’s books, but also their opinions on the school identity. Some recommendations for teacher education can be made on the basis of this research. If institutes for teacher education want to educate student teachers to be able to have a voice in constructing a pedagogical view on reading culture and religious identity at their future schools, in the curriculum should be paid attention to how they reflect on their personal norms and values and to how they develop a critical view on the context of their work as teachers in schools of a specific ideological or religious denomination.

References

Avest, I. ter., Bakker, C., Bertram-Troost, G. & Miedema, S. (2007). Religion and Education in the Dutch Pillarized and Post Pillarized Educational System: Historical Background and Current Debates. In R. Jackson, S. Miedema, W. Weisse, J.-P. Willaime, R. Jackson, S. Miedema, et al. (eds), Religion and Education in Europe. Developments, Contexts and Debates. (203-221). Münster: Waxmann Verlag GMBH. Biesta, G.J.J. (2010). Why ‘what works’ still won’t work. From evidence-based education to value-based education. Studies in Philosophy and Education (29,5), 491-503. Council of Europe (2008) White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue: ‘living together as equals in dignity’. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. Dewey, J. (1980). The democratic conception in education. In John Dewey: The middle works, Vol.9 (orig. Pub. 1916), ed. J. Boydston, 87-107. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. Kelchtermans, G. (2005). Teacher's emotions in educational reforms: Self-understanding, vulnerable commitment and micropolitical literacy. Teaching and Teacher Education 21, 995-1006. Koeven, E. van & Leeman, Y. (2011). Citizenship education for a pluralistic World: the selection of children’s literature in Dutch Protestant primary schools. Intercultural Education 22 (5). 395-410. Parker, W.C. (2003). Teaching democracy: Unity and diversity in public life. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Pike, M. (2007). Transactional Reading al Spiritual Investment. Journal of Education & Christian Belief 11 (20), 83-94.

Author Information

Erna Van Koeven (presenting / submitting)

Windesheim University for Professional Studies

Zwolle

Yvonne Leeman (presenting)

University for Humanistics

Utrecht

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